Microfinance In San Diego

I am currently working on developing an organization that is to be a unifying, central location for microfinance in San Diego. The San Diego Microfinance Alliance is to be a place of collaboration by students, lenders, clients, and business development organizations to raise the profile of microfinance in San Diego.

Check it out at www.sdmicrofinance.org

Ralph Again

Well, it has been three months now since I have made my last blog posting. Much has happened in my life and around the world. Many of our friends, brothers, and sisters across the Dominican border were killed in Hurricanes Hannah, Gustav, and Ike. dlkskdf Zimbabwe or Africa, the Dow has plummeted 4,000 points. I have since returned to the land of eternal sunshine, a calm sea breeze, and more ridiculous wealth and consumption than Jesus would have thought possible. The good news is all of the hurt, suffering, and wrongs of the world are about to change since Barack Obama was named our President elect at the end of yesterday’s polls (I hope you can note the sarcasm in my voice even though I did vote for him).

Since my last entry I have been home to get a taste of Montana for a week, spent a wonderful month with my girlfriend before she took off to Costa Rica, and been juggling 17 tough units, intramural volleyball, men’s soccer league, microfinance club, an internship, surfing, cycling, cooking (I’m in my first apartment!), doing a long-distance relationship, and investing time into the lives of the wonderful people around me. To say I haven’t had time to write a blog entry wouldn’t be an understatement, but really just a poor excuse. Not having time to do something is a choice. It’s my fault this has taken so long, but now I would like share something from my time in the Dominican that has been on my heart and mind for a long time.
Earlier in the summer I wrote about an encounter that I had with a homeless man named Ralph. A man who had served in the US Army for years, had a family, been to rock bottom with many addictions, and finally found himself on the streets of Puerto Plata shouldering the humiliation of begging for survival. The thing about Ralph is that he is a very intelligent man, but has been cast aside by society where the walls to climb back seem to grow continually higher. Add a continuing struggle with alcohol to the mix and it is easy to see why he is where he is.

As the summer progressed I had many more encounters with Ralph. Several days after our first long conversation I purchased Ralph a bottle of Shampoo and a bar of deodorant. A bit of an offensive gift right? As he held the brown bag in his hands his eyes lit up when I told him of it’s contents. He looked me in the eyes and sincerely told me how much that meant to him. We sat together on a bench in the park that he frequented every evening at 6:30pm after a long day of begging. I shared with him my idea for him to begin a language tutoring business. I offered to print him materials or be a contact point if he needed. He really liked the idea.

Over the next weeks I would see Ralph occasionally, usually in the habitual locations that had become his life. To be completely honest, I feared running into him sometimes. If I did, it meant taking a large chunk of time out of my precious day to sit and chat with him. Sometimes at the end of our conversations he would ask me if I had anything that I could give him. My usual response was my friendship. I was rooted in my decision to not give Ralph any money, which can often be a quick guilt reliever for the benefactor. I had concluded that is not what he needed. While my thoughts on this was probably correct, it didn’t help the guilt and uneasiness that continually nagged at me as I walked away from a hungry friend, especially when I knew that all it would take was a trip to the ATM, swiping a plastic card, and ridding the hunger from his belly for a day or two. A couple of times I brought him a cup of coffee when he’d asked and another time brought him some rice and chicken from lunch.

The weeks past and I saw Ralph one day, he had on a new pair of pants, had shaved, and cleaned up quite well. He beamed when he saw me, telling me that he had quit begging. He also said that he had been sober for four days. His proud, haggard smile reminded me of a young child who has just simultaneously lost both of his front teeth and couldn’t be any happier. A couple, whom I believe were working with Catholic Relief services, had begun to help Ralph as well. They had given him a book for recovering from alcoholism. He pridefully opened the pages and showed me the underlined sentences as well as the exercises that he had written out in small spiral notebook. He shared things about his personality that he had realized that he must first overcome before escaping this addiction and moving on in life. He was a proud man and I was proud of him.

