Monthly Archives: April 2022

Special to the PRESS

Audiences sometimes go to the theatre for deep thoughts, tragic pathos, or social commentary, and sometimes fun and laughter. Gods of Comedy by Ken Ludwig is a play that delivers the latter.

Tuesday and Wednesday, April 18 and 19, 2022, El Paseo Arts brings this comedic confection to the stage at the South Padre Island Convention Center. Its a great way to celebrate spring and kick off the summer with laughter, magic, and adventure according to the foundation.

The plot of Gods of Comedy takes audiences on a romp through academia, Greek Mythology, and personal empowerment.

Daphne and Ralph are young classics professors who have just made a discovery thats sure to turn them into academic superstars.

But something goes disastrously wrong, and Daphne cries out in a panic, Save me, gods of ancient Greece!and the gods actually appear! Except the gods who appear are Dionysus, god of wine, revelry and theatre, and Thalia, the muse of comedy.

Their assignment from Zeus: give Daphne an adventure and a happy ending. The Ivy League will never be the same as a pair of screwball deities encounters the carnal complexity of college coeds, campus capers, and conspicuous consumption.

The talented cast includes Danny Dollar in the dual roles of Aristride, a Greek peddler who sells souvenirs to tourists and Aleksi, the janitor who caused some of the mayhem. Andrea Wright is Daphne, the workaholic college, classics professor who discovers romance.

Ayssa Limon plays Dean Tricket, and Pete Smith is Ralph, the new classics professors who has discovered a long lost play by the Greek tragedian, Euripides and who finds the play is lost again. Alexa Ocean Ray makes her El Paseo Arts debut as Zoe/Brooklyn, a beautiful movie star.

Dalton Swink plays the raucous Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, revelry and theatre; and Erika Hughston is his partner Thalia, the muse of comedy. Finally, Ares, the Greed god of war is played by Chuck Hofmeister.

Want the entire story? Pick up a copy of the Port Isabel-South Padre PRESS, or subscribe to our e-Edition by clickingHERE!

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'Gods of Comedy' hits the stage Port Isabel-South Padre Press - Port isabel south padre

The group We Are One performed a Bharatanatyam dance act on wheelchairs in Visakhapatnam as a tribute to frontline COVID workers. They talk about their journey so far

The group We Are One performed a Bharatanatyam dance act on wheelchairs in Visakhapatnam as a tribute to frontline COVID workers. They talk about their journey so far

The Bharatanatyam dancers struck elegant poses, maneuvered classic steps while slowly and steadily switching to a mudra. The flow was common to the dance form; except that thedancers were differently-abled. Six boys on wheelchairs and three girls who were hearing-impaired left the audience spellbound with a 30-minute show that was a tribute to frontline COVID workers in Visakhapatnam. The performance was by Delhi-based group We Are One (WAO) and a part of the recently-concluded Vysakhi Nrithyotsav, the 13th All India Dance Festival organised by Nataraj Music and Dance Academy.

"For us, the wheelchair is a symbol of empowerment. People think of it as a mode of transport for the differently-abled. But we want to show the world that this is our strength and showcase Indian dance forms like Bharatanatyam with a message of inclusivity," says Husnain, founder of WAO and a differently-abled artiste.

All through the performance, Husnain and his team reminded the audience that wheels can replace legs and the only thing they resented was being pitied upon. Their moves were perfected by Husnain and the team's choreographer Gulshan Kumar.

Delhi-based We Are One, a group of differently-abled dancers, performing Bharatnatyam at the recently-concluded Vysakhi Nrithyotsav organised by Nataraj Music and Dance Academy in Visakhapatnam.| Photo Credit: K Bhaskar Rao

A differently-abled dancer, Husnain faced several challenges to battle stereotypes for choosing dance as a profession and using a wheelchair. Working as a freelance dancer for many years, Husnain used to perform in functions in educational institutions. "But we never got the respect and recognition that we deserve," he says. In 2013, he started a dance school called Life's Success. But two years later, due to a crisis in his personal life, he had to close it.

Instead of getting bogged down by the challenges, Husnain channelised his passion to create an inclusive environment with WAO in 2016 for other differently-abled persons. There are abundantly talented people in India whose potential is undiscovered; simply because they do not conform to the traditional expectation of what an artiste should look like due to their disability, says Husnain. The group today has members from six years to 65 years of age, all differently-abled, who are being trained in dance and other aspects of dance production.

Founded with a team of six differently-abled persons; today the troupe has grown substantially and now has close to 95 performers. The groups choreographerGulshan also made it to the Guinness Book of World Records for performing the most number of manual stunts in a minute on a wheelchair. Specialising in Bharatanatyam, the WAO troupe is now undergoing training in the Lucknow gharana of Kathak.

Delhi-based We Are One, a group of differently-abled dancers, performing Bharatnatyam at the recently-concluded Vysakhi Nrithyotsav organised by Nataraj Music and Dance Academy in Visakhapatnam.| Photo Credit: K Bhaskar Rao

"Performing on a wheelchair for the past 15 years has made me realise that the view of the world is beautiful even from a wheelchair. Dance is a liberating expression for me and my wheelchair has become my asset. My motto is to work towards providing dignity, inclusion and equality for differently-abled dancers," says Husnain.

Any society will progress only when people with and without disabilities join hands together. For that we ensure that in every performance of ours, there is one dancer without disability. That is our way of passing the message of inclusivity," he adds.

