For the first step in this year’s project, we’ve decided it would be a good idea to create short, one page or less “Country Summaries” for the countries we’re most interested in working with (Peru, Haiti, and India).  The goal is to determine which of the four types of projects (microfinance, education, water/sanitation, and decentralised energy) we’re considering would be the best candidate for an in-depth “Project Proposal” to come in the next few weeks.

A very basic introduction to issues within each country, we think, should include:

Based off of those basic facts, and other anecdotal knowledge, we should also brainstorm how we especially would help advance:

• Microfinance
• Education
• Water/Sanitation
• Decentralised Energy

Critical to this as well is the need to find potential partners both within the country and in the United States to collaborate with at all stages of the project.

Considering the desire for brevity, is there anything else we should include in these summaries?

Oregon Direct Action (ODA or, spoken aloud, Yoda) will a non-profit, open-source, and student-run organization from the University of Oregon dedicated to helping marginalized people by promoting economically, environmentally, and culturally sustainable community development. Lofty mission statement for a student organization, eh? We like to think big.

Currently, we’re looking into project ideas involving microfinance, decentralised power, education, and/or water and sanitation possibly in the countries of Peru, Haiti, India, or Mongolia. The feasibility assessments we do in the next few weeks will largely determine the scope and direction of this year’s project.

Shout out to the peeps at Whitman Direct Action for the super model for a student organization.

I thought it only fitting that we use the default Wordpress post to launch the online presence of Oregon Direct Action. It is a super easy way to run a website.