Sarah Grant was a Peace Corps Volunteer in Zambia for over two and a half years, living in the rural villages and working with local farmers, the youth and women’s groups on development projects ranging from agro-forestry to  gender equality, small businesses and HIV/AIDS awareness. After returning to the US in late 2007, Sarah continued to think of the people and programs that she had left behind; without an agenda or job, she flew back to Zambia for 3 months to visit her village and figure out what more she could do.

Back in the US, Sarah began with the goal of raising a small amount of money to build a schoolhouse for the community school pictured left where she had worked. Realizing that investing money in a structure would not do enough to address the real needs of the people – that they would inevitably continue to ask for more and would not be equipped to meet their own needs – Sarah collaborated with a few colleagues who had worked in Zambia, Ned Baker and Edmee Knight, and decided to found a non-profit that addressed the goal of empowering individuals with the tools and skills that they needed to build their own future, rather than rely on the crutch of outside aid. CMI would work with loans granted for small business development, encouraging communities to stimulate their own local economy and generate the resources needed to sustainably address their own needs.
Please Check out Sarah’s work today at http://www.colormein.org