If you’ve ever had someone hit you up for stamps – old stamps, commemorative stamps, foreign stamps, and more – then you may have heard of Right Sharing of World Resources. Quakers around the country collect stamps through the Quaker Missions Stamp Project to support this organization’s work.

According to a news release, “RSWR is a Quaker-founded organization following God’s call for the right sharing of world resources, from the burdens of materialism and poverty into the abundance of God’s love to work for equity through partnerships with our human family throughout the world.”

RSWR engages this work using a microfinance model. Groups of women in Guatemala, India, Sierra Leone, and Kenya apply for a seed grant. RSWR selects groups to receive grants, which are donor-funded. Groups then loan money to individual women members to run microbusiness ventures. Women run their businesses, generate income, and pay back their loans to the group. The group then uses the repaid money to make more loans to additional women to fund their businesses.

Three representatives from RSWR are visiting Wilmington — Dr. R Kannan, Abinaya Murugesan, and Megan Fair.

For Fair, who grew up in Clinton County and is a Clinton-Massie High School graduate, 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 said, “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 women’s 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: https://youtu.be/VzIXMWtEbco?si=JLmy569vDQ4YOioZ

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.

On Sunday, Oct. 22, Fair, Kannan, and Murugesan will be attending worship at Wilmington Friends Meeting. Worship begins at 10a.m., during which Fair will be preaching. After a period of fellowship, Kannan and Murugesan will offer a presentation to the WFM Adult Sunday School class on the work of RSWR in India. A potluck will follow to allow more people to meet the representatives and to hear stories. Childcare will be provided during worship and the presentation session, and visiting families are welcome to have their children attend kid’s Sunday School programming during the presentation.

The RSWR team will also be speaking with Wilmington College students on Monday, Oct. 23. They’ll also be at the Cape May Community Center at 2 p.m. to speak with interested individuals–beverages and tasty treats included. Later that evening they will be offering a Quaker Connections Lecture hosted by WC Campus Ministries and Wilmington Yearly Meeting at 7 p.m. in the T. Canby Jones Meetinghouse on the Wilmington College campus.

The Quaker Missions Stamp Project accepts stamps of all issue dates and countries, both used and unused stamps, except for the common “Forever” stamps. If you have stamps to donate, they can be mailed to Wilmington Friends Meeting at 66 North Mulberry St., Wilmington, Ohio 45177. Or, you can bring stamps to donate to any of the events listed above.