Read the rest here:

Dance is a symbol of empowerment for this Delhi-based differently-abled Bharatnatyam dance troupe - The Hindu

By Tenzin Lekdhen

On March 29, during the recently concluded 17th Tibetan Parliament in Exile (TPiE)s budget session, female MPs stood up to male MPs who criticised what they saw as a futility of investments in the Womens Empowerment Program and raised their disconcertments on the governments budget allotment to Gender Equality by mentioning reservation of seats for female Chithues (MP) and the importance of Tibets collective cause trumping individuals right to basic humanity.

The heated exchange on the debate of gender equality and equity that took place in the parliament is a common sight in democratic states and institutions, and is indicative of a healthy democracy. Tenzin Tseten, Womens Empowerment Programs project officer, recognising the importance of discussions surrounding these issues told Phayul that [she] welcomes the discussions and the differential views that came up, and views it as a sign of a healthy democratic process. Gender equality is a fundamental right and a core value of a democratic society. Dialogues and conversation around these topics are vital for its realisation.

But what doesnt seem healthy in a democracy is when lawmakers turn a blind eye against survivors of sexual assaults, rape and domestic abuses who are largely female, and claim our society is egalitarian, thus renouncing the need for gender equality. In a 2019 survey titled Sexual Abuse Against Students, conducted in Tibetan schools by Drokmo, a Dharmashala based NGO working on gender equality, found that 151 out of 401 (38%) respondents had faced sexual violence. 51% of the 151 respondents were female and 23% were male.

The report also uncovered that out of 95 respondents, 22 % faced molestation, 7 % admitted to being raped, 7% said that they were denied the right to use protection or contraceptives, 6% admitted to being sexually harassed, 4% faced unwanted sexual advances, 3 % said that they faced sexual abuse, 2 % said that they had to undergo forced abortion, 1 % was forced into prostitution.

But according to Geshe Lobsang Phende, Chithue from Gelug sect, against the sapient advice of the The Four Immeasurables these individual issues (referring to gender equality) cast a shadow over the larger collective struggle for Tibet. He said, People seem to be forgetting the Tibet issue. Our struggle is for the rights and freedom of the Tibetan people, not for cunning individuals wishes. Drokmos survey regarding sexual assaults were carried out in Tibetan schools where the students are Tibetan, whose rights and freedom were infringed by perpetrators.

The Genesis

The bickering began with Chithue Dawa Phunkyis remarks on Gender Equality and Women Empowerment, which functioned as a preface to his main concern: reservation seats for females in the parliament. In his prefacing remarks, he tells an anecdote, In our society, men tend to smoke more than females. Hence, when it is commented, out of concern and assuming that women are generally more well mannered, that the number of women who smoke is increasing, the response one often gets is, that is our right. Gender Equality. By narrating this specific anecdote in the context of Womens Empowerment and Gender Equality, he reduces, rather consciously, a pressing and important issue down to cigarette smoking an unanimously bad habit and sets the groundwork for whats yet to come of his criticism. But not before a euphemistic support for women who makes half the population and a profession of concern about the misuse of Women Empowerment and Gender equality, referencing the anecdotes he told.

Continuing, Chithue Dawa Phunkyi gets to his main concern, the reservation of seats for female Chitue candidates. He rhetorically established that our society is egalitarian and questioned the idea of reservation seats allotted for Women, asking, is it thong chung insult or khe phan advantage for the women?. He then calls for a revision of the exile Charter saying, if women are equal and capable, if we can clear this, I think it will be beneficial.

His speech is structured in a way that portrays two contradictory remarks on Gender Equality. A structure that George Orwell recognised as political language in his book Politics and the English Language. Wherein, he argues, that political language is used to defend the indefensible through what consists largely of euphemism, question-begging and sheer cloudy vagueness.

Dawa Phunkyi, by employing these political rhetorics, manages to achieve two things. One, he is able to paint himself as a caring individual who is concerned about young women smoking cigarettes. Second, he manages to reduce the complex issues of women empowerment and gender equality down to the act of smoking. The juxtaposition of the two renders his professed concern and himself as good and the other, a collective issue of equality and empowerment, as bad by likening and lessening it to an obnoxious young woman smoking a cigarette that talks back to elders.

He tried to portray two negatives which was smoking and speaking rudely; a behaviour which could be exhibited by either gender but used it to misrepresent and misinform the public on issues concerning gender equality, Tenzin Pelyoun, cofounder of Drokmo, told Phayul.

She adds, Narrating an incident of personal conduct and using that as a basis for discrediting an entire movement is a disservice to the cause of gender equality. As a representative of the public, he has a responsibility to make informed comments and not base his judgements on his own biases and limited data. Tenzin Pelyoun was one of the two women who wrote the aforementioned report titled Sexual Abuse Against Students.

Dawa Phunkyis attempt to portray the diaspora as an egalitarian society was in order to ask for the revision of reserved seats for women because he was cognizant of the fact that reserved seats are usually allotted for marginalised communities within the larger populace. But one community, that is revered and respected, that is not marginalised and has hegemony over the shared religious beliefs are the religious institutions. Yet the religious sects still have 10 seats reserved, which, in the history of Tibetan Parliament in Exile, have failed to elect even one female MP. But Chithue Dawa Phunkyi chose the seats reserved for women as his target, to prove his allegiance to the all-powerful hegemony that lives in the all pervading ether.

