RSWR is a Quaker organization currently working in India, Kenya, Guatemala and Sierra Leone, providing small grants to groups of impoverished women who then make microloans to their members to engage in start-up, income generating activities in agriculture and small-scale business, through community self-help.
The payback rate of the loans in the RSWR program is an impressive 95%. Each group uses the repaid loans to make more loans to other women to fund more businesses.
The adults of Newtown Quaker Meeting have agreed to bring the children’s total for RSWR to $6,500 to enable them to “sponsor” a specific group of 20-30 women so the children can continue to be in touch with “their group,” receive regular reports, and learn about the businesses helped by their funds.
Newtown Meeting Quaker Kids have raised over $40,000 distributed to charities of their choice during the past 14 years by serving simple meals for voluntary donations.
Previous recipients of the funds raised at charitable events by the Newtown Quaker young people have been: Habitat for Humanity; Syrian refugee relief via the Shelterbox; U.S. hurricane relief via the All Hands Volunteers; Valley Youth House’s Synergy Project for homeless youth in Bucks County and Allentown; Haiti Relief; The School for Leadership, Afghanistan (SOLA), the first boarding school for girls in Afghanistan; Greater Philadelphia Diaper Bank; Mercer Street Friends Center in Trenton. N.J.; Penndel Food Pantry; Save Darfur; and Heifer International.
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