By Charlie Shifflett, Five Talents
At last week's annual board meeting in Vienna, Virginia, Five Talents cast its vision for the future and celebrated its most recent successes.
Earlier in the week, Five Talents was named "one of the best" non-profits for 2011-2012 by Greater Washington's Catalogue for Philanthropy. The organization will once again be featured on the Catalogue's website. Click here to read more about the honor.
On Friday, Five Talents President and CEO Craig Cole (pictured on right with Five Talents International board member Graham Carr) published an essay on the Washington Times website describing the organization's holistic approach to microfinance in Asia, Africa and Latin America, and how it helps women and men to recognize their God-given dignity.
"The most precious resource in the world's poorest countries is not oil or diamonds -- it's a sense of dignity," he wrote. "Our organization has found that a small loan -- when coupled with accountability from a savings group, business training, and spiritual development opportunities -- can give survival-business owners the boost they need to grow their work into a sustainable enterprise and foster a sense of dignity that is integral to the social well-being of a community."
And on Tuesday, November 15, Five Talents UK's program manager Anna Pienaar will be participating in a panel discussion titled "Does Faith Matter: Exploring the Role of Faith-Based Microfinance Initiatives" at the Global Microcredit Summit 2011 in Valladolid, Spain.
This is the third time Five Talents has been invited to take part in microfinance's flagship event. Anna will focus her talk on the distinctives of Christian-based microfinance, as well as the vital role that the Anglican church network plays in facilitating community-based microfinance and savings programs in places like South Sudan. Click here to listen to live streaming of the plenaries.
These successes, said Cole, are a product of the vision of Five Talents' staff, its board of directors and its many faithful supporters and partners.
"We will continue to replicate the successes we have and remain the leader within the Anglican church in supporting church-based microcredit and savings programs, business training and holistic development."
Five Talents, he said, will continue empowering women, contributing to the elimination of extreme poverty, and working in very poor and risky areas, like post-conflict Sudan and Burundi, to deliver our services to people of all faiths.