Reggae Boyz Supporterz Declaration

[Don1]

I can say I will contribute in what ways I can. I can say however that the last few years have been very weird and challenging as trying to hold done a fulltime job, fininshing my thesis, two kids under two wiped me out of anything but talking as my wife works very long hours.

I have a few suggestions and I really intend to do some writing and contribution. I have some ideas and will listen to others.

Mosiah only thing I can tell you is it is better to have 5 willing than 50 unwilling, and some people talk and it is more like ambition than reality because a nuff people have it tuff a foriegn and fraid ti say so.

word

[Don1]

Don1, just got some time to logon and saw this.

I like the idea of a micro-finance type project. My experience with it so far is mostly as a financial contributor and a firm believer in the concept, but I am sure I can think of some ideas. I will think about it some more and respond later.

yes bredrin..good ting

[Muadib]

We can call it the Jamaican Live Paradigm...

[Mosiah]

I would love to see you and Don1 team up to DO for Jamaica. Y'know, act like a TEAM.

[Muadib]

I have a team that is committed, and I am the DRIVAH !

[Mosiah]

sigh

Maudib, seriously, yuh seem to pride yuhself in remembering these lame lines, and you somehow find their repeated use amusing or something. I thought you were more intelligent than this, but maybe you aren't, despite the alleged good schooling. Surprise us nuh man!

[Muadib]

But mi nuh unnastan..

It is true... while Don1 is pontificating, people have to be on the ground working to solve problems...

Unnuh tink is a likkle mess di PNP leave us in ???

Tink again..

[Don1]

It is true... while Don1 is pontificating, people have to be on the ground working to solve problems...

[Hortical]

I will participate in this. Skype is a good recommendation, and it is free. We could all do a video-conference via skype, and I have been using the service for about three years. I dumped my home phone, and I use a skype for my home phone service. Skype to skype calls are FREEEEEEEEE

[Don1]

I will participate in this. Skype is a good recommendation, and it is free. We could all do a video-conference via skype, and I have been using the service for about three years. I dumped my home phone, and I use a skype for my home phone service. Skype to skype calls are FREEEEEEEEE

good ting.... gmail also have video conference free.

[Islandman]

Some additional thoughts/suggestions.

Its been a busy weekend for me so I didn't get as much time to think about this as I had hoped , but I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Firstly I think that whatever we decide to do, we should start with a "small" project that does not take a whole lot of time and money to get off the ground. The experience of that will give us a good idea of the level of interest and also may itself generate a lot of ideas itself. It is very easy to start this kind of venture with big dreams to change the world , end hunger and poverty, etc, and then when the slow and tedious work is to be done all interest is lost and nothing is achieved.

With that said,a micro finance project seem like the best way to go for this kind of thing. For those who don't know much about what that is , basically it is a way of providing finance for a small (typically a few thousand US$ ) self-sustaining project in a depressed community. It is usually in the form of a low interest loan which is paid back and then the money is used to finance a another project. There are a few online communities that do this all over the world, the one that I am involved with is Kiva http://www.kiva.org. I would suggest anyone who is interested to take a look at thier site to see examples of the kind of loans they fund.

As a side-note, the so-called "father" of the micro-financing movement is Mohammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Bangladesh who formed Grameen Bank a few decades ago to help poor women in his country who were being abused by money lenders who would lend to them at rates they would never be able to repay. He has an excellent book: Banker to the Poor that is a great read fo anyone interested in this concept.

But back the possibilites to adopt a project. The main challenges for us would be 1) raising the money 2) finding genuine and worthwhile projects and 3) defining the process of how we provide the financing. The way it works with Kiva is that they partner with local micro-enterprise companies in the countries they work in who find the projects and manage the financing , repayment, etc. Kiva basically raises the money and monitors the performance of thier partners. I notice they don't have any partners (and so no loan recipients) in the English speaking Caribbean but have never figured out why. I probably should make an effort to find out.

Anyway , if we decide to go this route, I would suggest we find an organization in Jamaica that does micro-financing and ask them how we could help. An example of such an organization would be the one Henley Morgan runs in the inner city. I actually emailed him a few years ago when he wrote an article about mirco-enterprise funding and asked him if he knew about Kiva. At the time he said he didn't and would check it out but I didn't follow-up to ask him what his thoughts were.

