reBOOT Canada

Do you have computer equipment that is outdated, not working or you simply no longer need?

reBOOT Canada is a nonprofit organization providing computer hardware, technical support and training to charities, non-profits and people with limited access to technology. ReBOOT Canada accepts donations of computer equipment from companies and individuals throughout Canada. Donated equipment is evaluated and tax receipts issued in return. The equipment is refurbished and made available for distribution to outreach organizations. Since 1996 reBOOT Canada has distributed over 60,000 pieces of computer equipment to charitable organizations across Canada. Their website is www.rebootcanada.ca. They have several locations and are found in all Canadian provinces except British Columbia and Manitoba.

All of the Fresh Breath Clinic's outdated computers, printers and monitors are donated to reBOOT.

Opportunity International Canada

Microenterprise Development

Opportunity International's methods of fighting poverty rest on one simple fact: the poor are creative and tenacious and have all the skills to start or build a business. They just lack the capital. Microenterprise Development is the provision of small business loans to struggling entrepreneurs in the developing world. The poor often run very small, income generating businesses, using very little capital. But it is impossible for these entrepreneurs to access capital to grow their business. Formal banks do not lend to the poor. For centuries, their only alternative has been the kindness of family members or money lenders known as 'loan sharks'.

As the 'banker to the poor', Opportunity International fills this gap. Opportunity provides money for the poor to grow their own business, no matter how small. The provision of loans and other financial services gives the poor a means of providing for themselves. It is a hand up, not a hand out. In fact, Opportunity clients experience an average increase in profits of 25- 40% in the first year.

As profits increase, the poor can then afford better food, shelter, health and education for their families. They can also expand their business and employ others, impacting not only their own family, but whole communities as well. But poverty is multi-dimensional. Microcredit (the provision of just loans) and microfinance (the provision of loans as well as other financial services such as savings, insurance and remittance products) deal with only one aspect of poverty.

Microenterprise development takes the foundation of microfinance and adds to it business training, mentoring, personal, leadership and spiritual development.

"Money," says the proverb, "makes money." When you have got a little, it is often easy to get more. The great difficulty is to get that little."
 
- Adam Smith, Wealth of Nations

You know that mantra, "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Teach a man to fish, he'll eat for a lifetime"? It's missing something. Microfinance is the fishing rod, the boat, the net: cash and dignity, side by side...Maybe the mantra should be: "Give a man a fish, he'll eat for a day. Give a woman microcredit, she, her husband, her children and her extended family will eat for a lifetime."
 
- Bono (U2)