to end poverty

This is not charity. This is business: business with a social objective, which is to help people get out of poverty.
>> Muhammad Yunus, economist and winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Price

I first learned about microfinance in 2004 upon reading Thomas Friedman’s The Lexus and the Olive Tree. This initial reference to the pioneering work of Muhammad Yunus’ Grameen Bank in Bangledesh sparked in me a desire to learn more about this development strategy that has been wildly successful in empowering the poorest of the poor to bring themselves out of poverty. Since the 1970s, from Bolivia to Bangladesh, Micro Finance Institutions (MFIs) have been extending micro credit, or small loans averaging around $150 USD, to micro-entrepreneurs to establish or expand self-sustaining small businesses. In the emerging economies of the world, the only obstacle enslaving a micro-entrepreneur to subsistence living is often only a few dollars, and so these micro loans serve as the necessary startup capital to propel these businesses (and the families that own them) to profitability and sustainable growth.

The results have been astounding. Even the smallest loans are shown to generate massive gains in productivity and job creation, not to mention the subsequent increased living standards for families through better nutrition, access to health care, and opportunities for education. As these loans are repaid at market interest rates, the funds are directed back into a pool from which MFIs are able to reloan to new micro-entrepreneurs, thus creating a sustainable mechanism for development.

MFIs not only provide the necessary working capital to micro-entrepreneurs, but they also serve to develop strong community-based support and accountability for clients that has effectively achieved an industry-wide repayment rate of 97% on average– higher than the commercial banking industry. The MFI I currently work for, Esperanza International is a faith-based MFI that is dedicated to comprehensive economic and community development. Therefore, the support structure and business training services we provide to our clients is firmly established on knowing Jesus, Biblical principals, and Judeo-Christian ethics focusing not only on the financial well-being of our clients, but also their physical health and spiritual growth as well. This comes from a recognition that the root cause of poverty is not simply an economic issue, but it is social, political, and an undoubtedly deeply spiritual crisis that must be confronted with multifaceted economic, social, political, AND spiritual solutions.

Getting beyond simply a theoretical understanding of microfinance, I wanted to learn and be a part of this important work first hand. Therefore, I have dedicated this summer to serve the families of the Dominican Republic full time. I sense a great responsibility upon our generation, in that one day we will be held responsible for the positions of leadership in our cities, businesses, governments, and churches. Therefore, TODAY we bear the prerogative of preparation- to educate ourselves, build relationships, develop long-term strategies, and serve the older generations currently leading the charge.

However, this is not an appeal to inaction today; there are simple ways to get involved now. The Internet has proven to be a remarkable tool in the democratization of microfinance, enabling the average guy on the street to be a banker to the poor. Organizations such as Kiva.org, allow lenders to support specific micro-entrepreneurs. Your loan is submitted online and then you track the progress of that particular micro-entrepreneur during the repayment period. It is a very personal and effective way someone can participate in this important work for as little as a few dollars.

The infant microfinance industry is poised for explosive growth in the coming years. Although the estimated size of the market is over 500 million micro-entrepreneurs worldwide, only 5% of the demand for microcredit is currently being met. This gap represents a daunting challenge to our generation, but strategies and resources are currently being developed to confront this issue of extreme poverty. One promising concept involves the commercialization of microfinance by offering bundled microloans to commercial investors. This marriage between MFIs and the international capital markets would ensure the maturation and credibility of microfinance as a viable investment segment, and secure a virtually inexhaustible long-term funding source for generations of micro-entrepreneurs.

With MFIs working collaboratively with churches, schools, and health providers at a grassroots micro-level, and when governments and international institutions don’t jack everything up through bureaucracy, corruption, and mismanagement of resources at a macro-level, we will have the opportunity to see a dramatic reduction, if not outright eradication, of extreme poverty in our lifetime.

Tip: the iCam on Macs are great for entertaining kids (even if you don’t speak their language)

*This article in no way represents the opinions, beliefs, or policies of Esperanza International.  Rather, this simply constitutes the ranting and raving of the article’s author.

Round 1: Spanish 1, Rob 0

American’s who travel abroad for the first time are often shocked to discover that despite all the progress that has been made in the last 30 years, many foreign people still speak in foreign languages. >> Dave Barry

Ordinarily he was insane, but he had lucid moments when he was merely stupid. >>Heinrich Heine, German Poet

Hola, there are several reasons why I came to the Dominican Republic this summer, the foremost of which I will be addressing in the next week or so. In this though, I don’t want to discount my desire to give one last heroic effort to learn another language.

Heretofore, I have never really been interested in foreign languages. After two years of high school Spanish, living in Los Angeles, and even studying in Italy for a year, I came to the conclusion that I’m simply too old to learn a language and have used this excuse, quite astutely, to justify my ignorance.

