Had another field visit to the HQ of our microfinance organisation today, and spent the afternoon sitting on mats in a cool, breezy room listening to the stories of the women who founded and now govern the organisation.
Stories about men not allowing their wives to participate in the self help groups when they started, saying that they were bound to fail, and later swallowing their words and asking their wives to join... About the organisation's staff investing their own money into the first groups to show that they were trustworthy, and win the confidence of the villages they were working with. About organising rural women to protest against corruption in local government, secure aid in times of disaster and insist that they themselves are able to monitor the distribution of funds... Stories of overcoming deeply ingrained prejudices and huge levels of adversity to create a solid organisation that sustainably and positively impacts the lives of it's members, and is growing exponentially year on year.
These visits are without a doubt the best part of my job. The energy with which the women approach their task, the sheer scale of their determination and what that has led them to achieve couldn't fail to be inspiring, even for the most jaded cynic. Today the president of the organisation told me that over the years, since the self help groups have become more and more ingrained into the communities they operate in, they've gradually started to notice the younger girls become quite bold. Listening to them for the afternoon makes it easy to understand where they learned their boldness!
Certainly microfinance is no cure for all the world's ills. Objectively viewed it's a good way to achieve small-scale democratisation of capital, and the model is not without flaws, nor applicable universally, nor immune to abuse. But for giving people the means to sustainably improve their livelihoods, and more importantly empowering them to take the necessary action to achieve this for themselves I firmly believe that it deserves all the hype.
Stories about men not allowing their wives to participate in the self help groups when they started, saying that they were bound to fail, and later swallowing their words and asking their wives to join... About the organisation's staff investing their own money into the first groups to show that they were trustworthy, and win the confidence of the villages they were working with. About organising rural women to protest against corruption in local government, secure aid in times of disaster and insist that they themselves are able to monitor the distribution of funds... Stories of overcoming deeply ingrained prejudices and huge levels of adversity to create a solid organisation that sustainably and positively impacts the lives of it's members, and is growing exponentially year on year.
These visits are without a doubt the best part of my job. The energy with which the women approach their task, the sheer scale of their determination and what that has led them to achieve couldn't fail to be inspiring, even for the most jaded cynic. Today the president of the organisation told me that over the years, since the self help groups have become more and more ingrained into the communities they operate in, they've gradually started to notice the younger girls become quite bold. Listening to them for the afternoon makes it easy to understand where they learned their boldness!
Certainly microfinance is no cure for all the world's ills. Objectively viewed it's a good way to achieve small-scale democratisation of capital, and the model is not without flaws, nor applicable universally, nor immune to abuse. But for giving people the means to sustainably improve their livelihoods, and more importantly empowering them to take the necessary action to achieve this for themselves I firmly believe that it deserves all the hype.
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