Lofty Questions, Young Student
Teachable moments. Luz Gomez captured it well when she blogged recently about capitalizing on teachable moments. My opportunity came just over a week ago when a friend contacted me regarding a tour of ACCION USA. Since her nine-year old daughter had just read a special section in the New York Times about microfinance, she wanted to give her first-hand exposure. Now, as a fundraiser, I know that an individual’s propensity to give is shaped before the teenage years. So, of course, I wanted to show Amelia the power of microfinance to reinforce what I hoped would be a life-long commitment to economic development.
Martha's story of building a new life in the U.S. through self-employment illustrates the power of microfinance.
Amelia arrived on time (with mom in tow), prepared with a 4X6 note card of questions. Though we kept the conversation high level, we explored some pretty lofty subjects: sources of capital for entrepreneurs, the average ACCION USA loan size, uses for loan capital, typical client industries, and repayment rates. We also talked about individuals who might need an ACCION USA loan, immigrants like Martha who fled her native Colombia when guerrillas threatened to kidnap her daughter and who now makes her living as a seamstress thanks to an ACCION USA loan.
Because it was September 11, I also told her about Luis who was once homeless and lost his job delivering baked goods to businesses when the World Trade Center was attacked. Luis has an uplifting story because he went into business for himself using an ACCION USA microloan to buy the van he uses for his now-prospering baked goods delivery service.
After a tour of the office where she met some of the people behind the scenes who make ACCION USA’s lending possible, we took a quick a look at some of our clients’ products – the frilly dresses, jams, jellies, and artwork – that line our offices.
At the end of the day, what did Amelia learn? She learned that not everyone has equal access to credit, there is a need for alternative lenders, microfinance is every bit as necessary in the U.S. as it is overseas, and philanthropy is important to support disadvantaged individuals. At least, I think she learned all these things. But her mother is actually making her write a report on her visit to ACCION USA. And when I see it, I hope to share it here.
Tags: New York Times, Youth Microfinance Series
September 29th, 2009 at 9:30 am
Can’t wait to read Amelia’s report. Great blog!
October 1st, 2009 at 7:46 am
This is wonderful… all children at a relatively young age should be learning about the world around them and the economically dire situations that these people lift themselves out of!
October 5th, 2009 at 4:50 pm
Here is Amelia’s report.
My visit to ACCION
by Amelia G. Sullivan
September 11, 2009
I was sitting on the beach on Cape Cod this past August with my family. My mom had just finished reading the
New York Times Magazine – Saving the World’s Women special edition about women around the world and I decided to read it. It had some very interesting stories, some stories more moving than others. My favorite one was about a woman named Saima in Pakistan who took out a small loan (a “microloan”) for $65 to buy beads and cloth which she used to make beautiful embroidery that she sold to merchants. She was then the only woman in her house to bring in money, get her husband out of debt, and support her family. She was trying to raise her family out of poverty.
I asked my mom “what is microfinancing?” and she explained to me that it is small amounts of money that is loaned to poor people around the world so that they can start their own business.
My mom told me that she had a friend named Anne Fish who worked for a large microfinancing organization in Boston, called ACCION. We went to visit Anne and had a tour of her office on September 11th. I met many of her co-workers, they were all very nice and many of them speak a foreign language such as Spanish.
ACCION is an international microfinancing firm. They work in North America, South America, Africa, Asia and many other places. They have headquarters in the United States, in Boston and New York. ACCION loans money to women and men all around the world who want to start their own businesses but don’t have enough money. These people are called “microentrepreneurs ” Many of them don’t know how to start a business or how to get a loan or manage their money. Sometimes ACCION helps them first with a SMALL testing loan to see if they are honest and will pay the money back. Then they can get more money if they kept their promise to pay back. ACCION can also teach them how to run their business.
Anne told me that ACCION was started by some tennis players who went to South America in the 1970’s to play tennis. The tennis players were stunned by the poverty they saw. They returned to the United States determined to make a difference. They formed “ACCION” which means “action” in Spanish.
Anne works in fundraising for ACCION – America. ACCION gets most of its money to loan from foundations, banks, businesses and regular people. Matt, one of Anne’s co-workers, explained to me that a “foundation” is when a wealthy person puts aside some of their money just for giving to charities.
Anne said that the average loan size in America is $6,000. About 90% of the microentrepreneurs pay back their loans. About 40% or a bit more are women, the rest are men. Most of them are immigrants which means they have come from a different country and they want to make a new life in the United States . Many of them don’t speak English. Many of them don’t have a “credit history” which means no one knows if they are good at paying back loans or not. These people can start out with the SMALL testing loan that I mentioned before.
Some of the businesses they start are a hotdog house, a vacuum repair shop, and a Bar-B-Q stand on wheels. Another lady near Boston started a bakery business called Delectable Desires.
I had a wonderful time at ACCION and hope to learn more about microfinancing as I grow older. The way even a kid can get involved is to donate money to ACCION or give money directly to a microentrepreneur through the website KIVA.org, which is a group that works with ACCION.