You may recall that a few years ago I had the idea to start a national meeting turn for Barbados. Needless to say it did not materialize then, but; it was not because of the lack of trying. I came to Barbados and had several meetings with one of the Credit Unions, the others never responded. In the end it was pushed under the carpet. No one wanted to change the status quo.

At that time I presented my proposal to the Financial Service Commission and the outcome was that they would not monitor such an establishment so that was approval enough to start the national meeting turn but it could not start without a financial institution to hold the funds.

Fast forward to today and I have a community of about 258 persons in the US and we have now started an automated platform on which we intend to grow physically. Our growth now is not only limited to automation but to legal status. We are currently in the process of becoming an International Nonprofit. This status will open many opportunities for us. Not only will we be a legal entity in the US but we will be able to operate internationally as well.

This is where Barbados and by extension the rest of the world comes in. We can now offer our nonprofit service to Barbadians. As a crowdfunding community our mission is twofold.

1. To focus on the creation of family businesses but individual efforts are also welcomed.
2. We will also be using contributions from the platform to invest as a community both in Barbados and the US. This can be in real estate, a restaurant, a store, in agriculture or as importing merchants.
3. We also intend to be a source of generational wealth.

The bottom line is that the sky will be the limit if we become an entity in which the general public has confidence. The focus in the US is to assist black and brown communities. In Barbados the plan is to have the crowdfunding platform serve the middle and working class.

We will be having a launch for the new entity Phoenix Crowdfunding International on April 15^th, 2021. The launch will be held via zoom and I will share the link. All are invited to attend to, hear how the system will work and have their queries answered and sign up.

There is not much that the average Barbadian can do alone but we can do great things together; the most important of which is to pursue economic empowerment. There is no time like the present to change our destiny.