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Microfinance loans can bring hope to Haiti

Poor people don’t have access to a lot of things, and for a long time, one of them was access to credit. If a poor entrepreneur had a successful pushcart business that she wanted to expand, she had few choices. But beginning in the 1970’s, microfinance organizations began to spring up to fill…
By Seth Barnes
By Seth Barnes
Poor people don’t have access to a lot of things, and for a long time, one of them was access to credit. If a poor entrepreneur had a successful pushcart business that she wanted to expand, she had few choices. But beginning in the 1970’s, microfinance organizations began to spring up to fill this gap. Give the entrepreneur a $200 loan and she buys another pushcart, creates a job, and pays the loan back with interest.
In 1980, I’d seen the difference that Microfinance
loans can make. So after graduating from college with a degree in economics, I signed on with an organization called Opportunity Int’l
(at the time known as IIDI). Karen and I got married and took off to live Indonesia.
 
In Indonesia, I met my boss, David Bussau. Bussau is an Aussie who had just started working with Opportunity Int’l. Since then he has become world famous as a pioneer, but at the time he was just getting going and had moved back to Australia. He would fly in to see me once a month and together we helped establish a microfinance organization on the island of Bali that has since morphed into this.
 
After a year and a half of this, Karen and I flew to the Dominican Republic and established ASPIRE, Asociacion Para Inversion y Empleos. Since 1982, ASPIRE has created well over 100,000 jobs.
 
The same magic can be applied to the situation in Haiti. Haiti is a country that has needed help, but has become addicted to hand-outs. Haitians deserve more as they dig out from the rubble. When I was there last month, I was accosted by a man who owns a bakery. He has doubled his business since the earthquake and would like to expand further. We talked about how we might be able to help him. I think entrepreneurs like him are part of the answer to Haiti’s issues.
 
AIM has established a microcredit organization channeling loans through churches to congregation members who need help getting their businesses going again. If you’d like to help by providing a loan or a grant, please click here.

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