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Mary Jane Patterson speaks at an event at the REEP House for Sustainable Living. Photos courtesy REEP Green SolutionsAs printed in The Marketplace - May/June 2018
Kitchener group helps build more sustainable communities
By Mike Strathdee
Kitchener, ON — Mary Jane Patterson takes a long-term view when she describes the work of the environmental charity that she heads.
“It grows out of caring,” says Patterson, executive director of REEP Green Solutions. “Caring is in our vision. We believe by acting today we can leave our children a community that is more sustainable, vibrant, caring and resilient.”
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By Mike Strathdee
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
Restricting migrant workers to save jobs could have the opposite effect, pushing agri-food work out of North America to other countries.
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Told President Trump dairy, poultry industries need foreign help
By Mike Strathdee
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
Many entrepreneurs wish they could have a face-to-face chat with a government leader to explain how that government’s policy is negatively affecting their business.
Pennsylvania farmer Luke Brubaker had that close-up conversation with US president Donald Trump last spring, as one of 14 representatives of the ag industry invited to the White House for a farmers’ roundtable.
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MEDA gender pilot helps firms do well by doing the right thing
By Mike Strathdee
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
When businesses in developing countries think about social responsibility, consideration of gender equality doesn’t always make it on the list.
MEDA is working to change this situation by helping businesses consider gender issues as part of their investment decision-making.
“The private sector is interested in gender mainstreaming,” says MEDA’s Devon Krainer, who served as project manager for MEDA’s Gender Equality Mainstreaming (GEM) pilot.
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MEDA volunteer business experts ask questions to help develop answers
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
Getting businesspeople to think of themselves as service providers was helpful, says Kathleen Campbell (right)
Helping small businesses in Africa is like any new relationship in one important respect — listening carefully is a crucial first step.
“As outsiders, we never bring the answers,” Kathleen Campbell says. “But if we can bring the right questions, then it helps these small businesses. They can make leaps forward in how they start to think about their businesses.”
Campbell, who lives in California, volunteered in Tanzania for MEDA’s ENGINE (Enabling Growth through Investment and Enterprise) program for six weeks this past fall.
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Lancaster entrepreneur uses business profits to educate Kenyan children
By JoAnn Flett
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
Dorothy Dulo is a social entrepreneur from Kenya who lives in Lancaster, Pa. She is soft spoken, thoughtful and exudes the gifts of the Holy Spirit like kindness and gentleness.
“As a woman entrepreneur, you need to have self-confidence and passion for what you do,” she said. “You also need to be relentless in doing things that will lead you to your goals.”
Dulo is intentionally giving women and girls opportunities to become social entrepreneurs, and to pursue their passions and interests.
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Kenya vegetable packer helps small farmers expand into fruit production
By Mike Strathdee
As Printed in The Marketplace – March/April 2018
NAIROBI, KENYA - Jane Maina has a plan to increase the incomes of thousands of Kenyan farmers, and diversify her own business in the process.
Maina, managing director and co-owner of Vert, aims to reduce her vegetable processing firm’s dependence on European markets, and replace some of her nation’s imports of one of its favorite juices.
Through a partnership with MEDA’s M-SAWA project, (M-SAWA stands for Maendeleo- Sawa, or Equitable Prosperity) –Vert aims to train subsistence farmers how to grow mangos and passion fruit that meet international standards.
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Pastor converts to value of churches helping with job training
By Colin McCartney
A while ago I had the opportunity to attend a job creation conference in Memphis. I have been doing some church planting work for the Mennonites in low-income urban, neighbourhoods and they wanted me to look into creating micro-businesses that would employ people in our job-depleted urban communities.
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Family creates jobs in rural village that sponsored them
By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
In an ideal world, Tareq Hadhad would be practicing medicine in his homeland.
Instead, he is the public face of his family’s chocolate company, in a country they have only called home for a couple of years.
But with an entrepreneur’s can-do attitude, Hadhad chooses to emphasize the positive. “We always have challenges in our lives,” Hadhad said in a seminar presentation about his family’s firm, Peace by Chocolate, at MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver.
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Businesses that take wholistic view are thriving
By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
Businesses that want to grow lasting profits will embrace “triple bottom line” thinking that seeks to maximize purpose as well as dollars, a Pennsylvania business professor says.
“At the end of the day, because of how God has created and designed business to work, you are actually going to maximize profit if you pay attention to your customers, to your suppliers, to your employees,” JoAnn Flett said in a workshop address at MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver.
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Celebrated fashion line raises funds for charity decades after firm’s demise
By J.B. Miller
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
Susan Kauffman and Eugene Stuzman with one of the Eugene Alexander gowns
High fashion ladies apparel is a fickle business. Each year new creations debut on Paris and New York’s fashion runways, setting style trends for the coming year. When the scene is repeated next season, the current “must-have” party gowns soon become aging fashion statements, finding their way to thrift shops and on-line markets for buyers of vintage or Halloween party attire and finally disappearing altogether.
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Long-time publications editor makes Biblical case for MEDA’s mission
As Printed in The Marketplace – January/February 2018
MEDA’s work providing economic opportunity in developing nations is a deeply spiritual vocation that is desperately needed by a hurting world, long-time staffer Wally Kroeker told the agency’s annual convention.
“I believe MEDA’s work is as Godly and missional as it gets,” Kroeker told over 300 supporters who gathered in Vancouver in early November. “Seriously folks, the world really, really needs our consistently transformational message. We exist for times like these.”
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Economic development within ethical framework more effective than aid.
By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
Reducing armed conflict and providing economic opportunity are goals that go hand in hand, the founder of War Child Canada and War Child USA says.
Dr. Samantha Nutt, founder of War Child
“You can’t have development without peace, and you can’t have peace without development,” Dr. Samantha Nutt said in a plenary address to MEDA’s annual convention in Vancouver.
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Helping women in one of poorest countries of the world
By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
MEDA is working to help 25,000 women in Myanmar, but is not involved in areas of the country where violence and conflict are occurring, president Allan Sauder told supporters at the organization’s annual convention.
Myanmar, formerly known as Burma, is in transition from decades of political and economic isolation, and remains one of the poorest countries in the world, he said. MEDA’s ongoing work assists women in Shan and Kayin States to grasp new economic opportunities, primarily in agricultural markets.
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By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
Record donations from supporters, assisting 91 million families and praise from government funders were highlights of the past year at MEDA, the organization’s annual meeting heard.
Supporters set a record in private contributions to MEDA for the second year in a row, totaling $6.5 million US, president Allan Sauder said.
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By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - January/February 2018
The Christian view that giving should be kept secret is based on misunderstanding of two Bible verses resulting in a “secrecy doctrine” that we need to get past, a Manitoba businessman and former pastor argues.
Most Christians don’t understand the Bible passage they cite in arguing that giving should be kept secret, Peter Dueck says. “I would like us to get past this secrecy doctrine.”
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By Mike Strathdee
As printed in The Marketplace - November/December 2017
Neil Denison of MEDA’s Waterloo office shared the reflection below during a Sept. 11 staff meeting.
People are prone to do awful things when they lose hope. When they see no future. When they can find no opportunities.
What resonates deeply with me about MEDA’s mission is our desire to help people see hope in their communities, to find the opportunities for a better life and future. MEDA’s mission is a practical expression of Jeremiah 29:11:
“For I know the plans I have for you,” declares the Lord, “plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.”