But ignorant I will be no more! Ironically enough, as soon as I got myself out of academia, I developed a fresh appreciation and passion for learning, particularly in the areas of communication, rhetoric, literature, and in simply recognizing the incomparable power of words. Now, with a steadfast commitment to lifelong learning, I am, furthermore, convinced that it is possible to learn new languages as an adult. I got the intellectual capital to back me up as well with Bialystok Hakuta’s In Other Words: The Science and Psychology of Second-Language Acquisition. To test this theory, I have stepped into the ring with Spanish, deemed a relatively easy language to learn and perhaps the most readily applicable when living in North America.

However, as week 1 in the DR comes to a close, I am dumbfounded by how ridiculously bad I am at conversing in Spanish. This is nothing like how they teach you in spanish class or in the textbooks. A six-year old Dominican can dominate me any day of the week in this language, and the locals talk so fast here, they might as well be speaking in tongues at a Pentecostal church service without the gift of interpretation. Now, if I can’t make this happen with Spanish, fully-immersed in a Spanish-speaking country with some of the finest language learning tools in history (Rosetta Stone, Coffee Break Spanish, etc.), than I am one ignorant (and tall) gringo.

This, then, is my cry for help. I’m calling upon any and all of my Spanish-speaking friends to offer whatever advice, secrets, or strategies they can, so that I can wrestle this bear to the ground by August!

For me, in the end, learning a language in a foreign country is a lot like dating: they both bring out my stutter and I sweat a lot, it takes a village to help me in the process, and in the end, I’m just a source of laughter and a shaking of the head. However, I am optimistic that someday you will all be impressed with my progress in both!

In the New World

Following the light of the sun, we left the Old World… >> Christopher Columbus

My first several days in the Dominican Republic (DR) were spent in Santo Domingo, where Esperanza International is headquartered. A friend of the organization allowed me to stay in his empty apartment in the colonial district of the bustling capital city. When I say “apartment”, I really mean “cavernous hacienda with running water, industrial strength air conditioning, and a pleasant courtyard in which I eat my cereal in the warming mornings.” So far so good.

 

I was joined at the Hacienda by a fellow Pepperdine student, Jeff Baker , who I share an eerily similar past with (both studied in Italy through Pepperdine University, both from Seattle originally, both working with Esperanza for the summer, etc.).

Carlos Pimentel, the dynamic Executive Director of Esperanza and Rafael Ortiz played host to us during my our first days in the DR, providing an orientation to the transformational work Esperanza is doing among the poor communities of this tropical island.

Only 515 years after Christopher Columbus himself first set foot in the New World, I find myself stepping off of a bus onto that same plot of land in Puerto Plata– my new home for the next two months. I was greeted by Norberto Eusebio, the local Esperanza Director here in this region of the DR. He was kind enough to guide me through this beach side town and introduce me to my new Dominican mom, Tatica. She is hosting me in her quaint home just outside the city, and besides being the descendant of some great Dominican general, she is the best cook this side of the Mississippi.

My weekend orientation was concluded with my first dip (and first sunburn) in the Caribbean Sea (along with several thousand others) on a day that was nothing less then perfect.

Welcome to my Blog!

I realize this blogging phenomenon has been around awhile, and with many of you knowing my Late Adopter tendencies, this should be about as surprising as when I finally got a cell phone in late 2004.  It is high time that I too stake my claim to some virtual real estate that I can call my own, hence the inaugural launch of this blog which I have named: there must be more.  Some yahoo already got www.robertgarey.com and since I graduated from high school a long time ago, I’m not about to sell out to the MySpace/Facebook (or what I affectionately like to refer to as, “MyFace”) bandwagon.

The occasion for this blogging experiment is the fact that I have just quit my job with a management consulting firm in Washington DC, and now plan on escaping to the Caribbean.  For the past year, I have been working in an anonymous cubicle deep within the bowels of some secret government operation center.  Although I am glad to have had the opportunity to serve my country in this capacity, I am longing for more.

Therefore, this summer I will be working with Esperanza International, a Micro Finance Institution (MFI) that leads community-based economic development efforts focused specifically on benefiting children and their families in the Dominican Republic (DR) and Haiti.  I will be living in a city called Puerto Plata (see map) on the northern coast of the DR with my nuevo hermano, Norberto Eusebio.

Here on out, this will be the official place to go to ensure that I am, in fact, still alive (and very much intending on being at my little sister’s wedding extravaganza in Seattle on August 19th!). I will be developing this site more in the coming weeks, so hopefully you will find it frequently graced with plenty of photos, and perhaps a meaningful thought or two.

Forgive the brevity of this initial post, but my plane will be leaving shortly, officially beginning this next adventure…

there’s more, rob