While Dave and I were in South Africa, we learned of the plans the OMS South Africa team has for establishing a micro-enterprise/credit program within the rural churches of South Africa and eventually expanding into other African countries as the program grows. The program that these men envision starting is very similar to a program that has already been underway in Bangladesh for several years now. So naturally my boss Dave suggested that these guys make a trip to Bangladesh to check it out and gather information. After discussing the dates and noting the busyness of everybody’s schedules, it was agreed upon that I should accompany the men to Bangladesh to act as the introducing party. I also got to act as the English interpreter on occasion; that is to translate between South African English and Bengali English using my American English. (They all sound different but I was the only person there who had heard all three before.)
We had three main objectives that we hoped to accomplish on this trip. The first was to learn as much about Micro-Credit and Micro-enterprise as possible. (At the bottom of this post I’ll explain briefly what these terms mean.) The second was to learn as much as possible about the leadership training programs that are taking place in Bangladesh. Finally the third was to let God teach us anything else He wanted. I would say all three goals were met.
The most exciting part of the trip for me was seeing God fulfill our third goal. While learning about the micro-credit and training programs were big on our list, the third goal was exciting because we didn’t know what form it might take. As it turns out, it involved the children.
In Bangladesh, the church has taken a huge role in educating and caring for children. They have set up many schools (116 serving 4,629 kids) and orphanages (5 serving 616 kids) all aimed at caring for the kids who can’t care for themselves. A lasting comment that was made more than once from the South African guys was the statement that they needed to go home and think more highly about taking care of Africa’s children. This is exciting to me seeing as how a huge percentage of Africa’s population is under the age of 14. (over 42% in Mozambique, 29% in South Africa, 42% Rwanda, 42% Kenya, and 46% in Burundi just to name a few!)
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A short explanation on Micro-Credit and Micro-Enterprise as I understand them. These are definitely not the end all explanations, just a very simple overview!
Micro-Credit is a system of setting up small loans for people of low means so that they can better their lives by acquiring additional capital to invest in business ventures. For example someone might borrow enough money to purchase a cow and then use the profits from the sale of the milk to repay the loan over a short period of time.
Micro-Enterprise is a system of training people of low mean how to start a business and how to wisely invest in a business venture. You might train the person how to take care of the cow and how to milk it etc…
Often times, micro-credit and micro-enterprise work hand in hand and can complement each other very well.
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