Today on BYU-TV, between sessions of LDS General Conference, they played a documentary about micro-credit in Bangladesh and elsewhere. It is a remarkable innovation for helping the poor to help themselves. They are given very small loans, perhaps as small as $10. The borrowers have no collateral--they only have their word that they will repay the loan. Repayment rates over 90% are typical for programs around the world that are implementing the program.
If you'd like to watch the documentary, it will be available online at byu.tv for a couple of weeks. Open the website in Internet Explorer on Windows and, after the viewer gets installed, click the "on-demand" link to the right of the video. You can navigate to April 1, 12:00 pm.
A more permanent resource is the BYU Center for Economic Self-Reliance.
2 comments:
I watched this on BYUTV between conference sessions and was amazed at the difference a small amount of money and a dream can make in a person's life. Really inspiring, I thought.
Indeed, and what a tribute to the women who receive the loans! Most of the recipients of the loans are women. Their husbands work as laborers and don't make much money. These women are using their minds instead of their backs and are lifting their families out of poverty.
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