Posted by Helen on: 09.25.2006 /
I first heard about microfinance when I visited Dave Richard’s blog: Defeating Global Poverty. (Dave will be leading a workshop about microfinance at our upcoming conference). Then Jim posted about my favorite microfinance last month.
I’d been meaning to do what Jim did since I read his blog entry, i.e. place a loan contribution with kiva. Last week I finally got around to it. One of the neatest things about it was, I had talked with my husband about it in front of my children and my daughter had said “Can I help choose which person we loan money to?”
So I sat down with my daughter last week and we looked through the list of people on kiva’s site who needed loans. We chose someone. This person still needed most of her loan. We’re hoping that we can make loan contributions through kiva at regular intervals. My daughter said “If she still needs money next time, can we give her more?”
I checked the site a day or two later and was surprised to see that others had made loan contributions to her already since we had.
On Saturday I said to my daughter “Let’s see how her loan is going” and she enthusiastically agreed. By then her loan was almost completely funded. My daughter said “Can we give her the rest now?” I said again “We’ll give her more next time, if she still needs money”. In fact her loan was fully funded by the end of the day, which my daughter and I were both pleased to see.
I love that we made a loan to a particular person and we’ll hear back about how she’s doing.
And I love that my daughter is excited about this.
Comment by: Rachel
1 09/25/06 8:10 AM | Comment Link |That’s awesome, Helen! I attended Dave Richard’s microfinance workshop at OTM last year and I was completely sold on the idea. I walked out of there really excited and have told lots of people about microfinance. Dave also gave us a powerful 14-minute DVD that I have shown to several people in my life. BTW, 2006 was declared the “Year of Microfinance” by the United Nations.
We have been able to give for a small business loan through World Vision. Their program is also targeted at women, as are most microloan programs. My daughter got very excited about it as well. I love the fact that the money is repaid and then reloaned over and over again. I can’t think of a better investment than to loan money to these intelligent, resourceful women who are already working so hard and just need a little financial backing to be able to transform their family’s future!
Comment by: jim
2 09/25/06 8:20 AM | Comment Link |I agree - it is very well deserved
Comment by: Helen
3 09/25/06 9:28 AM | Comment Link |I told Rev Lueking about us getting interested in microfinance when I saw him last week and he said “I teach courses for overseas staff of these three microfinance organizations: Opportunity International, World Vision and Habitat for Humanity”.
Comment by: Paul
4 09/25/06 11:20 AM | Comment Link |wow now that is awesome… not to mention one of the best uses of the web I have seen…
hmmm now i will have to go and put my my money where my heart is…
thanks Helen for the heads up!!!
Comment by: Jule Marie
5 09/25/06 12:53 PM | Comment Link |Great idea to involve your child in the research and decision making, Helen! It really helps achieve perspective regarding our disappointments in and with America to see that a mere $1000 can make a substantial, maybe even critical, difference in a familys future.
I like the microfinance idea for a number of reasons, not the least of which the recipient of the loan has a stake in the outcome.
Comment by: jim
6 09/25/06 1:36 PM | Comment Link |I like knowing that $500 can give a buthcher a leg up on the competition in Africa.
I really like how simple it is to give and think that a lot of kids could participate in this as well
Comment by: Tim
7 10/4/06 10:57 PM | Comment Link |Hi Helen,
Thanks for sharing about your microfinance loan! It’s truly amazing how a small contribution (in the eyes of our affluent society) can make such a big difference in someone else’s life! It’s encouraging to see that you’re connected with such a great, like-minded community. Thanks also for mentioning Kiva. Raising the awareness of this initiative is one of the key ingredients in making it effective, and hopefully to one day eradicate poverty. If you are interested, you could prolong the shelf life of Kiva’s message by placing a permanent link or small banner on your site. Easy to apply code is available at Kiva.org. Thanks again for your support!
Tim (volunteer with Kiva.org)
Comment by: Helen
8 10/5/06 1:05 PM | Comment Link |Thanks Tim. Thank you for your suggestion. We think very highly of kiva and we appreciate what you’re doing to help eradicate poverty worldwide.
Comment by: Eliza
9 10/14/06 9:08 AM | Comment Link |Muhammad Yunus, a Bangladeshi economist who came up with the idea of microfinance and founded Grameen Bank (slogan: “Banking for the Poor”) to carry out microfinance, has won the Nobel Peace Prize!
Our paper carried two nice articles this morning. One quote in each stood out for me; each is from Bill Clapp, co-founder of Seattle-based Global Partnerships, a microfinance group which has worked with Grameen in Central America.
(1) From the article authored by Carol Ostrom of the Seattle Times: “Like many in this field, Clapp was inspired by Yunus. ‘He is absolutely bedrock in his belief that poverty does not have to exist,‘ Clapp says. ‘And when you fel like it’s complicated, he makes it simple again.‘”
(2) From the article authored by Paul Watson and Nural Alam from the Los Angeles Times, “‘I’ve always said [Yunus is] the closest I will ever come to meeting Gandhi - he’s simply unmoved by any obstacle or any argument,‘ said Bill Clapp…”
Sounds like an amazing person! One of the article says that worldwide more than 92 million poor people, most of them women, have taken out microfinance loans, as small as $20.
Comment by: Helen
10 10/14/06 9:56 AM | Comment Link |My husband saw that too, about Muhammad Yunus winning the Nobel prize! He (my husband) forwarded me an article about it.
So, Muhammad Yunus is going to use the prize money to help the poor