I Need Your Help!...

Family and Friends,

As many of you have heard, I was recently accepted for a Fellowship with Kiva.org. While I am waiting for placement (in hopefully Nigeria or Sierra Leone), I will be in a developing country for 12 weeks this summer to assist with their efforts to help alleviate global poverty through microfinance.

If you’re hearing about Kiva for the first time, you’re not alone. Kiva.org is a non-profit that allows you to lend capital to a specific low-income entrepreneur in the developing world. In increments of $25, you choose who to lend to – whether a baker in Samoa, a goat herder in Uganda, a farmer in Peru, a restaurateur in Cambodia, or even a tailor in Pakistan – and as they repay their loan, you get your money back. You can then choose to re-invest your money, or you can withdraw it. It’s a powerful and sustainable way to empower someone right now to lift themselves out of poverty and an innovative way to see how you make the difference.

My job as a Fellow will be to assist my MFI (Microfinance Institution) partner and be the bridge between the MFI and Kiva.org. It will be my responsibility to add new micro-entrepreneurs to Kiva’s website by writing their stories and photographing them, as well as meeting with entrepreneurs that have already received loans to verify the loans disbursement and hear about the progress. In this way I will assist with Kiva work, but I will also help train the staff of (MFI) on how to best implement Kiva’s online platform to help them fund the poor. The Fellowship program is unique in the variety of tasks that I undertake and the potential for a lasting impact on the people of the city I’m placed in, the staff of the MFI, and Kiva.org.

My Fellowship begins in mid-May with a week-long training at Kiva headquarters in San Francisco, and will be truly underway while I leave for my placement on June 1, 2009. The fellowship is not paid and I am responsible for raising support to cover airfare and living expenses for the duration of my 12 weeks abroad. I’d be grateful if you would consider joining with me and financially supporting my fellowship.

Since Kiva was founded, over $33 million dollars have been donated by more than 300,000 lenders in 70 countries. That money has funded over 50,000 entrepreneurs funded in 43 different countries. The default rate on repayment is 2.5%. That means that 97.5% of loans are repaid, isn’t that incredible?

I have created a full budget of my expenses and am looking to raise $7,500. Every little bit counts so please give what you can!

There are a few ways to give:

1) Donate via my ChipIn:

2) Send cash or checks payable to SLOANE BERRENT to:
Sloane Berrent
2 Robin Road
Pittsburgh, PA 15217

3) If you’d like to donate airline miles or help support my trip in other ways, please send me an email. sloane (at) thecausemopolitan (dot) com.

Final notes:
* This is a donation to fund my participation with Kiva.org. Unfortunately due to nonprofit tax laws, Kiva has advised all Fellows to share with you that a tax-deductible letter is not possible since the donation isn’t to Kiva itself. However, I will be sending EVERYONE acknowledgments thanking you for your donation.

* For donations over $100, I will send you a personal postcard from my location. I’ll compile that list before I go.

* Other cool incentives for donations over $100 to come, so stay tuned!

Thank you to everyone! Your support is my inspiration and fuels me daily to help in the fight to eradicate global poverty and help people everywhere be the best they can be and with the help of Kiva, have the tools and resources to make their dream come true.

Sincerely,
Sloane

Dear Dad...

Dear Dad,

Happy Birthday! I really wanted to post a picture of you or of us, but I’ve found that since I’m on the road, I don’t have any pictures on this computer. Yes, I’m still vagabonding around the country. I’m like you that way, I can pick up and go and travel and just have this boundless and wondrous energy for overturning stones and finding new places to dig into. Yes, I’m keeping a journal. Yes, I promise to write that book you always wanted me to write.

I wanted to tell you a story. It’s about Joe, or Papa, or my step-dad. Yes, we never really got along when I was a kid, you know that. There was a lot of power-struggling going on and competing for my mom’s attention. You heard a lot of it over the years. But all that really started to change when I left for college and our relationship got better as we both aged. Four years ago, the first Christmas that he and my mom separated, when it came time for the traditional Christmas Eve dinner, I invited you as my date. Having you there sharing that special annual tradition was a one of the best nights of my life.

The following year, you were not able to make it. You weren’t here anymore, we had lost you. After dinner was over, and the guests had left Papa told me this story:

He told me that all those years I had been growing up that secretly he had a relationship with you. Since you and my mom never had a speaking relationship, you would call and talk to Joe. And it was a secret you two shared. You would ask about my grades and then about the types of boys that were coming around to take me out on dates. You called about college and to see how I was adjusting, you called and asked how my post-college blues were and how my job-hunt was going and discussed where you thought I’d fit best.

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Overwhelmed In A Good Way...

It’s all taken a turn, you see. I thought I was coming to New Orleans to volunteer and hang out and see live music and eat good food for a month or so and that would be it. I thought I would finally get to dig into this place and learn lessons, and use them in my next destination, next chapter.