I think providing the funding thorugh an organization that does that kind of work, at least initially, would reduce the amount of work and planning that would be required to get going. We could focus more on how we raise the initial funding money, wether by personal contribution or otherwise.

I am sure we will have to discuss things like setting up a non-profit organization,etc. I think we probably have people who know about that kind of thing from thier experience setting up RBSC.

Anyway, thats just a few thoughts on this to start of the week. Again though I really think we should try to keep it fairly simple at first until we have a better handle on the human resources and time we have that are committed to doing this.

[Don1]

Some additional thoughts/suggestions.

Its been a busy weekend for me so I didn't get as much time to think about this as I had hoped , but I wanted to share a few thoughts.

Firstly I think that whatever we decide to do, we should start with a "small" project that does not take a whole lot of time and money to get off the ground. The experience of that will give us a good idea of the level of interest and also may itself generate a lot of ideas itself. It is very easy to start this kind of venture with big dreams to change the world , end hunger and poverty, etc, and then when the slow and tedious work is to be done all interest is lost and nothing is achieved.

With that said,a micro finance project seem like the best way to go for this kind of thing. For those who don't know much about what that is , basically it is a way of providing finance for a small (typically a few thousand US$ ) self-sustaining project in a depressed community. It is usually in the form of a low interest loan which is paid back and then the money is used to finance a another project. There are a few online communities that do this all over the world, the one that I am involved with is Kiva http://www.kiva.org. I would suggest anyone who is interested to take a look at thier site to see examples of the kind of loans they fund.

As a side-note, the so-called "father" of the micro-financing movement is Mohammad Yunus, a Nobel Peace Prize winner from Bangladesh who formed Grameen Bank a few decades ago to help poor women in his country who were being abused by money lenders who would lend to them at rates they would never be able to repay. He has an excellent book: Banker to the Poor that is a great read fo anyone interested in this concept.

But back the possibilites to adopt a project. The main challenges for us would be 1) raising the money 2) finding genuine and worthwhile projects and 3) defining the process of how we provide the financing. The way it works with Kiva is that they partner with local micro-enterprise companies in the countries they work in who find the projects and manage the financing , repayment, etc. Kiva basically raises the money and monitors the performance of thier partners. I notice they don't have any partners (and so no loan recipients) in the English speaking Caribbean but have never figured out why. I probably should make an effort to find out.

Anyway , if we decide to go this route, I would suggest we find an organization in Jamaica that does micro-financing and ask them how we could help. An example of such an organization would be the one Henley Morgan runs in the inner city. I actually emailed him a few years ago when he wrote an article about mirco-enterprise funding and asked him if he knew about Kiva. At the time he said he didn't and would check it out but I didn't follow-up to ask him what his thoughts were.

I think providing the funding thorugh an organization that does that kind of work, at least initially, would reduce the amount of work and planning that would be required to get going. We could focus more on how we raise the initial funding money, wether by personal contribution or otherwise.

I am sure we will have to discuss things like setting up a non-profit organization,etc. I think we probably have people who know about that kind of thing from thier experience setting up RBSC.

Anyway, thats just a few thoughts on this to start of the week. Again though I really think we should try to keep it fairly simple at first until we have a better handle on the human resources and time we have that are committed to doing this.

Perfect!

I know Dr Sandra Morgan, Henley's wife well. Can always reach him thru her.

The Grameen approach is a worldwide model so we indeed should study it and modify to our circumstances.

Also know some other progressive people working on micro projects in the inner cities..could reach out to them for ideas when the time comes.

Rather than personal donations which may be challenging in this environment I would suggest setting up a structure attractive to corporate donors... a longer process but potentially more sustainable.

Setting up a non profit and even getting State & IRS tax exempt status in the US is relatively easy... I've done that years ago..it can take maybe 2-3 months if one pushes the right buttons.
This is assuming the system hasn't changed radically in the past 10 or so years.

With the free social networking tools available... Facebook, YouTube, Twitter , Skype etc etc controlling and promoting such projects is simplified... any website built should be optimized with social media.

Good ting.



Respect