More Criticisms

As said earlier by another colleague, Chitue Khenpo Kada said, there is a current trend in our society wherein in the name of gender equality, women feel the need to do whatever men do. I do not recognise this as gender equality. I can say on this stage that women cant do whatever men do. Hence, I do not endorse these workshops on gender equality.

Kada Ngedup Sonam, Chithue from the Sakya sect, denounced a notion of Gender Equality that is different from the one that the Womens Empowerment Program upholds (WED works to ensure that women and men participate in and benefit equally, and to address gender stereotypes, social attitudes, and sexual violence in our community.) But Kadas connotation of gender equality dwells on an equality of biological capabilities rather than the political equality that the charter grants to all individuals as equals under the law. Needless to say, biologically, there are things one sex can do that the other cant. Such misunderstanding of gender equality and the importance of womens empowerment are often addressed in WEDs gender sensitization workshops.

Chithue Youdon Aukatsang, right before the speaker would interrupt her, asked her colleagues to be careful of the opinions they raise in the sessions since they carry a certain weight.

MP Lobsang Phenday, for whom the speaker interjected Aukatsang, said there seems to be a collective lack of awareness about the Tibet issue. But when it comes to gender equality and youth empowerment, there are some Machevallian individuals. Our struggle is for the rights and freedom of the Tibetan people and not for sly individuals wishes. Here, Chithue Phenday seems to have forgotten that the domestically abused mother seeking help, the young woman finding it hard to pay for law school to study human rights law, and the girl who was groped at the club are all Tibetan. Phenday, who has a Lharampa degree, misses the point that struggles can be overlapping and seems to establish that the collective cause be placed before individuals rights to basic humanity. Such misplacement of importance risks alienating the people it asks to participate and seeks to emancipate.

In the Buddhist teaching of The Four Immeasurables, one of the lines read, May [all living beings] be free of suffering and the cause of suffering. But if one employs the logic that Geshe Lharampa used, this prayer should be redundant since all beings in the six realms ultimately seek enlightenment. Struggles and movements can overlap and many are overlapping, but to disregard movements based on their scale and magnitude, in a democracy, is to ignore the iceberg to never reach the promised land.

If a community is to develop and reach its potential, all its members need to move forward together, Tseten, WEDs project officer, told Phayul. Women and Gender issues are cross-cutting and are related to all aspects of development.

Standing Up for Your Rights

Aukatsang would take the mic again to finish her statement against the criticisms of the three male Chitues whom the speaker for some reason did not interject, only to be sat down again and followed by Dawa Phunkyi to clear that his statement was in no way an insult to women. Aukatsang taking the mic again accused the speaker of being partial against views that he does not agree with and asked the speaker to be just in his orchestration of the parliament. Aukatsang was sat down and interjected three times whilst none of the three male Chithues who criticised Womens Empowerment Program and expressed their views on gender equality were interrupted. Aukatsang would get the chance to finish her speech uninterrupted but only after MP Dorjee Tseten addressed the speaker to be impartial in his allocation of speaking time.

Finally getting to voice her opinion without interruptions, Aukatsang said, we cannot judge [womens behaviour] by the standards of our traditions and culture alone. We have to move along with the times. She also asked Sikyong Penpa Tsering whether the Womens Empowerment Program was listed solely per the requirements for the funds provided by the United States. Sikyong in the earlier session said that such programs were required by the USAID. He followed it by a chain of vague remarks about the large number of posters denouncing domestic abuse and sexual assaults around CTAs compound.

The Domino Falls

Chithue Tenzin Choezin, who took the stage after Youdon Aukatsang, seemed shocked by the unusual magnitude of resistance against the budget that totals to 55 lakhs. The 55 lakhs proposed and granted makes up around 2.6% of the budget related to administrative expenses and 0.2% of the total budget which is estimated at 2.5 Billion INR. The shock, disappointment, and sadness evident from her expression comes not from being the latest Chithue, nor from being the youngest, but rather from experience. Taking a deep breath, gathering herself, she reads out a statement from the UNs Human Rights Council, All human beings are born equal with dignity and rights. But whether everyone is treated as such in our community is doubtful.

I have worked with at-risk young people and women who have been abused. There is a reason that many of these cases are hard to come out. One such example is the very things said in the parliament. Which makes it hard to talk about such things in the public sphere. Drokmos research found that only6% of survivors told the authorities after they were assaulted it was the least selected option. School authorities and institutions often tend to keep the matters inside and not take appropriate actions against sexual perpetrators.

Chithue Namgyal Dolkar commended the work of the Womens Empowerment Desk and highlighted that gender equality is not restricted to women. That gender based violence and stereotypes are faced by both the sexes. She said, gender equality does not ask for more equality. I request my colleagues to attend these workshops that WED organises. She further asked the CTA to recognise sexual abuses and assaults as the crime that they are and to stand in solidarity with victims.

