Tag Archives: community
Heart Travel: Travel Agency With A Heart
Image via Wikipedia Heart Travel might look like a regular travel agency, with its colourful posters of holiday destinations and racks of vacation brochures.
But, operating from a space in a community club in Ang Mo Kio, it does not just sell holiday packages: It also trains needy Singaporeans to be travel consultants, though they may have neither prior experience in the field nor the expected educational qualifications for the job.
Heart Travel, the first ‘social enterprise’ in this field, hopes these individuals can find work in other travel agencies after about six months on the job.
Luntian Bags
Image via Wikipedia
Last April, I read this Time article and the numbers stunned me- “Every year, more than 500 billion plastic bags are distributed, and less than 3% of those bags are recycled. They are typically made of polyethylene and can take up to 1,000 years to biodegrade in landfills that emit harmful greenhouse gases.”
More than the numbers, however, my main takeaway was that we (normal people and not scientists or radical activists) can do something about it- “Reducing your contribution to plastic-bag pollution is as simple as using a cloth bag (or one made of biodegradable plant-based materials) instead of wasting plastic ones. For your next trip to the grocery store, BYOB (Bring Your Own Bag).” Hmmmm, I can do that. And maybe I can get other people to do it, too.
Kiva – Loans That Change Lives
We Let You Loan to the Working Poor
Kiva’s mission is to connect people through lending for the sake of alleviating poverty.
Kiva is the world’s first person-to-person micro-lending website, empowering individuals to lend directly to unique entrepreneurs in the developing world.
Image via Wikipedia
The people you see on Kiva’s site are real individuals in need of funding – not marketing material. When you browse entrepreneurs’ profiles on the site, choose someone to lend to, and then make a loan, you are helping a real person make great strides towards economic independence and improve life for themselves, their family, and their community. Throughout the course of the loan (usually 6-12 months), you can receive email journal updates and track repayments. Then, when you get your loan money back, you can relend to someone else in need.