Three representatives from Right Sharing of World Resources visited Wilmington Friends Meeting: Dr. R Kannan, Abinaya Murugesan, and Megan Fair. For Fair, who grew up in Clinton County attending Wilmington Friends Meeting and is a Clinton-Massie grad, this is a homecoming visit. Fair joined RSWR as the Associate Secretary of Advancement in February, following a decade spent in various development and administrative roles in the nonprofit sector. Fair states, “RSWR offers a unique opportunity for supporters to work towards equity through meaningful partnerships with women around the world. In April I had the opportunity to visit womens’ groups supported by RSWR. The women I met in Kenya reminded me of the women I grew up with in Clinton County – kind, resilient and community-minded. Being able to support these women in starting their own businesses feels like a natural calling as a daughter of this community”.
Dr. R Kannan and Abi Murugesan are RSWR Country Coordinators in India. There, they seek out new, small NGOs that are already doing good work and train their leaders in the RSWR model of microfinance.
R Kannan has served as Country Coordinator in India for over 20 years. R Kannan is an extremely thoughtful and committed Gandhian worker who has worked with hundreds of small grassroots organizations to provide micro-credit to literally thousands of poor Indian women. In a video on RSWR’s YouTube page, R Kannan shares that the goal of his work is “sustainable work and sustainable income” for program participants. Because women are given seed grants in order to start their own businesses, they are able to invest the proceeds into building their businesses rather than paying off predatory loans to industry owners and landlords. Watch R Kannan talk about his work here:
Murugesan, RSWR’s newest Country Coordinator, has a passion for working with women to increase equality, financial independence, self-reliance, and positive health outcomes. She also adds that, being a woman from rural India, she can relate to the suffering of women. She hopes to improve the overall quality of life of rural women in India by working with RSWR.