Port-au-Prince, Haiti. Microfinance has taken a beating lately for shifting far afield from its humanitarian origins, originally funding tiny businesses run by poor women in developing countries to feed their families. It’s become a good idea gone bad, a charitable enterprise spoiled as profit surpassed people as the rationale for investment. It sickens the soul. […]
Tag Archives: Rotary International
Book Speaks to Man’s Successful Mission to Help Humanity
Washington, DC. Although our lives have turned out different, I learned in my friend Charles “Chic” Dambach’s exciting new book, Exhaust the Limits, that we have much in our personal and professional lives in common. I first met Chic through Paul Stevers, the Canadian entrepreneur and philanthropist who funds orphans, peacebuilding, and counter strategies to […]
Itzhak Perlman to Perform at Lincoln Center to Help Rotary Eradicate Polio
New York, N.Y. “Polio is only a plane ride away.” So began my sobering interview with Carol Pandak, Manager of PolioPlus for Rotary International about polio, a crippling and potentially fatal disease that still threatens children in Africa and Asia (video). People in 125 countries had polio in 1985 – today only four. Good news, no? But the four […]
Goldman Sachs Helps 10,000 Women, Including Andeisha Farid
New York, N.Y. In March 2008, Goldman Sachs announced a significant new initiative called 10,000 Women that has two goals: To increase the number of underserved women receiving a business and management education and improving the quality and capacity of business and management education around the world.To expand the entrepreneurial talent and managerial pool in developing and […]
2010 World Peace Gala Awards Juan Mendez Peace Prize in Chicago
Chicago, IL. Chicago witnessed a spectacle last week in their magnificent Auditorium Theater on East Congress Parkway – “The 2010 World Peace Gala.” The Hon. Juan Méndez, first Special Advisor on the Prevention of Genocide to the Secretary General of the United Nations, was honored for his efforts to help create a world with less […]
Lions, Rotary, Kiwanis: Are American Service Clubs Too Old To Matter?
New York, N.Y. Service clubs are a particularly American institution that began in the heartland, although now they are found on both coasts, as well as virtually every country in the world. Iraq and North Korea are exceptions, although Libya now has a Lions Chapter. The ideal of these international organizations – particularly Rotary, Lions, […]
HuffPo Interview with Red Cross Secretary General in Geneva
New York, N.Y. Having witnessed the incredible work of the Red Cross in Aceh, Indonesia following the Tsunami of 2004 — and seeing for the first time Red Crescents in action — I have always dreamed to meet those responsible for coordinating the largest humanitarian response in human history. I recently interviewed is one of […]
Clean Water for China’s Orphanages
Washington, Seattle. Embracing the simple concept, “every child has a right to clean water,” the Washington State-based non-profit organization A Child’s Right is about to make an enormous announcement: it has received approval and funding for outfitting every single orphanage in China with clean water filtration units. “This means, simply, that every institutionalized orphan in China will have clean […]
