Microcredit Banking

Great News
09 July 2007 Update
Well, we did it! We have collected the entire $5000 necessary to open a microcredit bank in Malawi thanks to over 42 good-hearted people.

I kind of lost count of all the people who were giving me money at the June meeting of PVA. If you weren’t there you missed quite a sight. At this time the list of donors and the cashier’s check is on its way to FINCA International, Inc.

The next time you hear from me on this site, it will be to report on our own village bank. Thank you to all the people in PVA and outside who have brought about this wonderful thing--funding a microcredit bank where our money will be at work in virtual perpetuity giving some of the poorest people in the world a chance to work for a better life for themselves and their families. This is something we can really celebrate!

Microcredit banking is a process whereby organizations go into the poorest rural villages and urban neighborhoods in the world, find ambitious, hardworking people with good ideas, and organize them into small groups. They extend to these people uncollateralized small loans. These loans are so small, on average around $100 and as little as $5, they are called micro loans. They are for such things as materials and equipment to start a small business that can sustain a family, feed and clothe and house and educate. There is no better way in a capitalist economy to fight poverty and hunger. Without firing a shot, it can build a more secure, less violent world for all of us.

Typically these loans are to women (80%) and the repayment rate is about 96%. Citibank is jealous! As loans are paid back, more capital is available to more people. You can learn more about microcredit on PBS.org and search for the program “A Small Fortune."

The PVA microcredit working group will be collecting capital to establish our own village bank through FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance). You can find our more about them at villagebanking.com.

When we have collected five thousand dollars, we will choose from among four targeted countries in which to have our bank. Once established, we will be getting back reports and pictures as to who has made loans, what they will be doing, and progress that they have made.

I have opened a separate free savings account at First Light Federal Credit Union for our donations. This turns out to be the most cost-effective way to have a collection point for our capital until we reach our goal of five thousand dollars and fund our microcredit bank.

If you wish to make a tax-deductible contribution before the end of this year, there are a couple of ways to do that. If you are a member of First Light, you can transfer funds online to account #679556. It is a savings account and the first three letters are RIC. Make a note to yourself that this is a contribution to FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance). Their 501C3 tax number is 13-3240109. Or you can mail a check made out to me—Connie Richardson, 1011 Ferndale, Las Cruces, NM 88005, and I can deposit it. If you are not trusting the mail services in town, you can bring it by my house. Just call ahead (523-6757) to be sure I am here.

In January we will be getting the word out about our village bank to members of PVA and to all the good-hearted people we know who will want to be in on this and adding to our capital. I figured it out: if only 250 of us chip in twenty dollars each we will have funded the bank. We can do this!

As of May 18 we have $2,000 in the account and another $1,200 pledged so we are nearing our goal. If you are thinking you want to put your capital to work in some impoverished part of the world where it can do so much more than it can here, please get on the train now before it leaves the station without you. Just give until it feels good!

For more information you may call me, Connie Richardson, at 523-6757 or e-mail connie00@comcast.net.