Once again, yours truly will hit the beautiful Confederation Trail and ride from one end of PEI to the other to raise funds for The Townships Project, a micro-lending project in South Africa. I am asking for your donations. Here is a snippet from The Townships Project website:

A micro-loan is the first credit available to most of these clients in their lives. The principal amount of the loan disbursed to them is usually the largest sum of money any of them have ever received at one time. It permits them to finance a small dream for a business: a tuck shop, a hairdressing business, shoe repair, used clothing, fruit and veg selling etc. It permits them to feed their children, pay school fees, patch their roofs, fix their doors and buy decent clothing. Eventually, it may permit them to build additional rooms on their shacks or their two-room government-built homes and acquire decent furniture.

This grass-roots approach to solving poverty has an immediate impact on the self-esteem and sense of self worth of these individuals. They are building businesses that are needed by the people of their community, using their own ideas and resources. The loans they receive are calculated to be repayable, so that the burden of repayment does not overshadow the success a new business achieves.

A total of about 15,000 people were helped through about 3000 loans made from May 1999 until February 2008 through Eastern Cape MicroFinancing Enterprise and Tetla Financial Solutions. As a rule of thumb, each micro-loan assists 5 people.

Typically 80% of first-time borrowers will take out a second loan. However, we are in the process of dramatically expanding our outreach to first-time borrowers, so the percentage of first-timers is very high at the moment.

If you would like to donate to the Tip to Tip for Africa Bike Ride please contact me either at work or home, or simply mail a cheque to:

Cynthia Dunsford
29 Jenkins Ave.
Stratford, PEI
C1B 1A7