The night before I left I went to the park where he spent much of his time, hoping to say a final goodbye as I had promised. There, I found Ralph working with a young man on his English in exchange for a plate of food. While he had never chosen to try out my recommended career in language tutoring, this scene was great to see. He greeted me with a huge smile filled with bright, white front teeth and we spoke for sometime. On my last day in Puerto Plata he had finally gotten the long awaited dentures from a local pastor. I was touched by his words as he thanked me, more than anything, just for my friendship. He told me that on days when I didn’t come by or he didn’t get a chance to do a lesson with the young man he often tutored, going home to sleep in his abandoned hotel was a terribly difficult and lonely task. I don’t say this to toot my own horn, as I spent far less time with him than I really should have, but it was such an eye opening experience for me. Ralph’s words captured the need for every human heart to love and feel loved by others. Even if that is taking 10 minutes out of your day to have a conversation with them and show them that you believe they are something more than a street urchin, that they are a child of God just as we all are, and that we are united through our love for him and one another by his sacrifice and love for us. Ralph told me of his love for God that night (something we hadn’t spoke much of before). It was really a pretty neat moment to have three individuals from different walks of life united, a humbled rich white do-gooder (we’ll generalize my summer internship a bit), a proud homeless war veteran, and a poor Dominican boy sitting at a park bench together. After saying our goodbyes I got up to leave.

I began to walk away and Ralph timidly asked, “Can I have your shirt?” He said it as if he were half-joking, maybe to cover any embarrassment he felt from the request.

“You want it?” I replied.

“Well…. I don’t want you to have to go home without a shirt on!” Lucky for Ralph I had my sweaty wrinkled T from the gym in my bag. I happily pulled of my shirt and gave it to a beaming Ralph and as I began to walk away pulling my soggy work-out shirt over my shoulders I heard him say to the Dominican boy, “Tu ves? El saco la camiseta de su espalda para mi” You see that? He took the shirt off of his back, for me.

Microfinance.... A...+

It’s one thing to read about all of the incredible, heart-warming stories of microfinance, the Grameen Banks success in Bangladesh, and the ideas that basically praise MF as the second coming of Christ, however, it’s another thing to live among the people of these stories, watch their businesses grow (or not), and see the conditions that they live in. I have been so blessed to spend three months working for one of the best-run MF organizations in the world (Esperanza and Hope International juntos) to see their techniques, struggles, and focus. My experience here has been inspirational and insightful, but also unearthed a lot of frustrations and shortcomings that I’ve seen in the running of a non-profit and the entire concept of MF as a poverty alleviation tool. But right now I’ve just had two cups of morning coffee, watched the sunrise from the roof of my apartment, and am in far too good of a mood to address such topics. I’ll wait until I’m a little lonely or depressed (which hasn’t happened too often thankfully) or pissed off at someone who tries to take advantage of my white naivity and charge me triple the regular price for a cab or something, before I delve into such a topic. On a sidenote, I don’t get upset about much, but when people try to scam others that are not familiar with the area, usually foreigners, who are not familiar with their language or customs, it drives me crazy. It’s one thing to have sound business practices and jump on the opportunity to give some wealthy people a service for a handsome price that you are not going to get from your local patrons, but just plain ripping people off evokes this Holy rage from deep within by soul…. But I digress. All that was to say that I’d rather focus on some of the tremendous good that I have seen coming out of the work here.

When you enter into a new community to provide microfinance services, you are looking for a group of women that know one another, that have the desire to run their own show, and are driven enough to get a loan that they will guarantee the debts of their neighbor, promising to pay back any defaults that their neighbor may have. In one or two loan cycles (6 months to a year) it is rare to see a large economic impact. The recipients of such a loan are not going to go leaping from their poor state into middle-class suburban homes (or the equivalent thereof). But what I have seen change, even in a short three months here, is the dynamics of a group of women and leaders within a community. By bringing together a group of women that often have the capabilities of being leaders and thinkers, by nature of the fact that they are business entrepreneurs, a unifying of community and change in self-image is achieved. Women that were once just passive housewives tending to the needs of their nearly starving children and depending on an irregular income from their husbands, now have the dignity of bringing in an economic income to the household and the pride of repaying a loan, something most of their husbands have never even done. The entire process does wonders for ones self-esteem and perception of their role in the household, church, and community. I have heard it said plenty before, but now I have realized the importance, firsthand, of changing the repressive mentality that is embedded so deeply within the minds of many poor. So many people here have the mentality that they were born poor, will be poor, will lack the ability to ever make their own decisions, or the power to change their own situations. After a years time with an organization like Esperanza, I think these women see a new light.

