Loans that change lives
October 9th, 2007I’ve spent a short time in Africa, and one of the hardest parts for me was deciding what and who to give money to. It’s quite a helpless feeling, because you know that what you give will be quickly consumed and the need really wouldn’t (in most cases) be fulfilled. Add to that the constant question on your mind - am I being conned?
I still struggle with what I could not achieve, failed promises (I tried not to make any) and the nagging feeling of arrogance that we can spend so much on a missions trip to take our presence to people who live on a few dollars a week. A good friend assured me that we were told to ‘Go’ and that the Gospel is about personal contact, but I have not yet resolved this issue for myself.
In the mean time, a solution that I did consider in Africa was to support those people who are making an effort to support themselves. This breaks the dependency on western finance that plagues some communities in the third world, and instead provides a self-sustaining future. I was pleased this week to come across the web site Kiva, where you are able to make contributions to loans that are given to small businesses in needy communities across the world. The loan applicants deal with contacts within their communities, and your loan is repaid over a period of time (so in most cases you get your money back, while helping those in need).
Each contribution is US$25
How do loans from Western people like yourself, break the dependency on Western finance?
Are you from the West or not?
Anyway, why give or lend them anything? They are resource rich, let them manage themselves, without the patronising oversight of “Western wisdom”. It’s time to stop all forms of meddling in other country’s affairs.
Comment by David — October 13, 2007 @ 4:21 pm
David, you are right! But I do think you missed my point that I think it is arrogant that we believe we are the answer to the problems in the third world.
One one hand you can look at the vast problems western society and values being imposed on African culture has caused (I talk about Africa here, because I have been there). Hovever, on the other hand, malaria isn’t a western invention, and neither is drought, cancer, starvation, poverty or AIDS.
I believe that the west, however, can aid those in the third world by simply aiding them live with the basic opportunities that we take for granted.
I see Kiva as a simple way where we can help, where the recipient of finance is provided with an opportunity to grow themselves a sustainable source of income, and still take on the responsibility of repaying that which has been given to them.
Comment by shmatt — October 13, 2007 @ 11:55 pm
I must also add that I also see a danger in programs such as Kiva in that we can blindly give in a sanitized way that aleviates our guilt while mantaining a seperation from the true horrors that happen in the third world - horrors that we could not conceive happening within our own society.
Once you see how devalued human life becomes in such a situation, you cannot avoid being compelled to help in some way.
Comment by shmatt — October 14, 2007 @ 12:00 am