DarioLorenzo » charity http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog Sun, 01 Jul 2012 22:26:55 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3 Holiday Seasons – A Time for Giving and Remembering http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog/2009/11/19/a-time-for-giving/ http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog/2009/11/19/a-time-for-giving/#comments Fri, 20 Nov 2009 00:20:37 +0000 Dario Lorenzo http://www.dariolorenzo.com/?p=946
New Report Shows 49 Million Americans Struggle For Adequate Access To Food
Did you know that nearly 135,000 BC residents over the age of 25 are at or below LICO (Low Income Cut Off), which is $21,666?

(I say “over the age of 25″ to cancel out the teenagers working at McDonald’s and living at home.)

A $21,666 annual income is $10.40 per hour, by the way.

I want to bring up this fact because there is a program I hold dear to my heart.

They help out people who are at this level of poverty… they are working to get back on their feet, they have a home, they have kids… they are not far of from us.

I’m not talking about the Downtown Eastside here… and I’m not saying that situation isn’t dire. It is. In fact, street homelessness has increased 373% between 2002 and 2008 in BC. The HIV rate on Hastings and Main is HIGHER than Botswana…

But I feel stronger about this cause, because a family is involved… and they are facing potential homelessness almost everyday. At $10.40 per hour, you simply cannot miss a workday for any reason whatsoever. Not for sickness, not for taking care of your kids, not to take a day off to recuperate.

If you haven’t heard about them, they are called…


SHARE Family & Community services

Every year, they ask people to “sponsor a family” and deliver a food hamper to them. I’ve been doing this since 1995… and this year, I want to do something a little different.

Here’s what I’m going to do: For every single family you sponsor, I will match that. For every dollar you donate, I will match that. I don’t have some fancy system for doing this… so we’re just going to use the honor system. If you’ll e-mail me at info@dariolorenzo.com, and tell me how many families you’ve sponsored, how many baskets you’re putting together, or just how much money you’ve donated… I’ll match that. Now… this might get a little out of hand (which is a good thing)… so if I have a lot of matching to do… I would like to ask you to help out with buying the groceries, putting the hampers together, and even delivering them. If you’re interested in helping me out with this, e-mail me at info@dariolorenzo.com This program is taking registrations until December 4th. For all the details, I’ve attached the two application forms here:

Download (PDF, 1.63MB)

Download (PDF, 609.57KB)



To your Real Estate Success,
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Dario Lorenzo
]]> http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog/2009/11/19/a-time-for-giving/feed/ 1 A Charity I Fully Stand Behind http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog/2009/11/16/a-charity-i-fully-stand-behind/ http://www.dariolorenzo.com/blog/2009/11/16/a-charity-i-fully-stand-behind/#comments Mon, 16 Nov 2009 17:04:12 +0000 Dario Lorenzo http://www.dariolorenzo.com/?p=654 Family with Boxes of Clothing A friend told me about this great charity a while back and I think it’s worthy of your consideration as well.

They’re called Kiva — which means “unity” in Swahili.

What they do is “micro-financing”… that’s when you make small business loans to entrepreneurs in developing countries with very low interest rates.

You may be thinking you can’t finance a small business, but you might be surprised.

Here are a few examples of who I’ve financed this past year:
  1. In the Takeo province in Cambodia, there’s a family… the wife raises pigs and grows rice making $2 a day, the husband is a recycler earning $5. They needed a sugarcane cart — an investment of $450.
  2. A Peruvian woman in the cosmetics business needed more inventory. My donation was less than $300 here.
  3. This one is interesting. A group of ladies in Mali — married women average age of 45, who lived together in a traditional house.


What they needed was a loan to buy 250 bags of charcoal and various other items… and what they’d do is buy them in one neighboring city and resold them in another.

I like to jump around on the website and pick out business plans that interest me. I even found one in the Ciudad Dario District, in Nigeria. And I promise you… I didn’t make the donation just because she lived in a district named after me!

It doesn’t cost a lot and like to make these small contributions. To you or I in North America, it’s about two to five day’s wages or salary. You can even make partial loans. To these entrepreneurs, it’s a month… or even half a year’s of income.

Kiva makes sense to me. You’re making a difference in someone’s life who actually wants to make a change in their lives… and they’re not afraid to climb the entrepreneurial ladder to get there.

Browse a bit on the website. I think you’ll agree.

KIVA

All the best,
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Dario Lorenzo
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