Europe 2010 - Ira Cooper Fundraising

Next summer, me and 20 other riders are biking from Amsterdam to Istanbul to raise awareness about global poverty, create and discuss realistic sustainability projects, as well as raise money for Global Agents for Change Micro-Credit Fund, which provides much needed loans to small businesses and entrepreneurs in developing countries to start or expand their small businesses.

For me, micro-financing isn't a charity or a crutch. It's viable and accessable answer that allows individuals who are entrenched in the poverty cycle and possibly cannot financially or legally get access to bank loans (in some countries, women or minorities are not allowed to request financial assistance from state banks) to break free from the bonds of debt and build themselves a life. Micro-credit is not an ethereal idealization, but a concrete vision based on each individual needs. It isn't a hand out. Each business or entrepreneur must apply to the program and is monitored online through Kiva, the website database. It is not a quick fix, but a maintainable follow through. The proof is in the results. Of the over 500 specific cases that Global Agents for Change Micro Credit Fund has helpw, over 97% of the trust based loans have been paid back. It's been said to me many times, it's not about giving a person a fish, but teaching them how to fish.

Why the bike ride? It is to reach out to the global community to impliment realistic projects that are attainable at a very human level to help obliterate global poverty. It's to discuss ideas and help other causes that are unknown to us and expand our knowledge about each others vast differences and similarities to build an open dialogue planet. It's to spread the word to whoever will listen that there are actions that can be taken to give back, to help, to be positive about.

The trip, I pay for. All the funds you donate go the Global AFC Micro-Credit funds, to make what appears in this day and age as impossible, at the forefront of soon to be.

Thank you,

Ira Cooper

Local Vancouverite. Global Agent. Just One Person Among People.