Simply by clicking the computer mouse, students at Elon are able to help combat poverty worldwide. The Oxfam America Collegiate Click Drive 2005 allows students from all over the country to donate 25 cents in the name of their institution each time they visit www.povertyfighters.com. Students, as well as faculty, staff, and alumni are able to click on the website twice a day until March 31, when the event concludes. The money collected this year is marked for micro credit lenders in Indonesia and Sri Lanka to help with relief efforts after the tsunami disaster.
Last year over 300 schools, including Elon, helped to raise $35,000 for small business loans given to women in developing nations. If each student clicks twice a day during the drive, they will help to raise $20. If all students at Elon were to click each day, that would total more than $72,000. The loans help to raise women, their families and their communities, out of the depths of poverty. The success rate of these micro-credit loans is between 95% and 98%.
Sponsors of Oxfam and the event donate money to the Calvert Foundation once click totals are calculated. “It is a simple way to make a large impact in the global fight against poverty,” says Jonathan Aleshire, an intern in the Kernodle Center for Service Learning and coordinator of the event.
For more information, please visit www.povertyfighters.com or contact Elon Volunteers! at 278.7250 or elonvols@elon.edu.