Chithue Phenday, taking the mic, doubled down on his earlier point and insisted that the parliament in exile is for Tibetans inside and outside Tibet, and not for the exile Tibetans. What he implies is that the Tibet Issue should be the ultimate priority and other injustices are trivial if they do not contribute to the collective struggle. What he fails to understand is that the struggle for Tibet and the injustices faced by individuals in their daily lives are not mutually exclusive. But they are rather cross-cutting as WEDs Tseten said. For a woman who has to constantly worry every evening about her abusive drunk husband coming home, it is hard to think of the larger struggle. For a young women forced into sex work, it is hard to imagine about the collective struggle of the community who oustedand shamed her. Trivialising injustices because they arent related to the collective struggle only succeeds in alienating the people who are an integral part of the larger movement. Ms. Tseten on the importance of intersectionality said, programs on Women empowerment and gender equality are crucial for the development of the community and it needs the participation of all stakeholders of the community to work together to make the change happen.

Geshe Phenday in his criticisms, however, did make a valid point about the failure of women and women empowerment organisations to recognise and protest against China when a Tibetan woman was burned alive by her Chinese spouse live on social media. This important point could have been used to call for a collective approach to our struggle against Chinas colonisation, but he succumbs to the temptation of deploying it for and against the hill he stood on. This gullible temptation is not restricted to the reactionaries, but also plagues the intersectionalist feminist movement. The moral landscape has a terrain that has multiple peaks. For one to die on one hill and the other on another, only solitude awaits, not solidarity.

The Tibetan struggle against China and Womens Empowerment are not mutually exclusive but rather profoundly layered. It is only by understanding both that we can respect the rights of the individuals and at the same time strengthen our fight against colonialism. To fight for Tibets freedom is also to fight for the individual rights of Tibetans. The two facets are one. The one is the fight against injustice.

The author is a recipient of the Pestalozzi Scholarship. He studied Mathematics and Physics before changing his course to Philosophy. He currently interns at Phayul.

Original post:

Opinion: Women's Empowerment is a touchy topic, even in the Parliament - Phayul

Vancouver Island Universityssuluqwa Community Cousins Aboriginal student mentorship programcelebrated its 10thanniversary in September 2021. In honour of this important milestone, we are sharing stories of people closely connected with the program every month.

The suluqwa Community Cousins program builds capacity for mentors to gain leadership and employability skills through outreach and mentoring activities. Students hone skills in self-awareness, communication, leadership, self-care and an exploration of personal values, with an emphasis on telling ones story as a path to self-empowerment through outreach to others.

Sylvia Scow has watched more than a hundred students gain confidence and connect with their culture in a deeper way through the suluqwa Community Cousins program.

Ive watched students who have gone from being hesitant about using their traditional language or doing their protocol when they are first starting out to being able to stand up in front of lots of people to tell their stories, she says. There are no words to describe what that moment is like. Watching them standing proud in their truth, hearing their voice and knowing they are valued; I dont really have the words to describe it.

Sylvia, from Liidlii Kue (Fort Simpson) in the Northwest Territories, is currently working as the Office of Indigenous Education and Engagements Interim Director. She founded the Community Cousins program in 2011 when the office received funding through the Counselling Foundation of Canada to start a mentorship program specifically for Indigenous students.

When I think of my own journey, when we first started, I was intimidated because I had somebody elses vision and I wasnt sure how I was going to make it my own, I wasnt sure how I was going to help provide that space for students to feel loved within the institution, she remembers.

From the beginning, VIU Elder-in-Residence Gary Manson was involved. Because it was initially based on a training program intended for all students, not just Indigenous students, Sylvia and Gary began reviewing and shifting the programming over time so that it reflected an Indigenous lens on mentorship.

We reviewed the training and cut out what we thought was not relevant, added more protocol and education on the importance of protocol, how and why we acknowledge territory, more land-based activities, she remembers. We asked the students who their Indigenous mentors were and why, encouraged students to take pride in telling the story of who they are and where they come from.

An addition in recent years is holding regular thuy thuts, which translates to fixing up an opportunity for students to check in with each other and share challenges and issues. Its a chance to have honest conversations and practice gratitude.

It gives them a connection to culture, the Elders, that Indigenous way of being versus the academic. We are here in the academic world, but all the things we bring as Indigenous people, we dont leave that at home its a way of balancing both, explains Sylvia. We want you to continue to embrace that piece of your identity and that theres no expectation that you have to choose one or the other.

The program started off with six mentors at first; at any one time, 35-40 students are involved in any given year, and Sylvia has watched more than 100 go through the program now. Many of them stay in touch and return for events.

When the students are together, theyre part of a family, says Sylvia. After the training, we give them a hoodie and that hoodie is recognized throughout the campus and even in community. Its a symbol of that connection, of being part of a bigger family.

Each year, the Cousins participate in a fall giving back activity, such as handing out self-care packages to Elders or younger students. Then in the spring the group organizes the Celebration of Learning, where high school students are invited to come to campus to listen to the mentors stories about how accessing post-secondary education has changed their lives. In the summer, the Cousins organize Thuyshenum Tu Smuneem: Building a foundation for our Youth summer camps, which provide a first introduction to VIU programming to high school students as well as opportunities to participate in protocol and land-based learning.

These events get students from all levels of mentorship involved in activities that promote Indigenous leadership. The squleeq are the younger brothers and sisters, who get introduced to the program through events like the summer camp and the Celebration of Learning. Some of these students go on to form their own mentorship programs, such as Jaime Coukell. The suluqwa are current VIU students, and the shush uyuth are older brothers and sisters students who have graduated and moved into the workforce. Sylvia sees these students playing an important role in showing the squleeq and suluqwaa how their education can be used.

