The nonprofit group makes small loans to women in Chiapas, the poorest state of Mexico, located in the southeastern corner of Mexico near Guatemala.
The loans and an educational program serve as a business solution to alleviate poverty.
The chamber's International Business Council cited the Chiapas Project for raising the global awareness of North Texas as an international business center.
"The Dallas Regional Chamber applauds the leadership of the Chiapas Project for their commitment to civic involvement globally," said former Ambassador Jim Oberwetter, president of the Dallas Regional Chamber.
"We are delighted to recognize the organization's involvement in providing links between the North Texas region and the international world."
Billingsley called it a "tribute to Dallasites that we have so many people coming together to help our Latin American neighbors who live in poverty. We're giving them loans to pull themselves up by their bootstraps, and they are succeeding."
For more information about the Chiapas Project, visit www.chiapas-project.org.
$50,000 for refugees
The Dallas-based African Leadership and Reconciliation Ministries has been awarded a $50,000 grant from the Embrey Family Foundation to begin a Continuum of Care and Support program for African refugee women living in Dallas.
Lauren Embrey, president of the foundation, presented the check to Celestin Musekura, the agency's president and international director.
Musekura said that the African refugee program plans to develop a core of women mentors from within the refugee community who will help incoming refugees manage the challenges of acculturation. The program will provide a support system for the refugees as they heal from the trauma of war, genocide, rape and tribal conflict.
With the money from the Embrey Family Foundation, the African refugee program will begin to train a core group of mentors. Women selected for the program will receive a year of group and individual trauma counseling and support; intensive training in domestic conflict resolution, cultural adaptation, life skills, parenting and family law issues; and training in leadership and mentoring.
For more information, write to 13154 Coit Road, Suite 102, Dallas, Texas 75240; visit www.alarm-inc.org; or call 972-671-8522.
SOURCE: The Dallas Morning News
http://www.dallasnews.com/sharedcontent/dws/bus/columnists/rmiller/stories/DN-p2miller_24bus.ART.State.Edition1.3cf578e.html
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