MAKING A DIFFERENCE THROUGH KIVA

Barize from Albania requested a loan for the surgery she needs to walk; Brittany from Cleveland, OH requested a loan to support her small business making inspiring artwork; Smadar from Ashdod, Israel requested a loan for a computer to help her community with financial planning.

This is the fourth summer that camp has made micro-loans through Kiva.org an organization that mobilizes individuals literally all over the world to assist people who would not otherwise have access to loans. These are people living in countries where banks are corrupt or nonexistent, people who do not have sufficient knowledge of the systems, access to power, or collateral to get traditional loans. Kiva works with partner organizations to make small but impactful loans that can turn a person or community’s life around. Recipients pay back the loans over a determined period of time and then we, the lenders, choose to loan that money to another recipient or take the money out of our Kiva ‘account.’ Each year, Louise campers decide how to allocate Camp’s donation after learning about Maimonides’ ladder of Tzedakah which says that the highest level of Tzedakah is in giving a person the ability to help him/herself through a loan, job, or education.

This picture represents all of the women we have helped over the past three years.  Who will be added this year?

This week, campers learned a little more about each of the three women (described in the first paragraph) and the challenges they hope to overcome with our assistance. Together with their bunks, the girls decided how to allocate the $600 Camp has received from repayment of previous years’ loans. They weighed their perception of each woman’s need, her other life circumstances (as much as they knew) and opportunities our loan might create for each woman. They were encouraged to think about their own family’s expectations around Tzedakah/charity. After talking through the decision as a bunk, they placed their ‘votes’ in the beautiful Tzedakah box which sits at the entrance to Solarium.

The girls voted overwhelmingly to give all $600 of our donation to Barize from Albania.

As always, we are so very proud of the way our Louise campers live their values, particularly the middot that we strive to obtain each week in our community.

Middah Girl would definitely approve!

Alicia

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Today’s Birthdays

Miranda – Bunk 21
Jana – CIT

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Today’s Menu

Today’s Weather

High: 85°F | Low: 61°F
A sweatshirt kind of morning and a sunny, beautiful day – just the way we love it!