One of Sylvias favourite memories is when VIU formed a unique mentorship exchange program with Pitzer College in Claremont, California, funded by the100,000 Strong in the Americas Initiative, an education project to increase the number of US students studying in the Western Hemisphere by 100,000, and the number of Western Hemisphere students studying in the US to 100,000 by 2020.

The partnership shared cultural knowledge and key educational initiatives VIU incorporated elements of Pitzers Native Youth to College summer program for Indigenous high school students into the summer camps organized here, and Pitzer is using parts of VIUs Indigenous Knowledge and Portfolio Dialogue Sessions in programming. VIU and Pitzer students travelled back and forth during the exchange.

It was such a great opportunity for our students to not only step into leadership roles, but also broaden their experiences, remembers Sylvia. They had the chance to see a different way of doing things and experience the world beyond VIU.

When Sylvia thinks about next steps for the program, she sees opportunities for growth, mentorship and leadership discussion.

I envision a safe place for Indigenous student to belong and see themselves reflected in the post-secondary system. I see truth telling and an opportunity to have family that will support and encourage the journey.

Continue reading here:

Helping students gain confidence and connect with culture - Vancouver Island University News

CHICAGO, April 07, 2022 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- More than 45 million consumers are considered to be either credit unservedi or underservedii in the United States, according to a new global TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) study Empowering Credit Inclusion: A Deeper Perspective on Credit Underserved and Unserved Consumers.” However, the study found that about one in four consumers (24%) who started as credit underserved were found to have migrated to becoming credit active in a two-year window prior to the pandemic. During the height of the pandemic, the percentage of consumers becoming more credit active decreased slightly to 22%, with the profile of those consumers skewing younger than the pre-pandemic sample.

In addition to the United States, the TransUnion global study observed consumer credit behavior in Canada, Colombia, Hong Kong, India and South Africa, to get a better sense of the market size of these unserved and underserved consumer segments.

Our study clearly points to hundreds of millions of consumers around the globe being credit unserved or underserved,” said Charlie Wise, senior vice president and global head of research and consulting at TransUnion. These credit disadvantaged consumers are often unable to access financial products and services because they have no, or little, credit history. This study served to better understand how many people are truly under- or unserved from a credit perspective, while also determining paths for them to gain more credit opportunities.”

The study explored the characteristics and behaviors of credit unserved and underserved consumers and their overall sentiments towards credit, while offering key insights into the credit journeys of these consumers. Unserved consumers are defined as any person who has never had an open traditional credit product (such as a credit card, personal loan, or auto loan, to name a few) as reported on the TransUnion consumer credit database. The underserved population has minimal credit participation, limited to a single type of credit product and no more than two open accounts of that type, and have been active in the credit market for at least two years.

This study specifically excluded new-to-credit consumers those who have opened their first product within the past two years from the underserved population, as many of those new-to-credit consumers become more fully credit active soon after opening their first product. The study sought to understand those consumers who remain unserved or underserved over a longer time period.

Two cohorts of consumers were studied, each over a two-year time period the first during the pre-pandemic period beginning March 2018 through March 2020, and the second beginning in June 2019 and studied through the pandemic time period of June 2021, to determine if there were any pandemic-related shifts with consumer credit migration trends.

Global Market Sizing of the Credit Unserved and Underserved Populations

United States

8.1M

3

%

37M

14

%

Canada

2.1M

7

%

7.5M

24

%

Colombia

16.3M

44

%

7.1M

19

%

Hong Kong

1.0M

16

%

1.8M

28

%

India

571M

63

%

170M

19

%

South Africa

20.6M

51

%

5.96M

15

%

While some unserved (also called credit inactive) consumers may have traditional credit scores when they open their first credit product, many do not. This lack of a credit score and any history of credit activity is an impediment for these unserved consumers to get their first credit product, as many lenders are hesitant to extend credit to consumers without any credit history or score. For these traditionally unscorable consumers, they face a chicken or egg” conundrum of how to get that first credit product when they lack a credit history.

This reality underscores the importance of incorporating alternative data into the financial ecosystem so that fewer consumers find themselves as credit invisible. Once these consumers can be evaluated by financial institutions, lenders can better determine where there might be new opportunities for growth and how they can expand credit inclusion,” said Wise.

For more information and to learn more, please sign up for the webinar "Addressing Credit Needs of Underserved Consumers."

Once U.S. Underserved Consumers Become Credit Served, They are Likely to Apply for More Credit

Every year, a portion of the underserved consumer population those with minimal credit activity become more fully credit active by opening additional credit products, while many still remain in that underserved segment. To better understand how underserved consumers transitioned to becoming more fully credit active, the study looked at which credit products consumers had opened within the two-year period. For the purpose of the study, underserved consumers transitioned to served if they opened additional product types over the two-year study period for example, when a previous credit card only consumer also opens an auto loan.

The most common first credit products held by underserved consumers in the United States were credit cards (44%), which was seen to an even greater degree in the Canadian market (84%). This mirrors broader trends that TransUnion has observed in these developed countries, where credit cards are the most common first product for consumers entering the credit market. This varied by country; however, as the study found that in emerging markets like Colombia, India and South Africa, the product types most commonly held by underserved consumers were microcredit, agricultural loans and clothing loans, respectively. In the United States, 90% of underserved consumers that migrated to credit served within the two-year period did so by opening a second product type. The most commonly opened second product types were credit card, private label cards and auto loans.

