We’re excited to announce the launch of our new Summit Global Good Card®! The Visa credit card marks our new partnership with the World Council of Credit Unions and highlights our shared mission of bettering the lives of credit union members through financial empowerment. Essentially, it lets us (and you) bring that hope to developing communities and fellow credit union members across the world! Pretty neat stuff.
World Council of Credit Unions
Headquartered in Madison, the World Council of Credit Unions (WOCCU) is the leading organization helping serve and grow credit unions around the world. To date, WOCCU has served hundreds of millions of credit union members across 102 countries. Their efforts truly are remarkable, and they are dedicated to developing new tools, technology and programs to provide financial resources and training to developing communities.
So where does Summit come in?
Summit will be donating up to $10 for every Summit Global Good Card opened through January 31, 2017, with another 15 percent of all intercharge fees contributed as well. The World Bank recently estimated that more than 2 billion people were unbanked as they don’t have access to safe savings accounts or loan options, so the new project comes at a very important time for spreading financial empowerment.*
Depicting Change
Abdi Lidonde is the co-founder of the Beverly School of Kenya (BSK). The BSK follows the STEM (science, technology, engineering and mathematics) curriculum model. As with U.S. schools, the curriculum gets harder as students advance grade levels, except we’re not exactly talking trading in 101 textbooks for 201. At the BSK, while the younger students study planting and watering tactics, the older students develop modern irrigation systems that bring higher produce returns from their yearly crops. Cool, right?
After launching the agricultural-based learning system, the BSK decided to replace all non-productive landscaping with productive plants (e.g., fruits, herbs, spices, potatoes) to bring an ongoing supply of produce to the community.
The Summit Global Good Card card shows Lidonde planting an apple tree with the World Council Kenyan project director as part of the school’s makeover.
Doing Good on a Global Scale
The whole idea of the hands-on approach is to teach students much-needed skills in things like agriculture and farming to better their community, and ultimately, their own lives. But this wouldn’t be possible without WOCCU and its work with dozens of organizations just like BSK all around the world.
In addition to establishing an initial interest in the region’s (very important) agriculture industry, WOCCU will work to coach students in basic money management skills and strategies beginning at a young age. Incredible!
Let’s Do Our Part!
Well, talk about helping others own it, right? Now is your time to help out, which you can do just by opening a new Summit Global Good Card. To learn more about World Council, visit www.woccu.org. In the meantime, keep looking out for more updates on this exciting new project!
