Peru

Mother's Day is almost here, but it's not too late to express your thanks and love to the special women in your life, while also empowering mothers in Five Talents' microsavings and microcredit programs.

Here are a couple of ways that you can make Mother's Day extra-special this year:

• Submit a photograph of your mom, grandmother or aunt to be published on Five Talents' "Talented Moms" Pinterest board. Every photo is a $5 donation to Five Talents! Once we post the photo, you can share the Pinterest board with your loved one. She'll be delighted to see herself among the ranks of the world's most "Talented Moms"! To submit a photo, e-mail it to This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or tweet it to @FiveTalents along with the hash tag "#TalentedMoms".
• Send your mom, grandmother, aunt or wife a Five Talents "Love Always Hopes" eCard that will empower a woman in the country of your choice -- Peru, Bolivia, Myanmar, Indonesia, Burundi or South Sudan.

 This photo taken by David Middleton for Five Talents captures a micro-entrepreneur at her stand along a street in Peru.

The interactive elements will take you to a photo essay showing how one artisan creates her colorful llama wool scarves, and to a video featuring an interview with Colleen Dyble, a Five Talents fellow who worked with our partner in Peru, ECLOF, from 2009 to 2011.

"Most of our clients already have some sort of business by the time that we meet them," says Colleen in the video. "A lot of people do what they see their neighbors doing. Some are savvy enough to understand that there's a gap in the market that needs to be filled – [like] ice cream in the summer. Others start something because it's what their mother did or their grandmother did. They just have learned the trade over the years."

If you were to travel with one of us on a program visit, we would inevitably take you to a local marketplace to meet a few of our micro-entrepreneurs. As we walked past market stands, we'd tick off the types of products being sold: bananas, potatoes, second-hand clothing, cups of tea.

Many micro-entrepreneurs sell products that have been purchased in bulk or grown on their own plot of land. Some, though, take an existing product – or a discarded one – and refashion it in some way in order to add value.

We've written about Reech, a micro-entrepreneur in Wau, South Sudan who takes old mosquito nets and turns them into rope.

We've shown you the children's sweaters that Marta sews in Peru.

During Program Director Suzanne Schultz Middleton's last trip to South Sudan, she met Adon (R), a woman in a Five Talents savings and loan group who was selling peanut paste at a market in Kuajok.

"In South Sudan, a lot of people are bringing goods in. That's how they add value -- just by transporting things. But this woman had cultivated some ground nuts, what we call peanuts, and she'd turned them into paste (peanut butter) and sold it," said Suzanne (L). "Through her own work she had added value."

The end of the year is fast approaching. But the road out of poverty is long and hard.

In order to continue meeting our commitments to micro-entrepreneurs in places like Bolivia, South Sudan and Myanmar, Five Talents needs your support.

For an example of how your generosity can change a whole community, look no further than this project in Malakal, South Sudan, where over 10,000 participants have been given what is often their first opportunity to become literate and numerate.

For stories of individual lives transformed, look no further than those of Rosma in the Philippines, Narcisa in Peru, and Roda in Sudan.

Here are five ways you can make a tax-deductible donation and help us keep these women – and tens of thousands of others – on the road out of poverty:

• Donate through our eGift Catalog. Click here to select a program/project from South Sudan, Indonesia, Peru or Myanmar. Upon completing the transaction, you will be invited to send either 5 or 10 e-cards informing loved ones that a gift has been made in their honor.
• Give through PayPal. If you are using a smart phone or tablet, you can easily donate to Five Talents by using the PayPal button on our Ways to Donate page. Or just click here. The process is seamless if you have already created a PayPal account.

Over the next three weeks, you'll have to decide on gifts for a select group of friends and family members.

Fortunately, we've got a gift idea that we think you'll love: Instead of buying them a Starbucks gift card, or a tree ornament, send your loved ones a Five Talents e-card.

Here's how it works:

• Visit our eGift Catalog and pick from among the 10 e-card options. Prices range from $25 to $50. Every e-card features beautiful photography that captures an aspect of Five Talents' work in a particular country. Your purchase will count as a donation for that particular country and program.
• At the end of your transaction, you will be prompted to enter the e-mail addresses of either 5 individuals (for every $25 e-card) or 10 individuals (for every $50 e-card). Each person will receive an e-card explaining that a gift was made in his or her honor towards Five Talents' work in, for example, savings group formation in South Sudan (see the above e-card image of the "One Nation" savings group in South Sudan).

Your e-card purchases are tax-deductible, and they are a great way to spread holiday cheer and share the joy of giving with your loved ones.

With every e-card purchase, you are contributing to the transformation of lives in some of the most under-served communities in the world.

Click here to send a set of Five Talents e-cards today!

Earlier this year, during a visit to rural Peru, Five Talents Program Director Suzanne Schultz Middleton and her husband David spent a few minutes with two women who make scarves out of llama wool in Chinchero.

Although the two women pictured in the photo essay below are not members of a Five Talents/ECLOF loan group, they gave David Middleton permission to take photos during the different stages of their work – starting from the point where they color white llama wool with a red substance that is actually the blood of a beetle.

What follows is a series of photographs by David Middleton that capture the creativity and skill of two entrepreneurial artisans in rural Peru.

One of the artisans with a spool of white llama wool.

This holiday season, make a gift that will transform the lives of women and men in places like South Sudan, Myanmar, Indonesia and Peru.

With the Five Talents E-Gift Catalog you can invest in a program of your choice, such as savings group formation in South Sudan, or business training in Myanmar. You can then send your friends and family an exclusive e-card that reflects your donation!

Purchases from the Five Talents E-Gift Catalog are tax-deductible and come with an e-card that you can e-mail to as many as 10 loved ones.

Let's say you planned to make a donation to Five Talents for Thanksgiving. If you make your gift through the E-Gift Catalog, you can choose the program you want to support – for example, our savings-led program in South Sudan.

We're excited to share with you our 2011-2012 Annual Report for the fiscal year running from July 1, 2011 to June 30, 2012. Click here to download the PDF.

In the report, you'll find all of the latest financial figures and program statistics, as well as stories, photos and highlights from every one of Five Talents' programs.

The report also features beautiful illustrations from one of our volunteers, Laura Bauder. So a great big thank-you to Laura, who also took on the task of designing the report.

Last Friday, we invited you to help us spread the word about an awesome matching gift opportunity. Every $5 donation made on October 5 was matched by a generous donor – in the hopes that we could use the offer to introduce Five Talents to new friends.

Thanks to you, October 5 was a huge success. By giving, "Liking" our Facebook posts, and e-mailing your friends, you helped us to raise over $1,000!

Think about it: In an impoverished country like Burundi, $1,000 covers the cost of providing loan capital, savings opportunities and business skills training for about 40 women and men!

We as a team feel so blessed by your support. Thank you for encouraging us. And thank you for helping us serve hard-working micro-entrepreneurs in Africa, Asia and Latin America.