The interaction with the loan officers is also a very critical aspect of the program. No matter how well-funded a program is, how well-managed, or how recent their strategies are, the greatest impact that the recipients will ever see from an MFI is a direct result of their bi-weekly interactions with the loan officers. These are the people that make the trip to their villages, collect payments, teach them basic business lessons, encourage them to spend and save wisely, pray with them, and work out difficult situations when they arise. Loan officers often are not as well educated as management in an MFI, but their critical role and importance as the connection between an institution and it’s participants should never be underestimated.
Microfinance Plus is a term that was created in the last several year in reference to all of the aspects outside of the financial realm that are brought about my an MFI. It refers to aspects such as medical care, literacy programs, business training, kids camps and other aspects that are extremely important to holistic transformation. Esperanza is big on Plus, and I have since become a fan. Some organizations focus solely on microfinance and believe that their focus should remain on the financial aspect. Even if their intention is to do this so that they may become sustainable, bring lower interest rates, and focus limited resources, it still misses the point of, or perhaps I should say that it just fails to complete many aspects of holistic transformation. As I mentioned earlier, I really don’t think that we can plan on seeing a large transformation in lives, economically speaking, after one, or two, or even three small loans. What we see is that a family is now able to eat a bit better, they can depend on a small but steady income from avocado sales (that’s an example there are many other products sold/businesses run), their children might be able to attend school because the now have just enough to buy a uniform, and the woman (the true head of the household) now has a new dream and hope for her children. But this dream for her children doesn’t stem from having a few more pesos to toss towards their education, it comes from the fact that she now has the belief that she will be able to provide for them, she now has a stronger involvement in the local church (that’s where meetings are usually held and often times local pastors are involved in loan process and many women are involved in the church) which provides communal support, and she has established stronger relationships with women in the community that will now trust and make sacrifices to help one another, a step that may have been unthinkable before the loan process.

One example of MF Plus that I saw a couple of weeks that made an impact on me, was not so much in an established medical program or education center, but in the true dedication of a loan officer to the well-being of her clients. In an organization that is focused solely on giving loans and collecting them, this aspect would have been overlooked as the loan officer hurried off after doing their financial duty. In a bank of twenty women in a nearby community there was some hostility among several of the associates and members of the group had approached Dilcia to speak poorly of others in the group behind their back. Recognizing this dilemna that was occurring, she brought the problem to the attention of the group and all those involved. We spent an extra hour and a half after the normal meeting listening, encouraging, and working through the problem with the women. Several were indebted to others, one was on poor terms with another’s husband (from business dealings), several wanted others out of the group, etcetera. While things got a bit heated at times, each woman had an opportunity to share her input to a listening audience. Some women tried to leave but were scolded by the others. If they were going to do this, then it would be done as a group together. Dilcia continually reminded them that they were now like a family, they had solidarity, they shared one another’s joys, burdens, and responsibilities. By the end of the session the women had come leaps and bounds from where we’d begun. Watching these women struggle through these challenges, overcome problems themselves, and form stronger community bonds because of it is one of the greatest impacts that I have seen come out of microfinance. That was a looong entry. I’m going to stop writing.

If you want to check out Esperanza's website Click Here.

Water Falls

No matter where you're traveling there always seems to be an encounter or two that remind you about just how small the world really is. Vanessa Pridmore, a gal who I've recently gotten to know this last spring through the Microfinance Club and Business Law class, is spending five weeks down in the Dominican this summer as well working with a Nazarene church. She had a free weekend so she decided to take the four hour bus up to Puerto Plata for a visit. It was pretty strange to be spending a weekend in a foreign country with an Point Loma aquaintenance that was totally unexpected. We had a great time though. The highlight of the weekend being the waterfall adventure. Forty-five minutes outside of Puerto Plata lies the town of Imbert. If you continue into the countryside and take a 10 minute hike up a dirt road you arive at the 27 Charcos (pools).

