April 04, 2007
With the world's ever growing globalization, local communities big and small are increasingly affected by the greater world around them. A new program announced today by MetroGuide.com, Inc. and The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World will help create the opposite effect -- turning what's going on in people's local communities into a positive impact on other communities worldwide.
Scott Rogers, president of MetroGuide.com, Inc. and Cristi Hegranes, president and founder of the Press Institute for Women in the Developing World, have teamed up in an innovative way to translate activity in MetroGuide's online communities into increased donations to the international charity. MetroGuide will allow its members to redeem the company's rewards points, known as "MetroPoints," for donations to the Press Institute.
MetroGuide members receive MetroPoints for writing about their local communities, primarily in the U.S.A. Eligible activities include writing a restaurant review, posting a news item or answering another member's question. Members who earn points have been able to redeem them for gift cards and other material items in MetroGuide's "MetroRewards" program. The new program adds a reward that is based instead on helping others.
"The expansion of the MetroRewards program to allow for charitable donations to the Press Institute brings together the global and local," observed Rogers.
The Press Institute is an empowering tool that brings voice, strength and light to issues that are hidden and people who are oppressed around the world. With the program, people who are expressing themselves about community issues in one country now can have a beneficial impact on the ability of people in other countries to express themselves, too. The Institute, which currently operates in Mexico and Nepal, trains women in developing countries to serve as reporters in their own communities, covering issues of HIV/AIDS, violence against women, poverty, reproductive rights, political oppression and community development.
"We are so pleased that MetroGuide.com has chosen to include The Press Institute in its new charity initiative. MetroGuide.com has created an important community network and we are thrilled that soon the MetroGuide.Community will become more familiar with the mission and activities of The Press Institute," said Cristi Hegranes, founder of The Press Institute.
For more information about the partnership, MetroGuide.com, or The Press Institute for Women in the Developing World, please contact Scott Rogers, scott.rogers@metroguide.com, or Cristi Hegranes, Cristi@piwdw.org.
Incorporated in Florida in 1996, privately held MetroGuide.com, Inc. operates a combination of a social network and local search system representing over 300 cities nationwide. For more information visit MetroGuide-Inc.com or contact Scott Rogers at (954) 981-5850.