Greetings all, By way of an introduction I hope I may describe the work we've been doing in Eastern Europe. 12 years ago, my colleague pitched a white paper at the US White House. It called for a radical new approach to tackle poverty and its consequences, warning that the very act of leaving a world in poverty would return as a threat to our own existence. He then took the concept to Russia, leveraged a microfinance bank and demonstrated that with the appropriate development model women borrowers would exceed men by a factor of 4:1 with no gender exclusion. He first became involved in Ukraine in 2002, with me then as a supporter. Since 2004 our work has been funded from the UK where we apply our own model, defined in the white paper as a profit for social purpose strategy. By October 2006 research completed, we delivered a strategic plan to Ukraine's government and the US Senate, the primary objective being to remove Ukraine's institutionalised children from potential harm. In this country, it is widely know that between 60-70% of children rendered to institutions, 90% of whom have living family, are expected to graduate to a life of street crime, drugs and prostitution.

A Marshall Plan for Ukraine