Our service on November 3 will focus on our Microfinance program.  UUCS has been addressing global poverty one family at a time since 2008 by establishing permanent revolving loan funds and making small loans to people living on the edge.  The November 3 service will review our achievements in the last year and invite everyone’s participation in the coming year.  Our speaker will again be Ron Hockley, executive director of the Neo Fund, which manages microfinance loans to some of the poorest of the poor in Nicaragua, India and now Guatemala.  You may remember that he is a wonderful speaker. His talk is entitled “Making a Positive and Tangible Impact Through Microfinance.”  More important is the superb work he and the Neo Fund have done – with our help – in enabling poverty-stricken women and families not just to survive but to improve their housing, lift their standard of living, and educate their children.

Come listen as Ron tells us how that works and share some of the success stories with us.  In the last year UUCS has sent $6100 to the Neo Fund, which has put it to work!  Remember that the women receive loans, and almost all of those loans are repaid so they can be loaned again.  So our contributions are used over and over again to help a series of women over the years!

This year, besides making direct contributions that will be forwarded to the Neo Fund, you will have the opportunity after the service to buy handsome handmade wooden signs (think Christmas gifts, maybe?), whose sale proceeds will also go to the Neo Fund.    Brian Biehl, Carol Doolittle’s partner, has graciously offered to make these signs and donate the proceeds to our UUCS Microfinance project.

Thank you again for all your support throughout the years!