JJ Memorial Fund for ETF Hubs
12 September 2023
For Friends and Relatives wishing to donate the best way is by bank transfer to HSBC UK Account:
Dr. Sarah Nicola Jones
Ref: etf donation
A/C no: 21487019
Sort Code: 401409
IBAN: GB68MIDL40140921487019
SWIFT: MIDLGB22
Please email buenosaireschildrensfund@gmail.com for receipt of donation and progress of the Fund.
June Jones in 2018 with the Children of Puerto Ruiz, Entre Rios Province, Argentina.
BACKGROUND
Sarah Jones is currently an advisor to the World Bank Pro-Blue Project, scoping the rural development and investment in coastal & river fish farming with renewable energy and other best practices for local jobs and food security throughout the river system communities from Patagonia through Puerto Ruiz, N. Argentina to Paraguay, Bolivia and Peru. ETF Hubs supported community work such as ‘DeliciasdeAlicia‘ compliments these large scale initiatives giving ETF donor supported cooking and nutrition workshops for children:
– in rural villages such as Puerto Ruiz where river fish stocks have collapsed,
– as well as the city shanty towns.
THE COOKING AND NUTRITION WORKSHOPS
June Jones in 2018 gives congratulations for a ‘Delicias de Alicia’ Diploma to Raul for completing a 6 week cooking & nutrition course
After a first introductory workshop on the importance of nutrition, four cooking workshops with affordable ingredients cover fruits, vegetables, (limiting the use of) flours and sugars, and proteins. In the final workshop the children celebrate their graduation with healthy party food which they have learned to cook and receive a diploma. After the course of workshops the children also take away a book compiled of their worksheets and recipes.
Further Reading
SERIOUS SHEA & THE GREAT GREEN WALL AFRICA
The World Bank Pro-Blue Project is being informed by the ETF Hubs developed ‘Serious Shea Deforestation Free, Carbon Zero Value Chain Project’ which won the United Nations and World Economic Forum Great Green Wall Africa Challenge in 2020 for its concept to scale arid parkland regeneration from Senegal to Kenya by planting 1 Billion trees by 2030 and creating clean energy processing infrastructure for rural communities to process forest products such as shea butter and superfoods (baobab, moringa, dried mangoes) for international markets. The Serious Shea profitable business plan affords an additional 1000 Euros per household per year by 2030, the minimum we have estimated for universal healthcare, secondary education and safe water and sanitation. From now until 2030 this ETF Hubs project will continue to rely partly on grants, donations and the voluntary carbon market.
THE PROBLEM – THE CITY DREAM IS OVER
In Latin American cities such as Buenos Aires, the growth and sprawl of ‘The Villas’ (shanty towns) is uncontrollable, with no social security support often for over 20 kms and well over 50% malnutrition amongst children in a country which is the fourth largest food producer in the world, predominantly former forests and grasslands converted to monocrop soya for international markets.
In Sub-Saharan Africa, groups (The Jihades) pay youths in the shanty towns and peri-urban areas 2000 Euros per month as fighting recruits. You do not hear this on the news – we know because we work there!
THE SOLUTION
We see the only sustainable solution, including to limit mass migration in the face of climate change, is to create rural financial inclusion and resilient lands and seas, giving people a reason to stay. This can be with micro finance for entrepreneurs (mostly India), or by providing quality jobs for rural villages with, for example, our ETF Financing Vehicle taking responsibility for global investment which is delivered locally through women and youth group co-operatives (mostly Africa) and employee share ownership schemes (mostly Latin America).
ETF HUBS
ETF signifies the pillars of sustainable, equitable development – interactive EDUCATION, jobs with green practices and TECHNOLOGIES and nutritious FOOD. The ETF platform creates Hubs of knowledge and resource sharing to build environmental, social, governance and cultural needs into community businesses and associated projects, to help break the cycle of poverty, to minimise administration costs, and to feed local data into the Clarity’s True Value Futures.
ETF Hubs was generated by Buenos Aires neighbours Russell Johnson (Russell Johnson Imports, Wyoming) and Sarah Jones. ETF Buenos Aires Hub was created in partnership with Anna and Mark Carter (Freshlets, Bath); ETF Gualeguay Hub (e.g. Puerto Ruiz) was created in partnership with Leo and Sofia Tonetti (ETF Sweden), ETF Sahel Hub was created in partnership with Agritech entrepreneur and descendant of the Royal Family of Benin, William Kwende (Agritech Holdings, Singapore/Dubai). ETF Hubs also build on 40 years of Ashok Khosla’s Development Alternatives (New Delhi, India) including business and industry data which demonstrates that providing women with quality job opportunities reduces family sizes mostly to 2 children.
ETF Hub has always been a family affair, Phia, Indi, Josh and Siena fundraising at Bathwick Primary School, The Melvyn Jones Memorial Fund which helped build a community centre in Buenos Aires in 2012 and The Hazel Blandford Memorial Fund for kitchen equipment for Delicias de Alicia in 2014.
Essential ETF advisors include loving family and incredible friends: Simon Jones (Investment Profile Design and Pitch) who met William Kwende in Paris in 2019; Sylvette Peplowski (Stakeholder Communication) for decades!!