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RSSA Little Help at the Right Time
The one who had received the five talents went off at once and traded with them, and made five more talents. In the same way, the one who had the two talents made two more talents. But the one who had received the one talent went off and dug a hole in the ground and hid his master's money.
Matthew 25:16-18
Microfinance -- small loans to help poor people set up or enlarge small businesses -- is big news in philanthropy these days. It answers the frustration of those who want to help but don't want to enable a culture of dependency, who want people in poor countries to become self-sustaining. There will always be a need for direct aid -- food, water, blankets, medicine -- in time of disaster. But the goal of helping is t o help people return to normal life, not to perpetuate an acute state of emergency.
As soon as possible after something terrible happens, people need to feel again that their own efforts will make a difference in their lives and the lives of their families. They need to find a way out of victim status. It cannot remain, or it will paralyse their spirits, rendering them unable to help themselves.
Microfinance helps this happen. Loans --- tiny by our standards, maybe $25, maybe $75 -- to repair his fishing boat, to buy seed for her market garden, to buy fabric and thread for the garments she will sew after the children have gone to bed, and which she will sell in the village. And then another loan, after the first one is repaid, for another boat, for another small plot of land, for another sewing machine for her eldest daughter to use alongside her. So they will catch more fish, raise more vegetables, sell more blouses and skirts. Almost no one defaults. From place to place, the repayment rate for such loans is about 98 percent.
In the tiny village of Kishorinagar in northern India, Rupchard and his wife Rhada struggled for years to make an income from the land. They managed to piece together an existence from fishing, raising pigs and growing vegetables.
Through a joint micro-finance initiative between Episcopal Relief & Development and the Church of North India, the couple received chicks a nd chickens, allowing them to begin a small poultry business. They determined just how many chickens they would need to make a profit, and even built a special shed to protect the chickens.
“With 30 eggs in a day, it’s possible to recover the cost of the feed, multiply our stock and sell older chickens for profit,” Rhada says.
Just a little help at the right time is often all it takes. They'll do the rest themselves.