Along with our guide, Wild Bill, Vanessa and I began heading up a narrow river gorge. We swam across ponds and then ascended small waterfalls by rope or just climbing up w/ the assistance of Wild Bill, who never seemed to stop shouting “Arriba! Adelante!Arriba!” in a frustrated tone. Yes…. thank you…. Willy. I understand we are probably going that direction, but this moss is pretty damn slippery and gravity and downstream water are going the other way. But, overtime Wild Bill kind of grew on me, despite his negative attitude and lack of patience. How could somebody be upset when they’re in the middle of a tropical paradise like that? After we reached the top of the 27 pools, the fun part began. Coming back down was one successive jump after another. The green water seemed almost surreal as we bobbed along before hopping down the next small cliff. The way up probably took two hours while the way back down probably only took an hour. As we walked along one of the trails Wild Bill earned bonus points by finding us some fresh mangoes at Vanessa’s assistance. Mangoes have become my new favorite fruit. Dominican mangoes are special, I don’t even know how to explain it. They are the sweetest, juiciest thing I’ve ever experienced. A little messy? Yes. Get stuck in your teeth? Yes. But well worth these small hindrances for such a nugget of ambrosia. Wild Bill did well with the wild mangos, but really proved himself by snapping photos of us along the way, while only keeping my camera wrapped in a grocery bag. I cringed as I watched him plunge off the first waterfall with my camera in hand. He just kept telling me to trust him, trust him, never letting me see if he had destroyed the camera. How was I supposed to trust a guy that kept telling us that the next time we came back we could go for free if we brought a woman to him? Nonetheless, Billy swam on, leaving the camera unscathed. Once, he even dove off of a ten foot cliff, headfirst, bending his arm awkwardly and spinning as he hit the water in order to keep the camera above water the whole time, unbelievable. Anyways, a good time was had by all. I’ll let the Pix do most of the talking.

Business Or Broke

My time here has been an incredible experience thus far. One of the main reasons I chose to leave my beloved Montana for the summer was to try and figure out what I’m going to do with my life. Although I began a career in business administration, making lots of money was never my goal. It was really more just to leave my options open more than anything… although I’ve never thought making lots of money would be such a bad thing. However, after my four months in Costa Rica and Nicaragua last year, my eyes were truly opened to another side of the world, that other three billion people that seem to make it (or often don’t) on just a few bucks a day. And not only did I become aware of the poverty that was out there, but the fact that there were entirely new cultures, ways of thinking about life, and ways of relating to others.
As the last year has progressed I have absolutely loved learning more about development, microfinance, poverty, Spanish, and the ridiculous consumer habits that most of us participate in. I chose to add International Development as a minor, a choice that has left me hungry to learn more about how we are going to save the world. Just kidding (we might not be able to save the world)…… but seriously. My involvement in microfinance this last year has also brought a lot of contemplative thought to the table for me. The greatest question I have been confronted with this year as I choose the direction I will head after college is, “Do I go the route of non-profits, grass roots organizations, getting to work directly in the development field? Or should I use my business acumen to take advantage of the opportunities in the U.S., global markets, and hungry capitalism that often does damage to those without a voice, then use those profits to work for the oppressed and marginalized?” Now, this is a bit of a simplified version of my thoughts, but it gives the basic idea. Each route seems to have so many ups and downs.

As I think about working directly in a grass-roots organization, the thought of noble work and the gratification that comes from working directly with the poor or such objectives is very appealing. While not completely altruistic, I think that we all have that inherent desire to love others, see their lives bettered, and we get a deep sense of satisfaction in knowing that we have done something for someone else. Reason number two, Papa Dios tells us to do it.

"Then the King shall answer them, Verily I say unto you, inasmuch as ye have done unto the least of these, my brethren, ye have done unto me."
- Mathew 25:40

Is this not the fast which I choose, to loosen the bonds of wickedness, to undo the bands of the yoke, and to let the oppressed go free, and break every yoke? Is it not to divide your bread with the hungry, and bring the homeless poor into the house; when you see the naked, to cover him, and not to hide yourself from your own flesh?
- Is. 58:66

Open your mouth for the dumb, for the rights of all the unfortunate. Open your mouth, judge righteously, and defend the rights of the afflicted and needy.
- Proverbs 31:8

Jesus was constantly calling his followers to give up their family, politics of the state, riches, and called them to love the widows, the oppressed, the orphans, oppressed, and marginalized. He flipped everything upside down. On another note, one of my professors said something that really impacted me this last year regarding how we choose to serve out call and duty to the poor whether as Christians or just fellow human beings. He said something like, “Don’t just give some of your money to help out the worlds needs, give your time, talents, and the very best gifts that you possess”. Very true, thanks Rob.

