A Blog About…

Jesus definitely blessed my time in Bangladesh. The trip was an incredible time of learning and growing. My first day I spent in Dhaka, the sprawling capital of Bangladesh, and visited several beneficiaries of microfinance and learned their stories. Afterwards, I talked with a man who is a professional when it comes to Christian microfinance, probably the best in the country. We talked for several hours and I learned a lot about how a MFI (microfinance institution, that is) works and what it takes to run one successfully. The next three days I spent traveling from rural villages to even more rural villages meeting microfinance beneficiaries and directors of field projects that serve rural areas. In addition, Bethany School (the elementary and Junior High School that I went to) support two schools with their chapel money, one in Bagbonga and one in Benhati, and I got to visit both of them. I remember Jerry Hogshead coming to chapel and talking about them, but I never dreamed that I’d be able to see them myself. God was really at work during this time and made everything work out perfectly. I had so many new experiences such as going down muddy roads on a cart drawn by two cows, going on small river ghats, eating food that was completely natural and organic, and spending time in small very rural villages. I just got back from this trip this morning.

If you’re interested, some things I learned about microfinance and MFIs is listed below.

-Microfinance is defined by the community and community’s needs, not the other way around. Defined by the demand of the community.

-Rules, regulations, checks and balances, reliability, accountability, and an experienced executive are essential to a sustainable MFI.

-In an MFI, administration costs must be low to keep the company sustainable.

-Sociality comes first; if you can’t communicate it’s not sustainable.

-One must look at impact over the long term instead of the short term. It takes five to ten years to make money and create  a real impact on the community. Also, a bank/MFI must build up trust and be reliable.

-Microfinance creates jobs on several levels.

-In microfinance, there are two types of approaches. First is the corporate approach, which targets individuals and works best in urban areas. Secondly, there’s the group approach that divides people into groups, or chapters. This approach works best in rural areas.

-In rural areas, weekly meeting are key.

-Loans are only given to women. In addition, training in hygiene and use of money are also provided, which helps fight sexual inequality and teach basics of health and household efficiency and safety.

Well, this is my last post from India; I’m leaving Kolkata tonight for Seattle. I will continue to post in the future about India (including pictures) as well as on other things that I think about.