The study also found that consumers who migrated from underserved to served (opened at least one new product type) over the two-year period had more inquiries applications for new credit than consumers who remained underserved. While some of that higher inquiry activity was attributable to the fact that they opened new accounts, the overall higher level of inquiry activity by those consumers who migrated to the served segment implies that these consumers have a significantly higher demand for new credit, and that this demand is not necessarily being met by lenders.

The number of new credit inquiries were materially higher for consumers that migrated to served compared to consumers who remained underserved. These consumers appear to want more credit, but they are not necessarily able to access the credit they want, potentially due to their limited credit history. This highlights a missed opportunity for lenders who are seeking to grow and add new customers. Many of these underserved consumers would likely be well-performing and profitable borrowers, but because of their limited credit history, lenders are reluctant to extend them credit. Incorporating alternative data on consumers into lending decisions could enable lenders to get a fuller picture of the financial capacity of underserved consumers and make credit available to more of them,” added Wise.

Unserved or Underserved? Survey Confirms Varying Levels of Credit Satisfaction

TransUnion also commissioned an online global surveyiii of nearly 11,100 adults (ages 18 years and older) to gather sentiment from unserved and underserved consumers on the topic of credit. These countries studied included the United States, Brazil, Canada, Colombia, the Dominican Republic, and the Philippines. The findings revealed consumer beliefs, attitudes and experiences with credit that may be influencing current and future behaviors.

Depending upon the country, respondents cited they are interested in applying for more credit in 2022 to varying degrees. In the United States, for example, only 29% of unserved consumers those without any credit product plan on applying for credit, compared to 46% of underserved consumers. The reason for this differentiation may be due to the fact that it is typically easier for underserved consumers, who generally have at least one credit account, to secure credit than consumers who are completely credit inactive.

When comparing the consumer sentiment of unserved consumers with underserved consumers, there tends to be a pronounced difference in the level of satisfaction with their current amount of credit. In the U.S., 60% of underserved consumers were satisfied or extremely satisfied with their current amount of credit, while only 35% of unserved consumers, those with no credit currently, had the same level of satisfaction. Additionally, 26% of unserved consumers were not satisfied at all with their level of credit, while only 6% of underserved consumers expressed dissatisfaction. This potentially speaks to differences in awareness of the potential uses and benefits of credit between those with some limited credit activity and those with no credit at all.

Promoting financial inclusion will start with gathering a better understanding of the different nuances between the unserved, underserved and served populations and what makes them tick. For example, what drives unserved consumers to apply for credit, and why underserved consumers may need a different credit product may vary greatly. As lenders are better able to meet the unique needs of these consumers and educate these unserved and underserved segments on ways they can build and improve their credit profiles, a larger percentage will become actively engaged in the credit system,” concluded Wise.

For more information and insights on the global TransUnion study, Empowering Credit Inclusion: A Deeper Perspective on Credit Underserved and Unserved Consumers,” please download the report.

About TransUnion (NYSE: TRU) TransUnion is a global information and insights company that makes trust possible in the modern economy. We do this by providing an actionable picture of each person so they can be reliably represented in the marketplace. As a result, businesses and consumers can transact with confidence and achieve great things. We call this Information for Good®.

A leading presence in more than 30 countries across five continents, TransUnion provides solutions that help create economic opportunity, great experiences and personal empowerment for hundreds of millions of people.

http://www.transunion.com/business

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i Unserved: Consumers that have never had an open traditional credit product, based on reported accounts on the TransUnion consumer credit database. To size the unserved, we started with the total adult population as reported by the United Nations. We then subtracted the underserved, new to credit, and served consumers. The remaining number is the unserved.

ii Underserved: Consumers with some, but limited, credit presence. Specifically, they have:

iii TransUnion’s online global survey included responses from 11,128 adults and was conducted between August 3, 2021 January 5, 2022 by TransUnion in partnership with third-party research provider Qualtrics® Research-Services.

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More than 45 Million Americans are Either Credit Unserved or Underserved; Approximately 20% Migrate to Being Credit Active Every Two Years -...

The Blueprint by MoCaFi is a personal finance app that helps aspiring wealth-builders improve their spending, budgeting, credit health, financial knowledge, and opportunities to access capital.

NEW YORK and ST. LOUIS, April 4, 2022 /PRNewswire/ -- Homeownership is the primary source of household and generational wealth for most Americans. Yet there is a disproportionate homeownership gap between Black and White Americans. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, in the fourth quarter of 2021, the homeownership rate of White households was 74.4%, while the homeownership rate in Black households was only 43.1%.

Mobility Capital Finance (MoCaFi), a fintech platform for economic empowerment, has partnered with FinLocker, a leading next-generation, consumer-permissioned financial fitness platform, to provide the Blueprint app to its underbanked and thin credit-file customers. The app empowers users with a complete view of their financial position including assets, liabilities, net worth, and credit profile. The Credit Compass by TransUnion integration allows users to simulate credit building tactics and the Housing Calculators help estimate mortgage affordability, interest rates, and local housing values. Users can store essential financial documents like tax returns, financial statements, and paystubs in the app for easy sharing with trusted financial advisors and lenders in the MoCaFi partner network.

