A micro-credit store in a poor village.
Poverty causes such suffering in peoples' lives. There isn't money to cover the necessities of life: food, clothing, health care, fresh water, education, etc. Children die early. People suffer much and also die early. Quality of life is low. There are few jobs. People work hard just to survive. Lack of capital keeps people from creating businesses and subsequently jobs. People with nothing cannot go to a bank and borrow money; they have no assets. They are in a lose/lose situation.
Muhammad Yunus, "Banker to the Poor," an economist, studied the situation of the poor and developed a system to provide credit to those that banks thought were undeserving. His method worked remarkably well.
African Assistance Plan (AAP) has developed a similar system to provide loans to the poor. They go into a village in Northern Ghana and build relationships with the village leaders. They do this by offering benefits, such as a water well, a medical clinic, and education. The other thing that might be offered is to set up a system of micro-credit. This takes some education to set up. The interested people must be trained to plan a business, set up an accountability organization, learn to encourage one another, to save, to pay back the loan in installments and to be responsible with the earned money. Then loans are made to set up their businesses. There must be ongoing support, but AAP reports repayment of the loans of about 98%. Those that repay their loans are eligible for larger loans.
Muhammad Yunus, "Banker to the Poor," an economist, studied the situation of the poor and developed a system to provide credit to those that banks thought were undeserving. His method worked remarkably well.
African Assistance Plan (AAP) has developed a similar system to provide loans to the poor. They go into a village in Northern Ghana and build relationships with the village leaders. They do this by offering benefits, such as a water well, a medical clinic, and education. The other thing that might be offered is to set up a system of micro-credit. This takes some education to set up. The interested people must be trained to plan a business, set up an accountability organization, learn to encourage one another, to save, to pay back the loan in installments and to be responsible with the earned money. Then loans are made to set up their businesses. There must be ongoing support, but AAP reports repayment of the loans of about 98%. Those that repay their loans are eligible for larger loans.