Wk 12 Journal

This week I learned about Self-Reliance and microcredit. I liked this quote from President Monson. He said that self-reliance is “the ability, commitment, and effort to provide the necessities of life for self and family”. He taught that this is an essential element of our temporal and spiritual well-being. The areas of self-reliance we strive for are education, health, employment, family home production and storage, family finances, and spiritual strength. I also learned about microcredit and what loaning even a small amount of money can do for people. I learned from the study material that people who are struggling around the world are eager to work hard to improve their lives and repay the money. These loans allow them to get businesses up and running, help them gain self-confidence and be self-reliant, and improve their standards of living. 


I liked the talk by Muhammad Yunus. His philosophy about poor people and economics was very interesting. I think he's right that our economic system is set up to reward entrepreneurs. Also, credit is set up to reward people who have money and take out loans. Both are huge disadvantages to the poor. I hadn't thought of how our system is set up before and that it makes it hard for people to make a living. I also liked Jessica Jackley's Ted Talk about microcredit and helping poor people around the world. I liked her emphasis on the stories. I think this is important because it makes these people real to us. I also enjoyed chapter 19 in the textbook about James Grant and the role he played in getting vaccines to children around the world and saving millions of lives. 

 

I consider myself and my family self-reliant. My husband has an education. He completed his master’s degree years ago and has a good job that provides for our family. I am working on finishing my bachelor’s degree so that I will have more education should I decided or need to get a job in the future. We encourage reading and discussion about various things in our home and try to keep learning to expand our knowledge and skills. We strive to be healthy as a family by eating healthy and getting exercise every day. My husband has good employment that provides for our family. We have food storage in our home should we ever need to use it and I check our food often to replenish what we use. Our finances are in good order. We use a budget to track our income and expenses and plan for our money. We have an emergency fund set aside, avoid debt, and contribute to retirement funds for our future. We work on our spiritual self-reliance by reading scriptures together, on our own, praying, going to church, and having gospel discussions all the time in our home. 

 

 


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Week 9 Journal

This week I learned about nonprofits. I learned that often times nonprofits don't have the infrastructure to do well and succeed. They also suffer from their funders having unrealistic expectations. We've always had the idea that charities should spend as little as possible on overhead and fundraising so that most of our donations can go to support the actual cause. I learned that that isn't necessarily true if we want the nonprofits to be able to survive and make a difference in social issues.  I liked Dan Pallotta's Ted Talk about nonprofits. He brought up the 5 differences between nonprofits and for-profits: 1. You can't use money to lure talent away from the for-profit sector; 2. You can't advertise on anywhere near the scale the for-profit sector does for new customers; 3. You can't take the kinds of risks in pursuit of those customers that the for-profit sector does for new customers; 4. You don't have the same amount of time to find th...
Read more

Week 2 Journal

Summary of the main ideas and topics of the week. This week the topic was "Be the Change". I learned that we can all be involved in social innovation. There are many different levels and ways to be involved. The reading talked about trying to improve things and make changes for the better no matter our career or job. I learned that there are many ways to be involved. People with many different backgrounds have found ways to be involved.  A response to a specific reading, video, or activity. For instance, did something spark interest, surprise, anger, inspire, or confuse you? Reference the specific reading, video, or activity. Add your thoughts, and explain your reaction. I really liked the article "Finding Your Calling in Life" by Jeffrey Thompson. I think the world has really confused this issue of finding our calling in life. There is no one right college, job, or spouse. Rather, we each need to figure out what our unique gifts are and...
Read more

Week 6 Journal

This week I learned about generating revenue for social entrepreneurs. Many times, nonprofits are used for social problems and it's difficult for them to find sustainable funding. The answer is in business. Shared value is when a social problem is addressed with a business model. This partnership and collaboration is the best way to tackle social issues. I read an example of this this week in "How to Change the World" chapter 11. Vera Cordeiro founded Renascer to help children and families in Sao Paulo, Brazil. She partnered with McKinsey, a management consulting firm, and was able to increase the impact of Renascer. I really enjoyed reading and learning about Renascer. I'm an Applied Health major so I really liked seeing the partnership of Renascer and McKinsey and the impact they were able to have. Vera Cordeiro's idea to help children and families after they left the hospital so that they wouldn't end up back in the hospital was very inspiring. She helped b...
Read more