Now I just don’t know.

They say you don’t choose New Orleans, she chooses you. They say once she get you in her sights, it’s hard to break free. They say that even if you do leave, once you’re gone all you can think about is New Orleans and she has this magical power to draw and pull you back.

They say all of this.

And yet they also say that New Orleans is broken, sloppy, politically corrupt, atrocious public education and access to public health and that she will never be what she was…before Katrina.

But they love her. They love her and they revere her and they talk about her ALL THE TIME. Where she’s been, where’s she is now, where she is going. They talk about the emergence of charter schools and revitalization of neighborhoods, economic development and killer tax credits for film, digital media and angel investments. The strong pull of community that is priceless here. A place where you know every neighbor on your street, and probably the second street over and maybe even the third. The kind of place that is visibly struggling in front of us every day but a place that no one is willing to give up on.

The most provincial city in America. A boutique American city. The most European city in America. A place where culture steams up from the sidewalks and around every corner is the possibility of seeing something for the first time.

They say all of this.

They say there is crime and that’s it’s bad. They say there is a threat of a major hurricane every year though the last major one before Katrina was Betsy in 1965. I mean who would want to start a business in a place where they could potentially have to shut down for two weeks every year? Who would want that?

And yet they say that is exactly what people are doing here. Planting roots. Starting businesses. Investing in infrastructure and focusing on “quality of life.”

Who are these magical “they’s?” They is YOU.

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On Recycling...

I’m often asked where the desire to “give back” comes from. If it was something deeply rooted by my parents or something innate inside of me. My family and upbringing in Pittsburgh was very community-based and I was nurtured to pursue any hopes or goals I had.

That being said, through being nutured, I believe it was something always inside of me. Just a part of my DNA. I like to say I was a “little girl with big glasses”, at St. Edmund’s Academy in the Sq. Hill part of Pittsburgh and it was the 4th grade when I asked my teacher, Mr. Sciulli, why our school didn’t recycle.

My first love: The Environment

Now this was Pittsburgh. In the 1980’s. No one really talked about recycling yet and I honestly don’t remember why I got hooked on the idea. Mr. Sciulli told me if I was interested in the idea, he would help make it happen. I took him up on it and within months the program was up and running. I got separate bins for classrooms (being pre-blue bin era) and collected the paper at the end of every week to put aside. The janitors were in on it and helped out.

Cans were easier. We weren’t allowed soda and so there weren’t very many around. Teachers had some, but I don’t remember really worrying about cans. I was worried about paper. It seemed like we threw so much away!

It worked. Both in my school and soon enough it seemed like we were on the cusp of a bigger movement (first sign I’m a early-adopter maybe?) because the City of Pittsburgh started recycling too. It seems like such a necessity in any city what with so much trash and increasingly population, how imperative it is to reduce, reuse, recycle whenever possible.

Since those days of Pittsburgh, I’ve lived in Vermont and California, two bastions for environmentalism. I thought it was a give-in, this recycling thing. Thinking about the effects of the products you used on the environment.

Perhaps, that is why it’s all the more shocking and jarring to see recycling not done in New Orleans. That’s right. No recycling.

Did I shock you? Good. NONE is overkill, there is SOME, but not ENOUGH. But since the storm, very very little. And the citizens have to pay for it. And the City does nothing to subsidize or bring it back to the mainstream.

I understand the City was decimated. And it’s hard enough to get people back on their feet let alone focus on the environment. From the beginning of the recovery post-Katrina, officials said “we don’t have time” to focus on recycling all of the materials from neighborhoods where houses were being demolished. “We have to get rid of the debris to build again.”

In August, it will be four years since the Hurricane and plenty has still not been rebuilt. Makes you think about all the trash and landfills that accumulated four years ago.

But the lack of recycling is worse than the City not pushing for it. There is a general malaise about the situation from the people. From the professional business types to the low-income areas. Styrofoam is served LOUD & PROUD here. Plastic cups and togo cutlery. Cute indie coffee shops, restaurants, hotels – styrofoam! No recycling bins ANYWHERE. How is this possible?

My question to New Orleans is this:

How can you rebuild for the future with such blatant disregard for the future?

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TGIF Video: Playing for Change...

It’s TGIF Video Time! Playing for Change was inspired by hearing one man, Roger Ridley, perform “Stand By Me” on the Santa Monica Third Street Promenade.. Mark Johnson went running to hear who was singing and his vision for bringing peace to the world through music was born. Through this project, Mark believes, that music has the power to break down boundaries and overcome distances between people.

Playing for Change

The spirit of these videos is just incredible. It doesn’t hurt that the first two musicians featured are from Los Angeles and New Orleans.

