When we look at the challenges we face as a planet, we recognize that poverty is at the root of nearly all of them. During the 2008 Tour, we chose to work with Unitus - an organization that is boldly tackling these challenges by supporting equality, empowerment, and dignity for the world’s poor. Together with Unitus, we can help foster fundamental changes in the world to help create equal opportunity and to share the wealth and be true global citizens. –The Police

UPDATE: Exclusive The Police Tour Ticket Auction Announced—Learn More Here

Unitus is thrilled to announce that it has been selected as a charitable partner for the 2008 Police concert tour in North America. The recently-announced tour extension is scheduled for 31 dates beginning May 1st in Ottawa, Canada and culminates August 4th at Wantagh, NY’s Jones Beach. Elvis Costello and The Imposters will join The Police for the North American portion of this year’s tour.  

The Police tour is proud to support Unitus and its mission to fight global poverty by accelerating access to microfinance for millions of hard-working poor families around the globe. As part of this unique partnership, beginning this spring, Unitus will offer a variety of VIP packages — including 4 front-row tickets, sound check access, backstage tours, and concert tour programs signed by the band for select US and Canadian Police concert dates — via auction to raise funds to further support its mission. North American tour dates can be found online at https://tickets.thepolice.com/. Unitus will also auction 4 front row tickets to all 16 European concert dates, slated for June 2008. European concert dates can be found online here.

Support Unitus and see the Police live in concert! Unitus supporters can bid on ticket packages online and/or at select live auction events. For online Police concert ticket auctions, Unitus has chosen Charity Folks, the premier online marketplace for nonprofit fundraising, corporate cause-marketing campaigns and celebrity-driven charity initiatives to host this exciting program. To receive information about live auctions coming soon to a city near year, please sign up here. We will be offering the chance to purchase a variety of dates and ticket packages beginning in mid-March!

For more information on the tour, please visit www.thepolice.com or www.livenation.com.

Seattle, WA, February 20, 2008 – Unitus, Inc., a worldwide leader in scaling innovative solutions to global poverty, today announced that the number of clients reached through its global microfinance partner network has surpassed 3 million. This year-end 2007 figure is more than double the number of clients the network reached at the end of 2006. This dramatic growth represents significant momentum for the Unitus network and offers tremendous opportunity for millions of families to work their way out of poverty.

Unitus works to fight global poverty by accelerating access to microfinance for millions of the working poor. Using a highly leveraged, results-focused model, Unitus partners with high-potential microfinance institutions (MFIs) around the globe to connect them to the growth capital and innovative business tools they need to grow rapidly and reach scale. Unitus offers to MFIs a broad range of business consulting services, capacity-building grants, technology tools, strategic planning, and capital advisory services to eliminate barriers to growth and empower them to serve millions more hardworking micro-entrepreneurs around the world.

More than 3 billion people—half the world’s population—live on less than US $2 a day, yet only 133 million people currently have access to microfinance services. Fueled by the business acumen, innovation, and excellence of some of the brightest social entrepreneurs in the world today, the Unitus partner network aims to rapidly close this poverty gap, and is providing life-changing financial services, including microcredit loans, savings, and insurance products to the working poor in hundreds of villages in seven countries. By 2010, Unitus and its partners aim to serve more than 15 million families through microfinance services and other related social innovations.

To help achieve these ambitious goals, together with its partners, Unitus delivered on a number of important milestones during 2007, including:

• Increased reach to 3.3 million poor families.
• Added five new microfinance partners.
• Expanded outreach in South America and rural India.
• Provided expert “Efficiency Workshops” for a number of Unitus microfinance partners in India, the Philippines, and Mexico.
• Developed a range of new web-based tools and advisory services to drive MFI operational efficiency and increased reach.
• Convened the second annual Unitus Leadership Summit—featuring a roundtable discussion hosted by Pierre Omidyar, eBay founder and co-founder and founding partner of Omidyar Network, and Matt Bannick, managing partner of Omidyar Network and former president of eBay International—to spur innovation and cross-pollinate best practices.

In 2008, Unitus will expand its work to new regions, continue to build out its network, and introduce a variety of new products and services designed to increase access to microfinance and fuel the growth of financial services for the poor. By combining a focus on access for those who need it most with innovations that can deliver industry-wide impact, Unitus aims to transform the lives of millions and deliver lasting social change.

“Microfinance has the power to transform lives, families, and communities. But it’s just not getting to people quickly enough,” said Geoff Davis, Unitus President and CEO. “As an industry, we must act boldly to create the kind of rapid, dramatic results needed to reach the hundreds of millions of families who still lack access. Through the heroic work of our partners on the ground, the Unitus Acceleration Model is helping close this financial services gap faster than ever before. We are thrilled that our partners have added more than 2.6 million new microfinance clients over the six short years that we’ve worked together with them. We remain focused on helping them reach millions more who still lack the opportunity to build a better life.”

“My passion for poverty alleviation is driven by the need to see the rural poor benefit from India’s phenomenal economic growth. Job creation and market linkages for the poor through an organized platform are essential prerequisites for a successful poverty alleviation model. Microfinance helps build that organized platform through its branch network and its employee and client base, and offers a powerful way to deliver a range of financial and non-financial income-generating services for the poor,” said Harsha Moily, CEO and Founder of Unitus partner MokshaYug Access. “The diversity of experience that the Unitus team brings has enabled us to leverage best practices across sectors and geographies to build a sustainable poverty alleviation model.”

