“Sustainable Equity for Women” is a Senior Women’s Studies Capstone project that the graduating class of 2008 bequeathed as their legacy to Fairfield University.

 

After considering many of the ways that each one of us as part of a global citizenry could do to help each other, we came up with a micro-lending project that gives a no-interest loan to women in Central and South American and Asian villages to engage in small agricultural ventures, in fishing, in educating their children, and in fair-trade cooperative business initiatives. The 9 women in the Senior Class had similar ideas similar to of Greg Morteneson in Three Cups of Tea of investing in people rather in donating to charity. For example, read the paragraph below to understand the motivation of the Fairfield Seniors to proceed with their project. The students in the class were amazing young women, each one excelled in her own field, from winning University awards and prestigious Fellowships to being invited to play with the International Women’s Soccer Team. They are Democrats and republicans, spiritual and secular, and yet they came together effortlessly to work on the Capstone SEW Project.

 

One of the main arguments for creating SEW is documented below:

 

“1.2 billion people around the world live on under one dollar a day. Seventy percent of them are women and girls. The world has far too many mothers and daughters living in abject poverty more horrifying than most could even imagine. Micro-loans can help. When women are afforded economic opportunity, the results are astounding: they send children to school, run successful businesses, live healthy lives. When these micro-loans are given to women - women who open fruit-stands, weave clothes, make jewelry – women who most of the world has given up on are given the chance to lead sustainable and equitable lives. With an average loan return rate of 98.35%, giving a loan to these women is far from a risky investment. Women around the world are crying for help. Sustainable Equity for Women is answering their calls.”

 

The Seniors did thorough research before investing money—for example, they registered themselves as not-for-profit group SEW in the Town of Fairfield; they wrote-up their Mission Statement and created a Goal; they opened a bank account with a local branch to ensure fiduciary transparency; did a risk-management assessment to ensure that people from nations who borrowed money were capable of returning the original loan within the standard 18 to 24 months; and, they selected KIVA, an established channel to transfer money from the bank to the people directly in these two continents. This is the global side of their initiative. For a local connection, they pledged to keep track of the funds collected and allocated to various projects, and as they are alumna, this is a very do-able project. As their faculty advisor, I remain in an advisory capacity. By May of 2008 (when they graduated) the SEW fund had $2885, and the fund managers have already loaned out approximately $1700 from this total. The local bank keeps track also by sending them monthly statements of the monies in the account. Another way to keep the local connection vibrant is to ask the Women’s Studies program and the various Dean’s Offices to make a small contribution every Spring to keep the fund healthy.

 

Especially for the purposes of the blog, I want to bring another valuable aspect of this Capstone class. Every day, we get more media coverage of situations in Afghanistan—how can we balance those accounts with life-conditions on the ground? To understand the major components like global finance, global policy, global arms trade, local governments, conditions of citizens within Afghanistan and the cultural-religious practices of men, women, and children, we read Khaled Husseini’s A Thousand Splendid Suns, and relevant parts of Sarah Cheyes’ The Punishment of Virtue: Inside Afghanistan after the Taliban, and Sonali Kolhakar and James Ingalls’ Bleeding Afghanistan: Washington, Warlords, and the Propaganda of Silence.

One point to take away from the summer reading is that each one of us global citizens has the power to make a difference if we do it ethically and collaboratively. Charity is not the answer –it is ethical agency and accountability.

I recommend the following for further reading

Dr. Gita Rajan
Professor, Department of English
Fairfield University
Fairfield, CT 06824
(203) 254 4000 X2508