I would hope anyone watching these would see how music is a great unifier and look at ways that we can continue to bring people together, instead of pushing them apart.

You can watch more of the Playing for Change videos or buy their CD online.

They have also recently set up a nonprofit foundation with the same name and you can look around to get more involved there too.

TGIF Video: The Girl Effect...

Welcome to the second TGIF Video! There are so many amazing motivational and inspiring videos, it’s hard to choose. I want there to be a “call to action.” A way you can get involved. I’ll try to show a wide variety of videos until I get the hang of exactly the best way to get everyone up and moving! Until then…

*It’s fun sometimes to not have all the answers.*

Back to regularly scheduled programming, I present The Girl Effect:

You can subscribe to The Girl Effect’s channel on YouTube here

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Say Hello To Your New Kiva Fellow!...

It is with great excitement and immense honor that I’m announcing that I’ve been accepted as a Kiva Fellow for the summer of 2009! Friends know that I’ve been on pins and needles through an intensely rigorous interview and selection process and so I’m just so thrilled that this is the next step on my journey.

My own personal introduction to micro-lending and micro-finance institutions was through reading Dr. Muhammad Yunus‘ book, Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty. Through him, I learned that the eradication of poverty, especially in developing countries is not only plausible, but possible, through helping individuals start businesses.

Not long after I came across Kiva which is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to entrepreneurs around the globe. I had the opportunity to meet the founders, Matt and Jessica Flannery at a Hollywood Hill event called The New High-Tech Robin Hoods and then reached out to Kiva to be a founding nonprofit for the launch of the “do-good” startup I was at last year. I saw the CEO of Kiva, Premal Shah speak at a Stanford University event last Spring called Online Giving Marketplaces: Changing the Face of Philanthropy (see his recent interview on Mixergy). After being laid off, I remembered reading about the Kiva Fellows program and really connecting with their vision. I applied from a internet cafe in Otavalo, Ecuador searching through my GDocs for my resume and writing the cover letter on a South American keyboard. I remember one of the questions was “How would you deal with intermittent access to internet?” and I thought “Welcome to my day!” as I struggled through painfully slow internet access to get everything in for the deadline.

I’ll obviously be writing a lot more about Kiva, micro-lending and micro-finance in the months to come. In the meantime, here are some quick updates:

When?

I will be in San Francisco the week of May 16th for training. I will then be leaving for my placement approximately June 1st.

How long is the Fellowship?

Placements vary on the individual but the minimum is 10 weeks. My current plan is on being gone around 10-12 weeks.

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Not All Puppies and Babies In New Orleans...

Yes, I’m madly in love with New Orleans. That much has been made clear. But I want to make it crystal that in my digging in the nooks and crannies of NOLA, I am well aware that much is broken here. There are a lot of programs and initiatives that start with the best of intentions but don’t get off the ground, or don’t get enough funding or local support. I wanted to share some of the biggest challenges and frustrations I’ve seen so far. Because there are so many things broken with New Orleans, I’m going to have to break this into pieces. Today, I’m going to cover infrastructure and transportation.

Cars
New Orleans is more of a car-dependent city that I ever would have guessed. It’s depressing. Because the public transportation and alternative transportation options and infrastructure are so poor (see below), most people drive everywhere. I have met a few people without cars and they “get by” but it’s not a perfect system. Zipcar doesn’t operate in New Orleans and I haven’t found another option for car-sharing. People proudly say that you can drive anywhere in New Orleans in 15 minutes or less, but just because you can doesn’t mean you should.

The streets and sidewalks are a mess. It’s hard to find roads without holes or ditches in them and sidewalks are uneven, in disrepair and unmaintained. There are a lot of signs indicating the City is “Rebuilding” but it’s hard to pick out a spot where I’ve been and could remark that the quality of the road was in good condition. This affects all modes of transportation. Drivers are constantly swerving to avoid potholes. Lane separators are a joke. They are faded or nonexistent and most streets that are two lanes are only two lanes in theory and more than likely 1-3 at any given time. It can be like driving in a developing country.

Street signs are of particular disrepair. Maybe one of three times I see a street sign I’m looking for. The rest of the time they are gone, fallen to the ground or hidden by tree overgrowth. It’s hysterical and frustrating at the same time. How can a city really make it THIS difficult for a visitor to make their way around? Freeways are just as bad as city streets. Exit numbers and names I get from say, Google Maps, don’t match what I see in practice. The city needs to invest in street signs, the big attractive ones you can see from blocks away.

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Five Questions I Answer Every Day...

There are a million things going on here in New Orleans all the time! It’s incredible and crazy and overwhelming all at the same time. I’ve been here just over two weeks (yes that’s all!) and in that time, I get asked a few of the same questions over and over again. I wanted to answer those here for everyone to see and also give a quick update what’s going on here in NOLA!