Unitus is thrilled to announce that it has been selected as a charitable partner for the 2008 Police concert tour in North America. The tour extension is scheduled for 30 dates beginning May 1st in Ottawa, Canada and culminates August 4th at Wantagh, NY’s Jones Beach. Elvis Costello and The Imposters will join The Police for the North American portion of this year’s tour. 

The Police tour is proud to support Unitus and its mission to fight global poverty by accelerating access to microfinance for millions of hard-working poor families around the globe. As part of this unique partnership, beginning this spring, Unitus will offer 4 front-row tickets, sound check access and backstage tours for the US and Canadian Police concert dates via auction to raise funds to further support its mission. Stay tuned to unitus.com in the coming weeks for more information about how you can take part in this exciting project, support the fight against global poverty AND see an upcoming Police show!

To receive information on upcoming Unitus auctions for The Police concert ticket packages, please sign up here. Additional details will be forthcoming this spring.

For more information on The Police’s 2008 tour, please visit www.thepolice.com and/or www.livenation.com.

Violence in Kenya following recent presidential elections—you can help!

> DONATE HERE

As has been widely reported, presidential elections in Kenya and the subsequent electoral returns December 30th have been followed by tremendous civil unrest and outright violence.  Concern over potential electoral fraud following President Mwai Kabiki’s re-election has sparked a spate of violence that continues long after election day. News coverage of the election process and the post-election violence can be found at a variety of news sources; a few select articles are linked here:

• New York Times:  
  http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/03/world/africa/03kenya.html
• Reuters:
  http://www.reuters.com/article/latestCrisis/idUSL03725926
• Time:
  http://www.time.com/time/magazine/article/0,9171,1699867,00.html
• International Herald Tribune:
  http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/01/03/africa/kenya.php

Impact on Jamii Bora Trust and Its Members
As many Unitus supporters know, Jamii Bora Trust is a microfinance institution in Nairobi, Kenya that Unitus has partnered with since 2004.  We have recently learned that many of Jamii Bora’s members have been deeply impacted by this violence and are in desperate need of assistance.  We have been in touch with Ingrid Munro, Managing Trustee of Jamii Bora Trust, in order to further extend Unitus’s support and understand more fully the conditions and circumstances facing the citizens of Nairobi, and more specifically, the fate of Jamii Bora’s members.  Here, in Ingrid’s own words (dated January 1) is what we’ve heard:

Dear friends,

We have been able to be in touch with most of our branch staff in various parts of the country. The situation is very serious in many parts of the country. The target for most mob actions are the Kikuyu, the country’s largest tribe. But even families of other ethnic background are victims when the looting goes out of hand and nobody has time to check who is a Kikuyu and who is not. 

Jamii Bora members are particularly badly hit, first because they are in the poorest areas that are most badly affected, second because in these areas they are often the most successful business people after many years of climbing with Jamii Bora, third because many are Kikuyus in the central urban areas, fourth because the police protection is not so strong in the poorest sections of the cities and town. The areas of the rich are much better protected and hardly attacked at all.

Terrible things are happening. People are killed and injured. Rape is on the rise. A church where many families with children had sought refuge was burnt down by an angry mob in Eldoret and many people including at least 34 children were killed. Poor people’s businesses are destroyed, burnt and/or looted. Homes and even churches are burnt down. The fruits of their hard work to climb out of poverty has been destroyed and burnt to the ground. 

Tense calm has returned to a few places but most of the badly hit areas are still experiencing problems. Many families are running away in panic and have lost everything they have worked so hard for.

Some of the worst hit areas are the large slums in Nairobi especially Kibera, Mathare, Huruma- Korogocho, Kangemi and Kawangware. Other towns that have been exposed to serious destruction are Eldoret, Kisumu, Kericho and Mombasa. Many other parts of the country are experiencing serious problems in poorer sections of the towns. Several of our branches have also been looted and our computers and POS machines stolen. People can not run their businesses for risk of looting, thus even those who have not been looted or burnt down are affected. No buses are available since the owners fear that they may be stoned or vandalized. People are starving because they cannot access food, they are homeless and seek refuge at police stations and churches. Thus everyone is affected.

Jamii Bora estimates that almost 50% of the members are affected in at least one of the above mentioned ways.  Our own disaster fund will not last long in this situation and we urgently need help.

Anything you can do to assist and contribute in a big or a small way will be highly appreciated.

Warm regards

Ingrid

How You Can Help
Please consider a donation to Unitus to support the Jamii Bora Emergency Fund.  Members throughout the Nairobi slums—specifically Mathare and Kibera—have been affected, as well as members throughout greater Kenya where Jamii Bora has branches. Lives and futures have been devastated, and your generous support can help Unitus and Jamii Bora Trust lend a hand to those impacted by this violence.  Funds donated to Unitus will go directly to Jamii Bora Trust to rebuild looted offices and to help members re-establish their businesses and homes.

Please make your contribution here.

Thank you!

- Your friends at Unitus & Jamii Bora Trust

www.unitus.com
www.jamiibora.org