The following article appeared in the Friday, December 10, 2010 Edition of The St. Albans Messenger
Isabel Gamm, co-founder of People Helping People Global, with children in Avelardo Enrique, Nicaragua.
Living Her Dream
Young Fairfax Native Co-Founds, Sustains Micro-Lending Group
By LISA M. BOUCHER
Messenger Correspondent
FAIRFAX — As a Bellows Free Academy, Fairfax high school student here early this decade, Isabel Gamm was interested in community service and helping others.
That's something she had been immersed in since childhood. She founded a community service group at BFA called Helping Hands. It continues to be an active student group at the high school.
Little did she realize, however, that her early endeavors would lead to a career helping people, just as she had in high school.
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A 2004 graduate of the small K-12 school, the 24-year-old started an international non-profit organization People Helping People Global (PHPG), with co-founder Alex Tuck after she graduated from Temple University (Philadelphia, Pa.), where she was a Spanish and Latin American studies major.
PHPG is a Vermont-based, non-profit micro-lending group.
"I have always been focused on community service and helping others," said Gamm a Fairfax native. "From my childhood days riding around with my mother delivering meals-on-wheels, to my role as a youth group leader at my church, to my work at (BFA) starting the Helping Hands group, to spending the summer of my junior year in Honduras building houses, to teaching elderly Puerto Ricans the English Language, to the work I am currently involved in. I have always felt driven to give my services to those who are not as fortunate as others."
The work she did in Helping Hands - planning and facilitating service projects such as community breakfasts at the senior housing across from the school, and leading a group of students to Montreal, P.Q., Canada, to assist hi serving a meal at a seven-story homeless shelter --are experiences that helped her develop her leadership skills.
PHPG is built around a concept that helps poor communities help themselves and which frees families from the poverty cycle. The organization's mission is not to give money vor temporary fixes, but to loan money through verbal agreement. Repayment is expected. The organization ' assists individuals in starting businesses that will generate income to support a family and raise it out of poverty.
It's a community service organization built on the principles of the Chinese Proverb: "Give a man a fish, he eats for a day, teach a man to fish, he eats for a life time."
Gamm is program manager and fundraising coordinator for People Helping People Global. Tuck is the executive director. They spend their time traveling between Nicaragua and the U.S.
Gamm's work in Nicaragua includes field work, traveling to communities, meeting with families, writing biographies, recording data, communicating with employees in that country as well as other duties. When she's in the U.S., her job consists mostly of events planning to raise funds. She attends international festivals to sell fair-trade artisan products.
"A lot of our work is planning for the future. Thinking ahead is so important, " said Gamm. "We began planning a golf tournament for May 2011 over a year in advance and holiday craft fair applications went out midsummer. We are currently planning a cross-country festival tour for the summer of 2011. Our goal is to raise funds selling our artisan products, meet other like-minded organizations, and raise awareness of our PHPG's mission and vision."
In August, PHPG rolled out its new web site (www. peoplehelpingpeople.org). The Web site allows for donations directly to the cause in Central America.
"Instead of writing a check to a big non-profit and hoping your dollars make their way to the right place, we've set up a system that allows you to choose exactly where your hard earned money is going," said Tuck in a press release advocating for the group.
PHPG investigates neighborhoods with the highest poverty levels but which have the potential for success. It also prefers areas where other non-profits are already involved in addressing other issues in the community. That makes it easier for the organization to concentrate on business start-ups and job creation.
Once a community is identified, the non-profit will hold informational meetings about its micro-lending program and hand out applications to interested parties. Applications are reviewed and interviews are conducted to meet and learn about families. When an applicant is accepted, he or she is added to the Web site, where potential donors can find them, read their stories and make a PayPal transaction.
When the full amount is received on a loan request, it is then disbursed to the recipient, who repays in monthly installments for an agreed upon time, like any bank loan. When it is paid in full, the funds are then used to facilitate new loans to other members of the community.
PHPG is a truly philanthropic non-profit, said Gamm. It is set apart from other similar organizations, because of its relaxed, intimate interactions and no-interest lending policy The group holds meetings under a mango tree in the community of Avelardo Enrique and according to Gamm, that allows it to connect with the locals on a personal level. For example, she said, those meetings (with mango flies flitting all around) are as likely to touch on where to buy the best nacatamales (a specialty tamale often enjoyed on Sunday mornings) as they are to discuss bookkeeping.
"I believe that volunteering does two things, it improves the world around us, while making us feel good, perpetuating the cycle of wanting to help others," said Gamm.
Gamm said she would love to have the current BFA Helping Hands volunteers get involved with PHPG. "I would love to ... show them that anything is possible and they can be the change that they want to see in the world," said Gamm, who is herself some what amazed and bewildered that she, at 24, is living in Nicaragua trying to eliminate poverty, having started a non-profit organization. It's her dream come true.
This now international aid worker recognizes a difficulty in renewing ties with Helping Hands. She is away for most of the year. However, it's her goal to make such a connection.
"In terms of life work, community service is, has been, and always will be my passion and driving motivation," said Gamm. "Not only does community services help those in need, but throughout the process of helping others, the volunteer learns, grows, and benefits from the experience just as much as those they are assisting."
Editor's Note: The Messenger is always interested in hearing of and writing about Franklin County natives who have taken their talents and pursuits to other parts of the globe. If you are such a person, or know someone who is, contact the newspaper at news@samessenger.com, or call 524-9771, ext 121.