First, I want to emphasize how much social media has helped me every step along the way. A sentence I say a lot is “Your online interactions are meant to facilitate your offline interactions.” This is a topic I’ll be writing about more, but what I mean by that simply is that I follow through and follow up with people. When I get a “lead” or an email intro or something crosses my path, I follow through. Social media doesn’t just fall in your lap. It works if you work it! It’s incredibly important to be proactive and understand that not every situation is going to work. To that extent, if you’re not already please connect with me on Twitter or Facebook or send me an email at sloane@thecausemopolitan.com.

My Love Letter to New Orleans has also created a life of its own. A lot of people have contacted me because of that which is remarkable and amazing.

It takes a bit of quantity to get to the quality.

Everything doesn’t work out, all of the scenarios aren’t perfect but I work the numbers and eventually things work out in a way that is usually serendipitous and beautiful. I told someone yesterday that I’ve stopped being able to say that things are “coincidence” because my normal has become pieces just falling together. I think the trick is that I am honestly and sincerely here in New Orleans for the right reasons and the Universe is on my side, I trust my instincts, I don’t take any of the amazing things that happen to me for granted and last I’m appreciative. I say thank you a lot. And I mean it every time.

Onto the FAQ’s of my life:

1) Where am I staying here in New Orleans?

I’m in a state of “couch-surfing.” Sometimes this is a couch, sometimes it’s a room or a futon. Everyone has been so amazing and I’ve been offered a bunch of places which is incredibly kind. The first spot was out by Lake Pontchatrain right on the water. A friend in LA from New Orleans hooked me up with his best friend from when he was four who works in Houston every other week. I drove here having talked to him once on the phone and we went to dinner and he was leaving the next day for a week and gave me his keys. Amazing gesture. I stayed there for just over a week.

Next, a friend in Park City saw my Facebook status update that I was in New Orleans and connected me to a guy who is from New Orleans but lives in Park City. She gave me his number, I text him and found out he was here on a roadtrip. We made plans to meet the next day. We met up. He introduced me to his friends, one of whom goes by the name Johnny Nomad. That sounded perfect to me. Their place is near St. Charles and Napoleon which meant I could ride my bike around and be more central. They have a sunroom and offered it to me for a week. The second roommate, Aaron, runs a music blog in New Orleans called Groovescapes and is involved with Net2No (a New Orleans NetSquared event I spoke at last week). Another perfect fit. I moved in the next day.

I’m looking for spot #3.

The rest will keep falling together. I keep plugging away. I’m enjoying seeing different neighborhoods and getting a feel for how people live here. If you’d like to host this do-gooder for a week (give or take), send me an email!

2) Do I get tired of couch surfing?

Yes and no.

I never thought I’d be 29 and homeless and sleeping on couches. It’s weird. It’s also awesome and eye-opening and for a limited period of time. Since I’m donating my services here (see next question), it was important to me not to have spend money (a question on this too below) on housing. I’m touched by peoples’ hospitality and it’s definitely teaching me a lot. I’m incredibly gracious to everyone who has offered and those who are kind enough to take me in.

It’s humbling to tell my story to new people and describe the journey I’m on. I feel like my soul stretches just a little bit every time, and I like overcoming the continued “stigma” of not having a place of my own or a job anymore. I’m a really proud person so it’s not always easy to address this, it could be really embarrassing. I could have stayed in LA and found another job and kept trucking on. I didn’t want to do that. I have to accept the consequences of my actions. I want to help in New Orleans, I need a place to rest my head. That’s about as real as it gets.

3) What am I doing here?

The elevator answer is “volunteer by day and see music by night.” But it’s so much more than that. What I wanted to do here was really get my finger on the pulse of everything New Orleans. And to me that includes exploring neighborhoods, talking to strangers on the streetcar, seeing the best and the worst neighborhoods, connecting with nonprofits, community leaders, young professionals and then the cultural side which is going to festivals, seeing live music, eating good food.

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TGIF Video: What Happiness Looks Like...

Welcome to the first TGIF Video! Every Friday I’m going to bring you one of my favorite feel good videos on the web. The kind that put a smile on your face, maybe a tear down your cheek, and especially the kind that even if you’ve seen them before, you could easily watch again and again and send to friends to watch again and again. I hope you’ll enjoy this series and if there are any videos you’d like me to feature, please either leave a comment or send me an email!

In 2008, Matt traveled to 42 countries in 14 months, dancing with a cast of thousands to make this video. Watching it just makes me happy.

It also shows the power of doing something you love and the Universe sometimes bringing you a way to make money from that dream. Matt is currently sponsored by Stride Gum to travel the world and make videos of him dancing.

If your life could change in the blink of an eye tomorrow, what would you do?