"We are pleased to partner with leading institutions like FinLocker and TransUnion to present the Blueprint by MoCaFi app, a tool that furthers our mission to close the wealth gap," said Wole Coaxum, Founder and CEO of MoCaFi. "Through our partnership, we will empower customers with the financial tools and educational resources to improve consumers' financial literacy and prepare them to qualify for a mortgage. As a result, we are giving all Americans an opportunity to achieve the dream of homeownership."

Consumers will use the MoCaFi personal financial well-being app to build credit, connect their MoCaFi bank account to manage their finances, reduce debt, create budgets and goals to save for their down payment and closing costs, and track their progress towards mortgage readiness. More information and sign-up are available at http://www.theblueprintapp.com.

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MoCaFi is partnering with leading mortgage lenders to provide first-time home mortgage assistance to eligible Blueprint by MoCaFi customers. After closing on their home, the new homeowners can continue to use the app to monitor their home's value and equity and maintain their credit and positive financial habits to become successful homeowners.

"FinLocker is committed to providing a financially inclusive way for more Americans to improve their credit eligibility and build personal and generational wealth through homeownership," said Brian Vieaux, President and COO, FinLocker. "FinLocker and TransUnion's partnership with MoCaFi aims to address the disparity in wealth and access to financial services of underserved consumers with the convenience of a mobile app that will guide them on a personalized path to become successful homeowners. MoCaFi customers can use the tools and educational resources to show them how to responsibly build credit, improve their finances and track their progress towards mortgage readiness so they will know when they can qualify for a mortgage."

TransUnion has an ongoing commitment to supporting financial inclusion initiatives. Through the partnership with FinLocker, consumers are empowered to collect and permission the financial information and documentation needed over the course of the home buying process. As a result, underserved consumers whom the mortgage industry may have traditionally overlooked will have better access to tools that will help them navigate the process of securing a mortgage. MoCaFi was connected to FinLocker through their relationship with TransUnion.

"Homeownership is a key step to building generational wealth but there are many consumers within underserved communities that may not realize they can qualify for a mortgage," said Joe Mellman, senior vice president and mortgage business leader at TransUnion. "By providing more transparency around the conditions typically required by loan originators, better financial literacy on building credit and offering access to tools that share greater insight into individual mortgage readiness, together we can better assist more consumers on their path to successfully buying a home."

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SOURCE MoCaFi

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MoCaFi Partners with FinLocker and TransUnion to Empower Black Americans to Build Credit and Wealth Through Homeownership - Yahoo Finance

Adeola Rachael Agbana is the CEO, Allured By Ruby Online Crafts Academy birthed to fill a skill gap amongst fashion creatives. Agbana is a graduate of Adeniran Ogunsanya College of Education, an alumnus of the Leading Ladies Business Institute (LLBI) and also an undergraduate of Psychology at the Lagos State University, Ojo. With a strong drive to impart knowledge, her creative skills, has enabled her train and mentor over 13,000 women through this platform. She is a fashionpreneur on a mission to provide women in Africa and beyond with millinery products and headwear training, help master the skill and transit them into generating sustainable income from their products, expertise and experience. In this interview with IJEOMA THOMAS-ODIA, she shares her passion for impacting women.

What inspired your passion for craft?CRAFT has always been innate for me. Though I didnt have the opportunity very early to express it, there came a time after marriage that I was bored and the only thing I could think of was to decorate the entire house with wall paintings and DIY interior decoration fittings.

Afterwards, I began making fabric flowers, bowties, lapel pins and hair ruffles. At some point, I wanted more and decided to try out headwear making by watching YouTube videos and taking foreign online courses.

At what point did you decide to set up the academy? I actually began with a Facebook group in 2019, where I usually post pictorial illustrations of how to make different types of headwears. As time progressed and the group membership rose to over 30,000 creatives, I began to get requests for tutorial videos, this was how I began the Allured by Ruby Headwear academy online via WhatsApp.

Due to increasing requests of some categories of people who preferred the physical learning option, setting up a physical academy became inevitable and this was realised in June 2020, shortly after the government lifted COVID-19 lockdown.

Are there experiences during your growing up years that influenced your decision to embrace craft? Growing up, I recall seeing women around me struggling to balance their time in paid jobs and family life. I disliked it and I knew from that time it wouldnt be a thing for me. Also, Ive always wanted to be an entrepreneur, working with my hands and being in control of my earnings and life generally.

What has been the impact of the academy so far? It has been good so far by the grace of God. In just a year, despite the harsh economic conditions, we have successfully graduated four batches and over 20 students. The online academy has been more impactful due to its ease of accessibility from anywhere in the world.

In an economy where white-collar jobs do not come by easily, how are you motivating women to embrace this craft? I have been a very strong advocate of women empowerment and wealth creation, so through the academy, we have been at the forefront of encouraging and inspiring women between the ages of 18 to 55 to take up interest in headwear making, because it enables them generate income right from the comfort of their homes with very little startup capital.

All you need to start is the skill acquisition, which we provide on many fronts via our free and paid classes physically and online at a very affordable fee. I also try as much as I can to reassure enthusiasts who want to consider the headwear making business that it has an appreciable profit margin if you are ready to put in the work and master the craft by constantly upgrading yourself.

How have you been able to combine work and running family, and how supportive have they been? The role a solid support system plays in the self-actualisation of your dreams, especially family women, cannot be over-emphasised. It has been one of the critical success factors that have brought me this far. My ability to combine business, running my family and a full time study has been solely because I have a very supportive spouse who is patient, understanding, and believes in my dreams and my vision as well.

