Message-ID: <199601171214.KAA13832@rjo04.embratel.net.br> Date: Wed, 17 Jan 1996 10:14:03 -0200 From: Joaquim Moura <mailto:poa-bsb@CR-DF.RNP.BR> Subject: Community devel't information To: Multiple recipients of list DEVEL-L <mailto:DEVEL-L@AMERICAN.EDU>
Dear Friends,During the last twelve months I have been researching this list's scope of messages as diligently as I have been reporting back what we are doing here, in Brazil.
All these months, I have been visiting many home pages broadcasted through the Devel-L - about development information, micro credit agencies, development courses in universities etc. - and I am aware of their huge informative potential. But as I am looking for practical information ( = solutions for the concrete community problems), as I was demanded by the popular groups we work with, I am having a lot of difficulty to find them...
For example: try to find on the Web a site to learn how to organize a micro credit system. I said: HOW to organize... i.e. considering all the practical and conceptual aspects involved (suppose you are a group of humble people with the same idea, but no contact with actual experiences at all - where could you find structured information, at the simplest and most objective form, to avoid repeat others' mistakes?
Another example: Where can the community leaders find state-of-the-art information about technologies for community housing projects, so they could choose the fittest to their needs and possibilities? Or where could they find information on local level biological pest control methods for their community gardens?
Of course I presume that all this information is spread around many sites on the Internet, but I couldn't find any that presents an objective introduction gate to this knowledge, a "community leader-friendly" interface, where the community leaders could research a consistent collection of considerations, tools, suggestions, methodologies, addresses, resources, projects, hints, experiences etc.
Tell us: among all the Web pages you know, which is the most next to this model? Could you please inform it to the list? The Partners page is trying to follow this model, gathering practical information (traditional and cutting-edge) of popular community interest.
Many friends from this list answered me that they would like to collaborate to creating a Web page on micro credit, micro loans etc. I think the first thing is to send, to this list, their conceptions of the basic structure of this Web site.
What information on micro credit should be provided and in what form, through what menus, would it be reached. Please, we are waiting for your suggestions. The CD-ROM project would follow...
Anyway, the Partners' section about Micro Credit is a trial to offer practical information on this theme, but where is the Accion's page? The Results's page? The Finca's page? Or even the Grameen's page? Or just one site projected by all these agencies? Offering all their experience and suggestions? I would like to help to create such a site... Although the World Bank and USAID give increasing importance to micro finances, even their pages don't give any practical information about how could a group to settle their own system...
Please, we here - in Brasilia - are looking forward to reading your own ideas on the subjects analyzed above. Thanks so much, we hope you will understand our needs, maybe not too different from yours... To read more about Micro Credit and Community Development, please visit: http://webwrite.com/partners.bsb-dc or (if you cannot access WWW) e-mail to mailto:poa-bsb@cr-df.rnp.br _______________________________________________________________
If of publlic interest, may your message stay available on our home page for public reading? Tell me, please, if you don't want your name divulged. _______________________________________________________________
Joaquim Moura (all the controversial opinions are just personal) Youth & Citizenship Development Commission Partners of the Americas - Brasilia / Washington DC Committee SHCGN 713 - Bloco I - Apt. 202 - 70760-739 - Brazil Phone (55 61): 414-1904 (w); 273-5613 (h); 414-1898 (fax) e-mail: mailto:joaquim.moura@persocom.com.br