In 1999, after a life-changing trek up Mt. Kilimanjaro in northeastern Tanzania, the highest mountain in Africa, Bowen Island resident Amrita Sondhi experienced a fervent impulse to help the African people.
Originally from Kenya, Sondhi and others envisioned a sustainable way to support and encourage people on a path from poverty to self-sufficiency. They founded the Pamoja Foundation in response to a need Amrita saw first hand. "The people were so incredible to any of us who needed anything," Sondhi says. "If we then lost our way, they helped us. They were so hard working. The unemployment rate was 70 per cent. So I thought, here we are living in the west with so many people looking for things to do and a purpose to their life, and here are these people over there who have amazing community systems and an amazing social fabric. Why don't we do an exchange?"
From those thoughts and desires, the Pamoja Foundation was born.
The Pamoja Foundation is a Canadian-based organization whose goal is to help people in need help themselves. It is based on a system of microfinancing. The foundation makes loans to established and proven microfinancing agencies and those agencies in turn loan money to entrepreneurs at the grassroots level. Once repayment has occurred, the principal is reinvested in micro-banks and is ultimately donated to Canadian charities with the accrued interest.
The Pamoja Foundation is always on the lookout for suitable charities to donate to. Recently they found a perfect fit right in the heart of Bowen Island.
The Africa Village Project Association was incorporated as a B.C. society in 2007. Among the board of directors are islanders Sheena Ashdown and Dale Hamilton. Their mandate is to partner with African villages to help villagers become self-sufficient and improve their standard of living.
Not surprisingly, a natural fit occurred between the Pamoja Foundation and the Africa Village Project Association. To this end Pamoja is loaning funds to the Africa Village Project for microfinancing. A cheque for $3,000 was presented to Ashdown and Hamilton on April 1 by the Pamoja Foundation. As an added cause for celebration and excitement, the cheque was presented on the occasion of the grand opening of Amrita's new Movement Global location in Artisan Square. As part of Sondhi's ongoing support to Kenyan communities, part of the proceeds of each sale contribute towards the Pamoja Foundation. Eventually the goal is that Movement Global's clothing will be made in factories that are owned and operated by the woman entrepreneurs benefiting from the Pamoja Foundation in Africa.
For more information visit http://www.pamoja.org/
Lorraine Ashdown
