Dear RPCVs and Friends
of Asia,
How fast would you jump at the opportunity to
assist families in the Asian region to break
the cycle of poverty while you earn interest
on the money you have invested in helping them?
You can make a dramatic difference
by simply investing in the National
Peace Corps Association's Microenterprise Program
(MEP). With a minimum investment of $1,000,
you will provide a guarantee for Micro-credit
loans in Asia
and in developing nations around the world through
one or more of MEP’s designated institutions:
Catholic Relief Services (CRS),
FINCA (Foundation
for International Community Assistance)
and Freedom from Hunger (FFH).
Investment notes in the MEP are issued and managed
by the Calvert Social Investment Foundation,
one of the premier socially responsible investment
organizations in the U.S.
  Nearly
one million families throughout the developing
world are served by CRS, FINCA, and FFH today.
While FINCA does not currently have any programs
in Asia, the MEP's other two partners do. CRS
is working in sixteen Asian countries, and through
small loans administered by FFH in Indonesia,
India and The Philippines, people who have previously
had little or no access to credit are demonstrating
their desire to work their way out of poverty.
Most impressive is that these loans, usually
issued as a three-month note, are quickly repaid,
resulting in your investment being leveraged
into helping numerous families over the course
of one year.
Throughout the developing
world, microenterprise programs employ from
30 to 80 percent of the working population.
These small loans can and do make the difference
between being mired in absolute poverty and
having the chance to build a thriving little
business generating enough income for struggling
parents to feed their family, send their children
to school and to afford decent housing. Investing
in the NPCA’s MEP is akin to the first
goal of Peace Corps: it allows you to provide
resources that will make a difference in the
lives of many people.
If you need additional
information about how you, your family,
friends and neighbors can invest in the MEP,
please contact me. I look forward to hearing
from you soon.
Sincerely,
Helene Ballmann Dudley
helenedudley@yahoo.com
Chair, NPCA Microenterprise
Program
Colombia 68-70 and Albania/Slovakia
97-99
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