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UST MicroCredit Program Hosts Third Annual Dum Spiro
9/21/2009
 University of St. Thomas MicroCredit Program invites the Houston community to assist entrepreneurs in developing countries by attending the third annual Dum Spiro fundraising event at 7 p.m. on Thursday, Oct. 8 in Scanlan Room.
Dum Spiro, Latin for "while I breathe," signifies the determination to continue the Program's mission of student activism and poverty alleviation around the world through microlending. In the past two years, the annual fundraiser has raised more than $20,000 allowing the Program to dispatch loans to more than 300 beneficiaries around the world. Contributions from the silent auction and raffle will benefit the rural poor of many world regions including Mexico, Chile and Pakistan.
The Program has four major projects:
• Kiva – A non-profit organization based in San Francisco that distributes loans around the world, and through Kiva, the program has distributed loans of $12,000 to nearly 30 counties.
• The Mayan Project – MicoCredit is working with 53 Mayan communities who focus mainly on the production of crops, honey and crafts.
• The Pakistan Project – In collaboration with other foundations, the Program supports 200 women in a two-year period for the production of honey in the region, which is called the Plan Bee program.
• The Chilean Project – MicroCredit and Universidad Santo Tomas, a sister institution of UST, allocated $4,000 to a group of 20 women in La Pintana, Chile, to produce chocolate, and are helping commercialize the product in the local and international markets.
The Program includes a presentation about microcredit, live music and light refreshments. Dum Spiro is sponsored by the Center for International Studies. The event is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Diana Garcia at 713-525-3530 or at microcredit@stthom.edu.
Yucatan Honey Initiative Design Contest
 Want to Empower the Poor? Want to See Your Work on the Shelves of Local Stores?
Use your talent and creativity to help the MicroCredit Program (MCP) develop a marketing campaign for honey producers in the Yucatan to sell their product to local stores.
Contest guidelines:
• Create a name for product branding
• Design a label for the honey jar
• Enter by Sept. 30, 2009
• Submissions due by Nov. 16, 2009
• Winner announced by Nov. 20, 2009
The Yucatan Honey Initiative strives to alleviate poverty among honey producers by extending microloans to expand their businesses and export honey to the U.S. at a fair price. These honey producers are loan beneficiaries of the MicroCredit Program.
To enter and learn more about contest rules, contact Renee McKeon at http://mckeonr@stthom.edu or http://microcredit@stthom.edu by Sept. 30.
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