Make a difference in the world for $25.00
I think most all of us have heard of micro-loans, and I know there’s been some discussion of trying to get them started in Hot Springs. While we haven’t figured out how to make that happen here, I have learned of a cool website where you can make micro-loans to entrepeneurs around the world. The recommended loan amount is $25.00 and you choose the country, person, and business you want to loan to. Check it out at www.kiva.org
January 17th, 2008 at 8:43 am
I wonder if Hot Springs could either tap into the Grameen Foundation or replicate it using local banks. Here is background:
The founder of this movement , Muhammed Yunus, started microloans or microcredit in Bangladesh and moved the project to dozens of poor countries, serving I think 100’s of millions. Yunus received a Nobel Prize in 2006 for his work lifting poor women into entrepreneurship so they could support their families, get better nutrition, education, and independence. Interestingly, the original Grameen Bank made a profit, lending to circles of poor women, who — because of the circle organization — paid back 99% or thereabouts.
A different organization is Grameen Foundation USA, is a global 501(c)(3) non-profit organization based in Washington DC that replicates the Grameen Bank microfinance through a global network of partner microfinance institutions.
The Foundation increases the access of poor people to microcredit by millions worldwide. Muhammad Yunus, founder and managing director of Grameen Bank, sits on the Board of Directors.
Grameen Foundation operates under the mission, “to empower the world’s poorest people to lift themselves out of poverty with dignity through access to financial services and to information.”
January 17th, 2008 at 11:20 am
ADDENDUM
The book by Yunus, “Creating a World without Poverty,” should be added to our Horizons library, given to us by SDSU Extension Services (available at my home office 1014 Evanston Ave.) It is at http://www.amazon.com/Creating-World-Without-Poverty-Capitalism/dp/1586484931/ref=pd_bbs_sr_2?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1199087709&sr=1-2
When my sister was visiting from Norway, where she has lived for 50 years, she was helping me assemble Horizons files. She found them quite interesting. I asked, Do you have programs like Horizons in Norway? She thought, and said, “We don’t have poverty in Norway.”
Imagine that, a world without poverty.