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MicroCredit Magazine Records Impressions of Istanbul
6/30/2010
 Members of the University of St. Thomas MicroCredit Program and the Laurels staff collaborated to create a magazine, “Notes from Istanbul: Interpretations of Student Experiences.”
The publication, which will be used to help raise funds and create awareness of the MicroCredit program, includes journal entries describing some of the women and children who will benefit from the program, settings in Istanbul and poetry on the entire experience in Turkey.
The MicroCredit Program was invited by the Institute for Interfaith Dialogue to spend spring break, March 11-21, in Istanbul to research a new microloan program in Turkey. The new program will provide financial assistance as well as education and professional opportunities to single mothers who lack the resources to provide for their families, and whose children are placed under temporarily government care. The program also provides economic support, education and meals to children while the mothers learn an income-generating woodcraft trade.
“Although we arrived in Istanbul with a mission to conduct social investigations, survey materials, and agree on the project and loan amount, we left with an irreplaceable, intangible gift: the beautiful haunting voices of women who strived for something great,” said Whitney Baggett, and international studies major and MicroCredit Program board member. “The melody of their songs – songs of pain, suffering and strife were incessantly ringing in our ears. What has impacted us the most are their songs of hope. These women, despite their struggles and obstacles, endlessly strive for a life that rests right within their reach.”
Faculty advisors for the MicroCredit Program and Laurels are Drs. Rogelio Garcia-Contreras and Janet Lowery, respectively. Publication of “Notes from Istanbul,” was funded through a grant through the University of St. Thomas Center for Faculty Excellence.
Contributors to the publication include Whitney Baggett, Lauren George, Thomas Paul Barnes, Hiba Haroon, Lindsay Phend, Michael Black, Jon Michael Johnson and Joseph Konkel. Collaborators on the Laurels team include Travis Wooten, Jenni Bravo, Lauren Plitkins, Matthew Ramirez and Mariame Aana.
Copies of “Notes from Istanbul” are available be available for donations at MicroCredit fundraisers such as Dum Spiro and in Tiller Hall Room 109.
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