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<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Thank you for taking the time to visit my JustGiving page.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">At the end of September this year I will climb the 9,850’ Mount Mulanje massif in Malawi on a 3 day trek. In doing so, I would love to raise as much money as possible for the Microloan Foundation.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The Foundation is a registered charity and gives some of the poorest women in sub Sahara Africa the means and the opportunity to work their way out of poverty for good. Your donations will provide small but life changing loans to women who then establish sustainable micro-businesses.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>Through essential business training and mentoring the Foundation empowers women to start up their own businesses, enabling them to feed, improve the health of and educate their families. The average loan is just £50 - £60.<span style="mso-spacerun: yes;"> </span>When the money is repaid (99% of the loans are re-paid within 4 months) the funds can then go on to help someone else and so on, ad infinitum.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The Foundation has made microloans to over 27,000 women and their families... who are 'active' at the minute. </span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;">Each of those women has an average of five dependents - either their own children or orphans whom they have taken on as their own. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;">Microloan offers a ‘hand-up’, not a ‘hand-out’.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;">Malawi is among the world’s least developed and poorest countries in the world. 90% of Malawians are ‘ultra-poor’ and live on less than $1 a day.</span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;"> </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;"><br /></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">The microloans powerfully impact their recipients. Many women have doubled their income and have also grown some savings. Those who have directly benefitted say:</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 48.0pt; text-indent: -24.0pt; line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">• 67% spend more on <strong>education</strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 48.0pt; text-indent: -24.0pt; line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">• 92% spend more on<strong> health</strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 48.0pt; text-indent: -24.0pt; line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">• 75% have improved their <strong>homes</strong></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 48.0pt; text-indent: -24.0pt; line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">• 87% can <strong>look after their dependents</strong> better</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="margin-left: 48.0pt; text-indent: -24.0pt; line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">• 78% have more <strong>food</strong> at home</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"> </p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;">Donating through JustGiving is simple, fast and totally secure. Your details are safe with JustGiving – they’ll never sell them on or send unwanted emails. Once you donate, they’ll send your money directly to the charity and make sure Gift Aid is reclaimed on every eligible donation by a UK taxpayer. So it’s the most efficient way to donate - I raise more, whilst saving time and cutting costs for the charity.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c;">Please dig deep and donate now. </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 19.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US">Visit Microloan's website - </span><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><a href="http://www.microloanfoundation.org.uk/"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #2c47c1;">www.microloanfoundation.org.uk</span></a></span><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"> - to see examples of their success stories. Here is a video on the Foundation: </span><span style="font-family: ArialMT; color: #1c1c1c; mso-ansi-language: EN-US;" lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: Arial; color: #2c47c1;"><a href="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbbEN9tM1p8">http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sbbEN9tM1p8</a></span></span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 25px; color: #1c1c1c;">Thank you again for taking the time to visit my fundraising page and for making a donation... I can't think of a better investment! </span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="line-height: 14.0pt; mso-pagination: none; mso-layout-grid-align: none; text-autospace: none;"><span style="font-family: Arial; line-height: 25px; color: #1c1c1c;">Vwirane.</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> XXDiana</span></p>
<p class="MsoNormal"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><span style="font-family: 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 11px; line-height: 14px;">‎"Thousands of candles can be lighted from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared." - Buddha</span><br /></span></p>
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