Thread: H.Clinton talking about Obama's Mother?

Did anyone hear H. Clinton talking about Obama's mother the other day?

Hillary Rodham Clinton makes poignant mention of Obama's mother work in international micro-finance at Secretary of State confirmation hearing. Text as prepared.

http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/01 ... kes_p.html

As a personal aside, I want to mention that President-elect Obama's mother, Ann Dunham, was a pioneer in microfinance in Indonesia. In my own work on microfinance around the world - from Bangladesh to Chile to Vietnam to South Africa and many other countries -- I've seen firsthand how small loans given to poor women to start small businesses can raise standards of living and transform local economies. President-elect Obama's mother had planned to attend a microfinance forum at the Beijing women's conference in 1995 that I participated in. Unfortunately, she was very ill and couldn't travel and sadly passed away a few months later. But I think it's fair to say that her work in international development, the care and concern she showed for women and for poor people around the world, mattered greatly to her son, and certainly has informed his views and his vision. We will be honored to carry on Ann Dunham's work in the months and years ahead.

Obama's mother, Hillary Clinton: two women, one goal in common

http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/n ... ton29.html

From July 1993 to the end of 1994, Barack Obama's mother was hard at work in New York City convening experts, compiling surveys and drafting papers for a major United Nations conference in Beijing, where she hoped to show how much good can be done by lending small sums to poor women.

By Elizabeth Moore

Newsday

First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton speaks in 1997.

Ann Dunham Soetoro, anthropologist

NEW YORK — From July 1993 to the end of 1994, Barack Obama's mother was hard at work in New York City convening experts, compiling surveys and drafting papers for a major United Nations conference in Beijing, where she hoped to show how much good can be done by lending small sums to poor women.

As Ann Dunham Soetoro 's colleagues brainstormed, they agreed that one advocate would electrify their panel: then-first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton.

Dunham Soetoro never made it to Beijing. By the time of the 1995 conference, she was in Hawaii, suffering the painful last stages of cancer that would claim her life.

But Clinton did speak at the panel co-sponsored by the International Coalition on Women and Credit that Dunham Soetoro had brought together at the U.N.'s initiative.

Two years later, Clinton helped launch a campaign to extend microfinance to 100 million families, a goal the coalition pushed at Beijing and attained two years ago.

Just what Dunham Soetoro herself thought about Clinton has yet to be unearthed from archives or memories.

But in the weeks since Obama laid a bitter Democratic primary battle to rest by naming Clinton his secretary of state, some of his mother's old friends are sure of one thing: people might be surprised to discover how much she had in common with his former rival.

"I remember us saying it's such a shame that this is getting unpleasant, because they actually have this connection — they are one degree separated from one another," recalled one economic-development expert who knew Obama's mother.

Those who worked with Dunham Soetoro in New York call the anthropologist a pioneer who did seminal field research and developed the standards that guided the program's rapid expansion.

At that time, development agencies tended to cast poor women as passive victims, so lending money to them was still an emerging idea, and the banks doing it viewed themselves as competitors.

"We were very good at defining what our differences were," said Nancy Barry, a former president of Women's World Banking, the early microlender that hired Dunham Soetoro to build the coalition and prepare for Beijing.

"What Ann's leadership resulted in is all of the leaders coming together and focusing ... on what we believed in together."

Friends remember Dunham Soetoro as an upbeat, larger-than-life woman with a passion for changing the world that was grounded in real-life experience.

She had written her doctoral thesis on village blacksmiths in Indonesia and used the insights in designing savings and credit products for millions of low-income rural clients as a researcher at the People's Bank of Indonesia.

She had prodded the bank and others to see how reliable female borrowers were and how effectively they used their loans to better their families.

I recently got done sponsoring a women last your in Bosnia.
They only have a year to start their business and get it going.
Hers was crocheting doilies and she sent me a beautiful peach one!

It's only $25 a month and they do much better now with the sponsor and the sponsored keeping touch.
She wrote me one month to say she did not use last months money for her business.

Her 2 young children had gotten really sick and the money paid the dr and the medicine needed.

I felt warm inside and proud. Pride is not one of my internal feelings usually.

I prided myself on NOT having pride. I saw what it did to my friend and my mom.
Both of who had very rough beginnings. I had it good and easy. The hard part is NOW!

The woman before her was from Rwanda, her business was jewelry.

You can also buy a family a cow or goat, it's the difference between live and
death for those families.

From my 20's till my 30's I sponsored 3 children.

Now I'm not sure if I can do it because of the economy and my own struggles. ........ That sucks.
I highly recommend it.

WorriedAmerican: Thank you for being so kind. I bought a "Feed Bag" (used for grocery shopping - going greener) for $25 to feed 100 children for a day during Christmas. I love Americans!

Originally Posted by vmonkey56

WorriedAmerican: Thank you for being so kind. I bought a "Feed Bag" (used for grocery shopping - going greener) for $25 to feed 100 children for a day during Christmas. I love Americans!

There's a site to buy homemade stuff from around the world.
You go in thru the part you want your purchase to help. I go thru the Animal site or
The Feed the Hungary. Everytime you go to The Breast Site, you give a free mamogram.
There also is the Rainforest, Literacy and Child Health.
It's all the same crafts just how you choose to order thru.

Lots of stuff on sale now. I love the craftsman ship! BEAUTIFUL and different .....

http://www.thebreastcancersite.com/clic ... s?siteId=2

I recently got done sponsoring a women last your in Bosnia.
They only have a year to start their business and get it going.
Hers was crocheting doilies and she sent me a beautiful peach one!

It's only $25 a month and they do much better now with the sponsor and the sponsored keeping touch.
She wrote me one month to say she did not use last months money for her business.

Her 2 young children had gotten really sick and the money paid the dr and the medicine needed.

I felt warm inside and proud. Pride is not one of my internal feelings usually.

I prided myself on NOT having pride. I saw what it did to my friend and my mom.
Both of who had very rough beginnings. I had it good and easy. The hard part is NOW!

The woman before her was from Rwanda, her business was jewelry.

You can also buy a family a cow or goat, it's the difference between life and
death for those families.

From my 20's till my 30's I sponsored 3 children.

Now I'm not sure if I can do it because of the economy and my own struggles. ........ That sucks.
I highly recommend it.