Vibrant Nation

Our interview with Dana

1. When and how did you begin to devote yourself more to giving back?
   
   

   There's an adage that life is lived in thirds: in the first third, you learn; in the second third, you earn; and in the final third, your return. Back in the 1980s, my friend and mentor Olga Murray celebrated her 60th birthday by going to Nepal to start a daycare center for streetsweeping women. Olga's example inspired me, and I promised myself that when I turned 60 I would officially honor the "return" phase of life with Olga as my role model. In 2003, I turned 60. I had had a very successful career in the financial world, so as I looked for my own way of of giving back, it made sense to research microfinance. I read Muhammad Yunus' book Banker to the Poor: Micro-Lending and the Battle Against World Poverty and decided the concept was right for me. My research showed repeatedly that all social indicators are positively impacted when you help women to help themselves--their families and communities benefit. So I knew that whatever I did had to benefit women and girls. The next step was to decide where to begin a microfinance program.

   I'd done my senior thesis on Ghana back in college. I knew it was a relatively safe to travel, and English is the language of the government. As a woman planning to travel alone and not much of a linguist, these were important criteria to me. To get seed capital large enough to get the program going, I sold my 3-year-old Volvo sedan for for $18,000. It took several trips to the village of Pokuase in Ghana to establish my microlending program, but by November of 2003 WomensTrust made its first loans totalling $2,022 to 73 women.



2. What do you find most difficult about your work, and how do you overcome it?
   
   Fighting poverty is a slow process and it's frustrating. Change doesn't happen overnight. We overcome that by being patient and enjoying the process of change itself.
   
   In an underresourced place like Africa, where they have never been able to build the momentum to get things done, often things fall to a kind of patriarch who sometimes can get things done but who often pockets the money. There's no accountability and a lot of intimidation. I try to steer clear, and just keep coming back--focusing on making personal relationships and building credibility. It's important, when you say you're going to do something, to do it.
   
   The other big difficulty we encounter is getting Americans to contribute in meaningful ways to our cause. Small family foundations, for example, only contribute four percent of their giving outside of this country. Many people in the U.S. still live, mentally, in a gated community. But this is changing. The more we become more educated about these issues, the more we realize that the inequity is wrong and dangerous--and that we can impact it as individuals, rather than waiting for large organizations and governments to solve the problem. This is what WomensTrust provides: bottom-up support, which is very complementary to the top-down aid that historically has produced limited results.


3. What do you love most about the cause you support?
   
   I've always been creative and I like being on the cutting edge. I've been richly blessed in many ways and I believe in community. What keeps me going in spite of the slow, incremental nature of change is that I do see the progress we're making and I'm committed to this work. Also, as overwhelming as it has been, as worried as I sometimes get about sustaining this work, I'm fortunate to have a community of former clients, neighbors, and friends who support me. They are my team and they help give me energy I need.
   
   There is nothing like taking on something challenging after building a bank of wisdom. You grow faster than you've ever grown before. I believe that we're in this life to evolve as far as we can, and that means getting over our fears and getting in touch with our generous spirit. Ease away from materialism and stop holding onto stuff! You can't take your expensive car with you when you die, but you can die with a mature and warm heart.


4. What can others do to support your cause?

   First of all, become educated about Africa. Africa is not a country--it's the second largest continent and has 53 countries. And it's not all bad news there; there's a lot of good news out of Africa. Second, I think we have to address our racism. We need to become educated, work through our biases and misconceptions (for example, about the history of slave trade and its long term consequences), and then spread the word. Here is my list of favorite books on the subject: Misconceptions about slavery: 8 books to help you change your mind and change the world. Third, invest in women and girls. This is the single best investment you can make in a developing country. The research is unbelievable on how effective this is over everything else. Read What Works in Girls' Education from the Council on Foreign Relations. Fourth, donate money. Our organization is very small and lean, so we need believers who commit financially to our cause. Please visit WomenTrust's website and make a contribution.