SHARE Foundation launches new blog about El Salvador

The SHARE Foundation has launched a brand new blog "to support those interested in promoting social justice in El Salvador to stay in touch with the Salvadoran community."

The first news report from the field is entitled "Meat, Cheese, and Bicycle Repair" and tells the story of three women in Chalatenango who have used a micro-loan to expand a women's development project there. Interesting reading!

Check out the SHARE blog English version at www.thesharefoundation.blogspot.com. And for the Spanish version, visit www.lafundacionshare.blogspot.com.

Microlending Consultant to meet with Salvador Partners on May 20th

We have an excellent opportunity coming up at our next Salvador Partners meeting on Sunday, May 20th, to continue our conversations about microlending as a model of economic development.

Dan Wilkins (colleague of Van Weigel's) will be joining us for worship at CBC and then will meet with the Salvador Partners Mission Group for some informal discussion about his work as a microfinance consultant. Dan graduated from Eastern with an MBA in Economic Development. He then served for 12 years with Opportunity International -- a pioneer organization in microfinance -- and was responsible for setting up microlending projects in Nicaragua, Montenegro, and Mexico.

For more information, take a look at the Latin America section of the Opportunity International website at www.opportunity.org.

We'll plan to share lunch with Dan after worship. All are welcome.

More about micro-lending

Nicholas Kristof wrote about micro-enterprise in his March 27th New York Times op-ed column. He says small loans to entrepreneurs in poor countries are now widely recognized as an important tool against poverty. Kristoff tells about his personal experience making several small loans through the www.kiva.org website that allows people to make direct loans to entrepreneurs in poor countries.

Read the full text of Kristof's March 27th column You, Too, Can Be a Banker to the Poor in which he tells about visiting a baker in Kabul to whom he had made a loan of $25. Watch a brief video clip about Kristof's encounter with the Afghan baker at D.I.Y. Foreign Aid.

Thanks to Ron for sharing this information.

Microcredit resource list

Here are some links to a few resources about microcredit that may be useful background for our meeting on Feb. 11th.

ASMUR
SHARE used to work closely with ASMUR, a microcredit lending group in the Bajo Lempa, which had connections with the cattlewomen's cooperative (Mujeres Ganaderas). In fact, our newest SHARE Board member will be Angelica Garcia, who is the Director (I believe) of ASMUR. SHARE is facilitating microcredit lending via some of our grassroots projects with US sisters. -- from Tara / SHARE Director in DC

Main Line Unitarian microlending projects in Latin America
Article in UU World about microcredit projects in 2 congregations, including MLUC's project to sponsor village banks in Latin America. Task force co-chair Don Smith notes that many congregants have been drawn to support an anti-poverty project that is a business proposition and not a handout. Others are attracted by the fact that the money is lent to women.

"Millions for Millions" by Connie Bruck
Van Weigel recommends this article published in the October 30, 2006 issue of the New Yorker. About the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize winner and high-tech entrepreneurs who are competing to provide credit to the world’s poor.

Grameen Foundation - Main
With tiny loans, financial services and technology, we help the poor, mostly women, start self-sustaining businesses to escape poverty. Founded in 1997 by a group of friends who were inspired by the work of Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, our global network of microfinance partners reaches 2.7 million families in 22 countries.

Grameen Foundation at work in Latin America and the Caribbean
El Salvador has severe poverty problems, but since the end of its 12-year civil war in 1992, the country has been working toward building stability. Microfinance is fairly well developed in El Salvador compared to other countries in the region, with 14 percent of the estimated demand being met.

ASAPROSAR and Las Melidas
Grameen Foundations partner institutions in El Salvador

UN International Year of Microcredit 2005
The year of Microcredit 2005 calls for building inclusive financial sectors and strengthening the powerful, but often untapped, entrepreneurial spirit existing in communities around the world.

What is Microcredit? Article by Muhammad Yunus (2003)
I am proposing that we put labels to various types of microcredit so that we can clarify at the beginning of our discussion which microcredit we are talking about. This is very important for arriving at clear conclusions, formulating right policies, designing appropriate institutions and methodologies. Instead of just saying "microcredit" we should specify which category of microcredit.