Microfinance: Personal Investment in the World
Posted by Anne McCrady
A Bangladeshi man visits a simple village of mostly poor women and their children. They tell him how desperate they are to get loans so that they can start small businesses selling goods or providing services. When he asks how much they need, he is shocked to find out most of them need just a few dollars. Seeing an opportunity for a solution, he takes money from his own pocket, gives some to each woman, asks that they pay him back as they can and encourages them to follow their dreams. Overjoyed, the women begin their work and within a while all of them are able to repay the man. He can then make new loans.
That is, in fact, a true story! It is the story of Muhammad Yunus, who won the Nobel Peace Prize last year. After his experience in that first village, he repeated his offerings again and again. Before long, the Grameen Bank was born. Mr. Yunus empowered thousands of women and invented micro-finance, an idea that is sweeping the globe.
After reading all about Mr. Yunus last year and sharing his story with people over the past few months, I wanted to know more about microfinance.
I even began to want to join this very populist endeavor. Searching the web, I found a review of an non-profit organization called Kiva at the Knowledge Allianz website. Kiva, it said, connected open-hearted lenders with those who needed small loans.
It sounded great, so I went to the Kiva website and joined! The result is that I now have made three micro-loans: one to a woman who needs to repair her home, one to a woman with a fledgling beauty salon in Mexico and another woman in Africa who has started a retail operation. Each loan has its own term, but most are justa few months.
The loans are, so far, no interest offerings, so I am not going to get rich quick from these financial endeavors, but already I feel good about reaching out to struggling entreprenuerial women around the globe.
Kiva has been called the ebay of microfinance because it so readily facilitates the sharing of “wealth” by ordinary individuals. If you want to become a part of the global financial village, go to the Kiva website or one of many like it. Each person who has requested a loan is profiled, along with the amount they need (mostly in the hundreds of dollars). You can pick who to support and how much to share.
Try it out! If you’ve got a paypal or credit card account and $25 to spare, you’re ready to get started empowering the world! Who knows, maybe one day we can circumvent all high interest lenders and just invest in each other!
It’s definitely InSpiritry in Action.
In Just a Few Keystrokes, You Can Be A Blessing!
Subscribe to InSpiritry Emails or Contact Anne
