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Wooster Students Aid Tsunami Victims with Simple Click of a Button
For Immediate Release
February 14, 2005
WOOSTER, Ohio - With a simple click of a button students from The College of Wooster are providing aid for victims of the recent tsunami in Southeast Asia. The unique relief effort, sponsored by the Oxfam America Change Initiative program, enables students from colleges and universities across the country to engage in a friendly form of competition by clicking on PovertyFighters.com. Each click allocates 25 cents from supporters of Microcredit charities in the name of that institution. Students, as well as faculty, staff, and alumni, can participate up to twice each day from their computer. The competition began this week and continues through March 31.
"It's a great way to raise funds for a very worthy cause," said Sarah Romorini, a senior who is coordinating the effort at Wooster. "There is no charge to the students or the school, and nearly 100 percent of the money goes to those in need.
"It's also a unique way to generate school spirit," added Romorini, who noted that Wooster finished 22nd of more than 150 schools by raising just over $500 a year ago. "You can go to the Web site and see where your school stands at the end of every day."
Povertyfighters is on-line community of children, adults, families, and companies working together to help the less-fortunate work out of poverty. The "click-to-donate" initiative is supported by corporate sponsors who contribute money to Microcredit charities around the world. In turn, Microcredit provides loans so that people can start their own businesses. Organized after the 1997 Microcredit Summit in Washington, D.C., the Microcredit Summit Campaign has set the goal of reaching 100 million of the world's poorest families by the end of the year. The Microcredit Summit Campaign coordinates and tracks the efforts of microlenders, governments, corporations, and advocates to achieve the goal. The partnership between Povertyfighters and the Microcredit Summit Campaign provides support for microlenders and helps to define an appropriate strategy for distributing funds. The Microcredit Summit Campaign also receives a share of PovertyFighters.com's revenues.
The click-to-donate funds raised on the Povertyfighters.com site are managed and distributed by the Calvert Foundation, a non-profit arm of the Calvert Group, which is one of the pioneers in the development of socially responsible mutual funds. The foundation channels both donations and concessional loans to community development organizations and microlenders around the world.
For more information about the efforts on Wooster's campus, call 330-287-3000, ext. 7845.
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