A lot of women battle with combining family life and career, what is your advice to them? I strongly advice seeking the support of your spouse, because it plays a vital role in solidifying your support system, because without that in place, the journey will be a very stressful one. When starting out, I faced several challenges, but over time, I was able to learn effective time management and work-life balance strategies which led to putting together a very dedicated team of tutors, employing a personal assistant and a social media manager such that Im able to delegate certain critical tasks. So, my advice to women out there is to seek help early, learn to delegate because you alone cannot do everything.

Financial independence is one thing a lot of women still battle with, how would you encourage them to live above this? Attaining financial independence for most Nigerians is a near impossible task considering the high rate of poverty in the country. However, it is a feat worth trying to accomplish. Even if you are starting small, the important thing is to get started.

One of the paths I usually propose women pursue towards this is getting legitimate multiple streams of income and this is where headwear making comes in. It is craft that is both lucrative and scalable; you can generate money from several aspects of the business.

What is your life philosophy? Go hard or go home! It is one thing to desire something; it is also another thing to be willing to do what it takes to get it done. One of the reasons I have come this far is by not giving excuses even though sometimes they may be legitimate, I still choose to find a way around it because where there is a will, there is way.

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'I've been a strong advocate of women empowerment and wealth creation' - Guardian Nigeria

Is your company prepared for the long-lasting and far-reaching effects of The Great Resignation? The question was the opener in a mis-guided solicitation letter (I am not in HR) from a company selling Human Resource solutions: Better Workplaces, Better World.

A top story still very much in the headlines, The Great Resignation began when record numbers of employees quit their jobs while in the throes of the hellacious past year (the pandemic, gun violence, racial tensions, the wrath of mother nature, the brutal economy, the destruction of the planet, increased UFO sightings, and, and, and) in search of something else: living their best lives.

The latest research on this subject, released just last month, showed that some 4.5 million people voluntarily left jobs in November 2021 alone, which the Bureau of Labor Statistics called an all-time high. Since April 2021, nearly 33 million people have left jobs, amounting to more than one fifth of the total U.S. workforce.

What is interesting, besides the fact that our nation has finally begun to scrutinize the percentage of our lives given over to work for pay, is the list of reasons for this long-overdue reckoning. A recent report (Stillman, J. January 18, 2022. Top 5 Reasons People Are Quitting During the Great ResignationHint: None of Them is Pay), contends that the top reasons are based on employee feelings and emotion. Stillman found that the desire for higher pay did not even make the top five:

In addition, the lack of nonwage benefits, like work-related social events after hours, has caused employee loyalty and company culture to decline

In contrast to Americas traditional work till you drop ethic, many of the disillusioned are now lauding those idlers or minimalist colleagues who do the least amount of work needed to collect a paycheck. These neer-do-wells who were previously considered annoying at best, have become a kind of anti-hero. It is perhaps they who have had the right idea all along. Is it the personal and financial satisfaction we derive from giving all our energy to our jobs, or the pursuit and pleasure of our personal interests that matter most in a balanced and happy life?

Doreen Ford, who works for Reddit and monitors Anti-work social media pages, says: Everyone has had their limit with COVID, overwork, mortgages, rent payments, and so many things with capitalism. Theres nothing wrong with wanting to take a break from that and do less of it. Ford says she sees a major snub towards capitalism afoot.

While some blamed the rash of quittings on Generation Z known in general for their slower, less ambitious outlooks on life many quitters span the age and career-stage spectrum. Could the examples set by other forward-thinking countries (like in Europe) where the work-life balance is honored as an important aspect of personal happiness, finally be coming to America?

We are experiencing a moment of worker empowerment, says Anthony Klotz, the Texas A&M University professor and organizational psychologist who coined the phrase Great Resignation. Klotz predicts that around 23%, one-quarter of the American workforce, will seek new jobs in 2022. The tighter labor market is forcing companies of all kinds to offer employees more: higher salaries, better benefits, and flexible schedules/work locations.

A surprising side-effect of the pandemic for many workers was the freedom to work from anywhere, but especially from home. According to polls by ResumeBuilder.com, this flexibility is highly valued by workers, even more than higher pay. With remote work now offered as a perk of employment, the cursed commute to and from work could become obsolete.

As opportunists peddle would-be solutions to our beleaguered society, we must acknowledge that the sign of these times is change. In the solicitation letter (Better Workplaces, Better World), the HR company promised to ease the burden on employers to find new workers, and relieve the stress, anxiety and burnout (caused) by employee turnover. While acknowledging that todays workers want: new positions more aligned with their revised personal and professional needs.

Eternally relevant but especially today, Bob Dylan is still correct: the times are indeed a-changin. A progressive group in Congress very recently proposed a bill to change the standard work week from five days and 40 hours to four days and 32 hours.

Whether it happens sooner or later, it seems clear that big changes in our work culture are on the way. Hopefully the Great Resignation will finally usher in more authentic and evenly balanced life choices for us all.

Diane Skouti is a resident of Fresno and has a Masters degree in Higher Education Administration and Leadership from Fresno State. She works at San Joaquin College of Law as the Alumni Coordinator and is a freelance writer in her free time.

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BLOG: When it comes to the job market, the times are a-changin' - The Business Journal