VIENNA, VA, November 11, 2011―Step into the shoes of Priscilla, a 52-year-old woman in the new Republic of South Sudan who recently learned to write her name.
As a girl, she never had a chance to attend school, and so Priscilla struggled through much of her life seeking sense of purpose and dignity. Twenty-five years of civil war - and countless other factors - had locked her out of a world of opportunity.
Priscilla had almost given up hope. But thanks to a program that combines microfinance and literacy training, she can now read the names and numbers on her cell phone.
What’s more, she has started a small business – with no financial help at all from her husband.
In recent months, we have found ourselves mired in political gridlock and boxed in by protests from both ends of the political spectrum. The economy is sputtering. Optimism is at an all-time low. If there’s one thing everyone agrees on, it’s the need to create jobs.
That’s why, as the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit gets underway in Valladolid, Spain, I’m delighted to share some good news about jobs being created - in the poorest communities in the world.
We are seeing truly remarkable developments in isolated locales like Huancavelica, Peru, and Wau, South Sudan. You may not think these places - where my organization, Five Talents, supports micro-lending programs - have any impact on your daily life, but in a globalized world, they do, and more than we sometimes care to think about
One need look no further than the Arab Spring for an example. Failed states breed terrorism, continued unrest and violence. Individuals trapped in extreme poverty abandon the belief that they have something to offer to their own communities.
Our organization has found that a small loan - when coupled with accountability from a savings group, business training, and spiritual development opportunities - can give survival-business owners the boost they need to grow their work into a sustainable enterprise and foster a sense of dignity that is integral to the social well-being of a community.
This dignity then leads to empowerment, especially for women. And empowerment leads to transformation of families and communities, as the chains of poverty are broken.
Formula for Success
Thanks in part to microfinance organizations, extreme poverty is on a rapid decline. In 1981, the World Bank estimated that half the world made less than $1.25 a day, the definition of extreme poverty. Early-2011 estimates from the Brookings Institute’s Laurence Chandy and Geoffrey Gertz now have only one-sixth of the world living in such a dire state.
This news is cause to celebrate the ingenuity and talents of the poor, not to pat ourselves on the back for all our aid and assistance. It is the poor – many of them women - who are beginning to push into the middle class and prove themselves bankable and responsible. They are recognizing their God-given abilities and becoming leaders in their community.
You might have read about the dark side of for-profit microfinance, stories about companies shaking down borrowers who make less than $1 a day from collecting bricks or selling second-hand clothing. These sad stories have caused some to disparage microfinance, and dismiss its role as a weapon in the fight against poverty.
Conscientious organizations, like Five Talents, have never put faith solely in microfinance. We work with indigenous organizations to ensure that our programs are tuned to the specific needs of the communities where we work. And every one of our partners shares our belief in a holistic approach to microfinance that seeks above all else to instill a sense of dignity in the lives of the poor.
For example, in places like South Sudan and Burundi, we are working with local partners to offer literacy training. In Bolivia, we are setting up savings groups for children in order to prepare a whole generation of young people to spend and invest wisely. In every one of the 11 countries where we work, we provide business skills training and spiritual support both to staff and to members of the savings groups.
At a recent speaking engagement, I was pleased and encouraged when someone in the audience – Robin Denney, who recently returned from South Sudan having worked as an agricultural consultant for the Episcopal church – stood to offer her support for this holistic approach. Her words came totally unsolicited, but they echoed the mission we set out to accomplish every single day.
“I think that so often in our attempt to help, Christian - as well as secular - organizations are guilty of marching in and fixing up something for somebody, instead of allowing them to know the dignity of developing themselves,” she said later. “People are so happy about that help. But over time it really does erode their [sense of] dignity.”
‘I can do it myself!’
Priscilla’s growing confidence in herself and her future is a great example of what can happen when you give the poor a hand-up, and not a hand-out.
When we helped to launch the Literacy and Financial Education Program in Wau, South Sudan last year, Priscilla was the first person to sign up. Her first lessons went slowly. But instead of giving up, our people on the ground kept encouraging her until she had her first success: reading the names and numbers on a cell phone.
“I came with an empty mind to the literacy sessions, and after being in class for some time, today I can make phone calls without asking anybody to come and help me,” she said with excitement. “I can do it myself!”
From there, Priscilla’s confidence has continued to grow. She can now write her own name. She has made a family budget. She started a small business without borrowing money from her husband. She has confidence now to help settle family disputes. And she carries herself so differently that people from her hometown can’t help but notice.
“When I go back to Yirol County, where I was married, I know people will be asking themselves, ‘Where and when did she get this education?’” she said. “My dream has now been fulfilled.”
The great news is that Priscilla is just one of many in the developing world who are discovering their God-given dignity thanks to microfinance programs that focus on not just finances but on social transformation.
Whether poor or rich or middle class, we all have something to offer. There are people who need to have their dignity affirmed. Some are living on less than $1.25 a day and are trapped in crushing poverty.
Some are standing in the grocery store line right in front of us
Affirming the dignity of others is a message that transcends partisan politics. It’s a message that must be delivered person to person, until the entire world has climbed out of extreme poverty.
Craig Cole has spent nearly 20 years working with organizations that serve the poor. Before helping to start Five Talents in 1999, Craig spent four years with Food For the Poor, one of the largest relief and development organizations based in the U.S. Five Talents’ UK-based program manager, Anna Pienaar, will be delivering a talk at the 2011 Global Microcredit Summit in Spain.
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