Hello Everyone! My name is Rob Webber and I’ll be the onsite link at Lake of Stars 2009 to the fantastic work of the Microloan Foundation. The Lake of Stars festival is a wonderful opportunity to experience Real Africa and come face to face with the people that make it such an amazing place.
Here’s me (Yes – I do have eyes - but it’s hard to open them very wide when the African Sun is shining in them!)The Microloan Foundation is a UK charity that works in Malawi and Zambia to reduce the depth and breadth of poverty through microfinance – a concept that won its pioneers a Nobel Prize in 2006. We focus on helping the rural poor by providing small loans that can be used to start a small but profitable business. We currently have over 15,000 clients and 99% of the money we lend out is repaid to us so that the money can then be re-lent to help more and more people escape the poverty trap.
Over the course of the festival we will be running trips to nearby villages to meet our clients, to hear their stories, the challenges they face and how they deal with them.
We want to encourage as many of you as possible to see the work of Microloan in action and it couldn’t be easier to get in on the trips. Simply contact me by email at rob.webber@microloanfoundation.org.uk and look out for the Microloan Foundation stand at the festival site. Because numbers are very limited, please get in touch as early as possible to avoid disappointment.
See you at the Lake of Stars 2009!
Rob
