Before we get to Marc’s 120 Day Report I wanted to take a moment to thank Marc personally for his big heart and strong back. He has worked so very hard in the last year in both Mississippi and Yogyakarta. I valued his help, guidance and friendship in Biloxi and I want to personally thank him for all the great things he did in Indonesia. Thank you for helping to create another successful Hands On project Marc!
Micro Financing
Right at the end of our time in Sawit one of our alums from Biloxi, Nick Taranto, arrived. Nick is working as an ETA (English teaching assistant) in Indonesia and brought some people to the village that are establishing micro-financing programs throughout the country. The idea is to have a co-operative type of bank that is self managed and allows the community to draw small loans for livelihood development. Providing start up money and given a relatively small amount of seed money, the project could help many people in the village. It is all very much in the preliminary stages at this point but there is possibility that we will have an ongoing presence in Sawit in the form of this program. We are very excited about the prospect of helping to bring this to the village and will keep you posted with the progress.