But I sometimes wonder if to neglect the opportunities around me in the business world would be a wasted opportunity for the poor. When I say that, I mean that we (the educated in developing countries, in my case the business realm) have the ability to make more money, establish critical connections/relationships, and influence businesses and corporations than probably 99% of the world will ever have. Using ones influence in these realms (corporate world etcetera) can have trickle down effects that will impact the thousands and millions that are daily effected by international trade policies, corporate policies, government politics, etcetera. I wonder if we would be better leveraging our personal impact from working within this realm. Another brilliant professor, whom I admire greatly and who has impacted thousands around the globe, shared a bit about his philosophy with me.

“While this doesn’t run that popular in Christian circles, I wanted to become a lawyer (and a very good one at that) so that I could just make tons of money, bundles and bundles of money. But not so that I could go and buy nice things with it, for I know that the houses, cars, and vacations aren’t going to satisfy our longing to be like Jesus, but so that it could be used to bless people.”

And bless people it has done. Check out this link below to see the organization that he started (and where he now invests most of his time).

Restore International

Money and business/law expertise that is acquired in the marketplace, from disgustingly wealthy building mega-contractors (that mess up), is used to free young girls from the horrors of sexual slavery and to bring justice to the oppressed and neglected in the jails of Uganda. Contacts made in the professional world now support this cause through Funding the Kingdom, a group of real-estate professionals that use their involvement in the market to give a part of their commissions to such causes. Suddenly, you have entered into a realm where business communities are using their access to the worlds richest to touch the poorest, narrowing the incredible disparity that plagues our world today. That is cool. These are just a few of the accomplishments of this professor, not to mention his involvement with young life in B.C. Canada and many other fascinating ventures. He continuously uses creative skills, resources, and business mind to just make cool stuff happen, while touching peoples lives along the way (just hanging out w/ them like Jesus, not imposing a religious belief). He’d probably be upset with me for writing this, but I can’t help but brag about really cool people sometimes.

Hmmmm, so should I pursue the route of hero Peter Greer (Hope Intl. prez and just great guy) or Bob Goff? I don’t know, and to be honest I hope I don’t ever really have to make that decision. I’m not too worried about it. If my time down here in the Dominican has taught me something very important it has been the understanding of another world. A world that keeps loving one another because they don’t have things to love, a world of people struggling to survive, and a world that can not remain neglected any longer. What ever I end up doing in life I know that I won’t be able to ignore this part of globe that has touched me so profoundly. Whether it’s working with a non-profit microfinance organization, as a real-estate developer, a lawyer, an officer in a renewable energy-source company, or the manager of the local food distribution center, these people will constantly be a part of what I do and work for, in some way or another.

And you thought you built a condom mountain...

This past semester in my Economic Development class, students formed groups to raise awareness and encourage action against many issues of injustice, oppression, and poverty around the world. One of the groups invested with the task of sharing about the unequal access to health care, education, or supplies around the world, built a mountain of condoms outside of the Point Loma Nazarene Chapel. While a little, edgy for a conservative Christian University, it was effective in not only gaining attention towards their cause (the condoms were representative of the AIDS epidemic and lack of access to HIV prevention/education), but to raising controversy over freedom-of-thought, speech, and ideas on a campus often immersed in conservative thought and controls. (This condom mountain had 160,000 High-Quality Pante condoms)

Well done guys. But I couldn’t help but laugh at their “condom mountain” that contained 50 or 60 condoms when I saw this.

We share our office with a Dominican Non-Profit called CEPROSH, a group dedicated to HIV awareness, prevention, and treatment of people infected with HIV/AIDS (I say treatment meaning counseling, medical attention, and administering Anti-Retroviral medication). Funded mainly off of USAID, Clinton Foundation, and other U.S based aid, it has been a pretty cool experience to see firsthand the impact and effects of such funding. Thousands are given free medical access, the ARV’s which allow them to continue living a normal life for many more years (rather than quickly spiraling to AIDS and an immanent death), and a hope for raising their children who would otherwise be left orphaned if this disease were left un-combated to take it’s toll. Esperanza has a close to tie to CEPROSH here in Puerto Plata and we often share clients through our Esperanza y Vida program, which is dedicated to providing HIV medical attention along with a loan and business training, that enables them to continue living their life and providing an income for their family..... to be added to.

40 Days of Purpose