Many of you know that my brother Songbae, once a well-heeled finance banker in NYC, is now working for a non-profit economic development organization in Kyrgyzstan. He’s returning to his Peace Corps roots, I think.<\/p>\n
In any case he’s setting up a “mini” scholarship program for the local employees in his current office.<\/p>\n
If you are interested in donating money and love the idea of a 44 cent overhead (that’s a postage stamp these days, right?), read on.<\/p>\n
From Songbae:<\/p>\n
“Short version:<\/strong><\/p>\n I am hitting you up for money.<\/p>\n Long version:<\/strong><\/p>\n Background<\/span><\/p>\n When I say “mini”, I mean pretty small.\u00c2\u00a0 Last year our office paid for ten employees to take English classes four times a week after work.\u00c2\u00a0 The total cost was $250 for one month (that’s $250 for all ten employees).\u00c2\u00a0 The program was discontinued because of the cost, the economic downturn and poor attendance.<\/p>\n The Project<\/span><\/p>\n I’d like to re-start that program with private funds, i.e. your money, with two basic changes. First, only 50% of the payment will be made upfront with the remainder made if attendance requirement are met.\u00c2\u00a0 Second, other classes besides English would be included, e.g. accounting, etc.<\/p>\n The Ask<\/span><\/p>\n I’d like to make this a three month long “pilot” program and am looking for roughly eight donations of $100 (at $250\/month for a total of $750).\u00c2\u00a0 In return, whoever you sponsor would be required to send you monthly email updates, tell you about their life in Kyrgyzstan and send pictures.<\/p>\n If you’re interested, you can just send a check in my name to my sister in LA.\u00c2\u00a0 Let me know and I will send you her address (though I haven’t asked her if it’s ok yet! Note: It is okay – let me know if you need my address<\/em>).\u00c2\u00a0 Please don’t worry if this doesn’t sound interesting to you.\u00c2\u00a0 I’m sure I will think of other future projects that will need “funding” as well.<\/p>\n Hope all of you are well!<\/p>\n Songbae<\/p>\n P.S. I have no problem paying for this myself but I don’t think they’d let me :)”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Many of you know that my brother Songbae, once a well-heeled finance banker in NYC, is now working for a non-profit economic development organization in Kyrgyzstan. He’s returning to his Peace Corps roots, I think. In any case he’s setting … Continue reading