Feel Good Friday - Dignity Network

I’m back from a trip to Thailand, and one of my favorite stops was the Dignity Network Women's Massage Center. Let me explain why.

Founded in 2014 and headquartered in Chiang Mai, Thailand, Dignity Network is "helping female ex-prisoners reintegrate into professional society successfully" through several programs, including the Women’s Massage Center.

The organization was born when Thierry Gallo, an entrepreneur from Brussels, visited Thailand in 2010 and witnessed the harsh conditions facing women in Chiang Mai's central prison. He partnered with Thunyanun Yajom, a government prison officer with 15 years of experience and a master's degree in vocational education, to build something transformative.

The problem they both recognized is that women leaving prison often face profound stigma and discrimination, resulting in limited job opportunities and reoffending rates between 14 and 20 percent. Dignity Network was created to break that cycle.

While incarcerated, women can enroll in an 800-hour Thai massage training program certified by Thailand's Ministry of Public Health. Upon release, Dignity Network's Women's Massage Center offers them real jobs in a safe, professional environment. Today, five locations are operating across Chiang Mai's Old City, offering traditional Thai massage, foot massage, oil massage, herbal facial treatments, and more, all at remarkably affordable prices.

I booked an hour-long back, neck and shoulder massage for 300 baht, or about 9 dollars. After changing into some oversized hospital scrubs, my masseuse, Muay, not only massaged all the parts in question, she also ended by twisting me around to make sure I was really loose, then gave me a cup of tea.

In addition to helping people relax, Dignity Network also runs a Social Microcredit Program that offers small loans between 5,000 and 10,000 baht to help women cover urgent needs like their children's education, health costs, or rental deposits. Traditional banks won't cover these costs for someone with a criminal record. Since they began, Dignity Network has given jobs to more than 500 ex-prisoners!

You can support the Dignity Network by following them on Facebook and sharing their stories of second chances and new beginnings with your network. And if you're ever in Chiang Mai, stop in for a massage, it’s a very relaxing way to make a difference.

Feel Good Friday - Women's Global Empowerment Fund

In today’s Feel Good Friday, we take a trip to Northern Uganda to visit Women’s Global Empowerment Fund.

Founded in 2007 by Karen Sugar, the mission of Women’s Global Empowerment Fund (WGEF) is “to support women through economic, social and political programs, creating opportunities while addressing inequality; strengthening families and communities.”

 

WGEF is a microfinance non-profit working in Northern Uganda, a post-conflict region recovering from a 25-year violent insurgency which left the region unstable and lacking in economic activity. WGEF helps women who were forced to become child soldiers or sex slaves during the conflict by providing economic, social and political opportunities for sustainability and self-determination. You can read stories about some of the WGEF clients here.

 

Programs run by WGEF include Credit Plus, a service that “combines microcredit services with literacy, leadership development, health initiatives and basic business education.” Since WGEF’s founding, over 10,000 women in poor or rural areas have been given microcredit loans. A subsection of these loans focus on agriculture and provide women additional training and support to plant, grow and harvest their crops.

 

The Gulu Women’s Resource Center is a community meeting space where women are provided with computer and life skills training. It also houses the Access to Justice team which addresses violence against women, gender bias and inequality by sharing information and resources and helping women file reports and advocating for them during court proceedings. 

 

Additional programs include leadership development, literacy training and my favorite, a drama festival where women create original plays focused on issues such as inequality, HIV or violence, and use them as a way to educate men and community leaders about these issues

 

Details about all of the programs can be found at this link and you can hear directly from participants about their experiences at this link. If you want to support the work of Women’s Global Empowerment Fund, make a donation and spread the word by liking their Facebook page and following them on Twitter @wgefund.

Feel Good Friday - Kiva

Believe it or not, this is the 80th Feel Good Friday post and we're going to celebrate by talking about Kiva! 

Kiva is a San Francisco organization with a worldwide impact. Their tag line is "Loans that Change Lives". Founded in October 2005 by Matt Flannery and Jessica Jackley, Kiva combines the concept of micro lending with the power of the internet so that people who have money to lend can support entrepreneurs around the world. The process is illustrated in this short video titled How Kiva Works.

To answer the question of what motivates the people of Kiva, we turn to their website. "We envision a world where all people - even in the most remote areas of the globe - hold the power to create opportunity for themselves and others. We believe providing safe, affordable access to capital to those in need helps people create better lives for themselves and their families."

In the last nine years over 1 million lenders have given almost six-hundred million dollars in loans to Kiva entrepreneurs with the very impressive repayment rate if 98.84%! If you every felt that you couldn't make a difference in the world, get your $25 out and see just how much you can do!

This post only scratches the surface of what Kiva does and the impact these loans have. If you want to learn more visit their website, watch a Ted Talk by Jessica Jackley or a 15 minute documentary from Frontline where the reporter goes to Uganda to visit Kiva entrepreneurs.

If you like what you've seen and want to get involved, lend some money to an entrepreneur, like their Facebook page and follow them on Twitter @kiva.

Feel Good Friday - Pro Mujer

Ever wonder what happens when you invest in women?

As explained on the Pro Mujer website, "Women reinvest 90% of their income into their families to grow businesses, improve their living conditions and provide education and healthcare for their families." This was the hope of school teachers Lynne Patterson, an American, and Carmen Velaso, a Bolivian, when they founded Pro Mujer in Bolivia in 1990.


Their program is more than just business, education and housing loans. Pro mujer also provides women with  business and empowerment training as well as high quality, low cost primary health care. Since it's beginnings, the program has expanded to Nicaragua (1996), Peru (1999), Mexico (2001) and Argentina (2005) and become "a leading women's development, health and microfinance social enterprise that provides women in Latin America with vital services that are typically out of reach but essential to breaking the cycle of poverty."


The results they list on their website are impressive. "Pro Mujer has disbursed more than US$ 1 billion dollars in small loans that averaged $407... provided business and empowerment training, preventive health education and primary healthcare services to approximately 1.6 million women and their 6.4 million children and family members."

Most recently, Pro Mujer joined a Clinton Global Initiative Commitment to Action to promote healthy habits among their clients and enhance the medical services they deliver.


You can read more about the group's origin and clientele in the Christian Science Monitor's Difference Maker article, meet the women on their YouTube page or like them on Facebook to say in the loop.

 You go, girls!