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Kiva: A HAND UP NOT A HAND-
2006 Mohammed Yunus won the
Nobel Prize for his pioneering work
with "microfinance," the widening
of access to financial services to
those formerly excluded from credit markets.
Yunus' work with the Grameen Bank, which
provided small group loans to poor female
entrepreneurs in poverty-stricken Bangladesh,
revolutionized the financial and humanitar
ian sectors simultaneously. In short, the bank
provided low-interest loans to disenfranchised
women, making a small but ideologically
important profit while also stimulating eco
nomic development and female empowerment.
This was "bottom-up" work
that enabled the poor to
help themselves out of
poverty through the use
of capitalistic markets. Old
models of development,
charity and commerce were
always win-lose. The rich
could give to the poor,
or the poor could take
from the rich, or the rich
could take from the poor,
but profit was mutually
exclusive between the two
groups. Microfinance opened
up the door for a "win-win"
scenario where profit-driven
capitalism could co-exist
with and, even more, enable
humanitarian development
work. Could this be the end
of poverty?
That's what I thought,
when I first heard about
Yunus' work while research
ing nominees for the
local Delta Prize for
Global Understanding
(co-sponsored by Delta
Airlines and the University
of Georgia). "That's it!"
I told myself. "This is
the answer." It seems so
simple. Humanitarianism
and capitalism don't have
to be opposed. The "ratio
nally self-interested" man
of laissez-faire econom
ics could be a myth. And
"doing good" didn't have to
be the sort of act reserved
for bleeding-heart commie leftists! I sat in a
stupor while I contemplated the implications
of microfinance, this panacea to poverty and
maybe even to gender inequality. My heart
swelled with satisfaction. A single tear rolled
down my cheek.
And then, of course, time lifted the illu
sion. I soon realized that microfinance could
not be a cure-all. Poverty and inequality are
persistent beasts that terrorize the best of
intentions and most innovative of plans. But
as with all truly great ideas, the initial shock
and awe eventually matures into nuanced
contemplation, and then into effective action.
Yunus' "discovery" of micrcrinance spread
quickly around the world and began to chip
away at poverty persistently and with many
positive results. But poverty didn't go away.
Neither did those determined to defeat it.
In 2005 Matt and Jessica Flannery got
engaged. They planned their wedding. They
picked out china. They also went to East
Africa. Jessica's work in microfinance there,
and her fiance's business mind, joined
together to create Kiva. Kiva took the core
concepts of microfinance, and creatively
sculpted them to reflect their generation. My
generation. The one of Facebook and blogging
and eBay. They made Kiva a social network.
But on Kiva.org, one doesn't just poke and
tweet and "friend." One loans. One truly con
nects. One makes a difference. How? Just
browse the hundreds of "Borrower" profiles—
entrepreneurs from Lima, Peru to Liberia to
Laos, and then make a loan of $25. Rinse,
lather, repeat. As many loans as you want. And
when the borrower repays their loan, you get
your $25 back. You can withdraw it then, or
simply channel it into another loan. The bor
rower you help may sell fresh fish in a market,
drive a taxi, or make hand-crafted bags. He or
she may live on any continent, may have 10
children to feed, or none. But what they all
have in common is the desire to make a living
and have a good life, where access to food,
shelter and healthcare are not mere dreams.
Your contribution to their loan can take them
one step closer to achieving that goal.
Most people I know haven't heard of Kiva
at all. But that's not to say that no one has.
Today Kiva is only 47 months old, but the
organization has raised $90,154,335 in loans,
funded 221,971 entrepreneurs in 181 coun
tries, and allowed 552,982 lenders to touch a
stranger's life in a profound and meaningful
way.
What first struck me about microfinance
was the idea of the "win-win" situation. The
bank (often called a "microfinance-institu
tion" if it only gives small, high-risk loans)
makes a profit. The borrower gets a chance
at making an honest living. I marveled at
the sustainability of it, the logic. But then I
questioned whether this model took the heart
out of giving. The feel-good vibe of altruism
was dwarfed by the idea that a profit-driven
model would always beat the charitable one.
But then I spent seven weeks in Tanzania as
a volunteer at a school and orphanage, and I
was forced to look the "Aid Machine" in the
face. I didn't like what I saw. The fraud, waste
and corruption that wracked the system shook
me. And even more terrifying was that I had
to look at my own reflection in the mirror and
realize that my own motivations were less
than saintly. I considered myself so gifted, so
privileged, so powerful, that I thought I could
step into this Sub-Saharan world and change
it out of sheer good-will. I wanted to be a
savior. I craved approval and respect for my
"charity." It was glorified
slumdiving. I was humbled,
and fast. I soon realized
that "charity" assumes
an "I-thou" relationship,
and a hierarchy where
the aid-giver is always
above the aid-receiver. For
all of our millions of aid
dollars to Africa, we as
Americans were not revered
or respected. We were
often used, hoodwinked
and manipulated. Yet the
Chinese, who came to
Eastern Africa as investors,
were welcomed as friends
and treated with honesty
and respect.
After a few days of *
being showed around Dar
es Salaam, the biggest city
in Tanzania, by a guide
named Yoctan, my awe and
gratefulness at the gener
osity and kindness of the
Tanzanian people was min
gled with shame at ail the
preconceived notions I had
borne across the Atlantic.
After seven weeks in the
country, I was humbled,
happy, reverent, mosquito-
bitten and corn-rowed,
peaceful and renewed. I was
also a part of the family
with whom I lived; I was
a teacher whose students
called "Madam"; I was a
friend to a soccer player, an
artist and a restaurateur.
I had become a part of the community, not
a voyeur, a tourist, or an observer. I learned
that the people we set out to help, help us,
and only by adopting the role of investor and
friend rather than benefactor do we truly build
a community or achieve anything at all. What
Kiva does is allow us to have that relation
ship. It allows us to give with humility and
grace. And to take the immense, unmeasurable
satisfaction such giving can return.
Aung San Suu Kyi, another Nobel Peace
Prize winner, once said, "If you're feeling
helpless, help someone." I couldn't have said
it better.
Rebecca Corey
Rebecca Corey was born in Athens and attended
Athens Montessori School, Clarke Middle and Clarke
Central High School. She graduated from UGA this
past May after majoring in English and anthropology.
On Sept. 30, she moved to Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
to work as a Kiva Fellow (a Kiva representative in the
field) and as a Rotary Ambassadorial Scholar to pur
sue a master’s degree in International Development at
the University of Dar es Salaam.
Rebecca with Warda, Jasmini and Eva in Bagamoyo, Tanzania June 2007.
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