blog action day

Today is Blog Action Day. Bloggers around the world are writing about a single topic today. This year's topic is poverty.

I've spent weeks pondering what to write about. And then I saw a little interview last Saturday morning on a craft program (yes, really), and the words appeared like magic.

So first, let's work from the practical definition that poverty is a lack of basic necessities that can affect quality of life. These necessities include food, clothing, shelter, sanitation, clean water, and health care. Furthermore, they can include opportunities to learn, to work, and to live in such a way as to have some dignity and self-worth.

It's not enough to simply give people money. They may not know what to do with it. They may spend it on the wrong things. Most important, they may not use it in a way that creates a self-sustaining cycle that not only gets them out of poverty, but also keeps them out of it.

Enter microloans and microfinance. With normal loans and financing, you have to have something spiffy to show to the lender, who wants to know what's in it for them should they loan you lots of money. Usually, you need some kind of collateral or good credit history or a seemingly no-fail business idea. Microfinance works differently.

Microloans are literally very small loans, sometimes as little as $25, given to people who are unemployed, entrepreneurs who have no money at all, and people who would otherwise not meet the basic criteria to get a regular loan or any kind of credit. In return, the lendee uses that money to start their own business, however small. It might be making pies or jewelry or something to sell at a roadside stand. These people likely will not make millions, but they will make a decent, dignified living and be able to eat regularly and have a place to live.

Microfinance seems like a new buzzword, but it's actually been around for centuries. Jonathan Swift (he of Gulliver's Travels) is sometimes called the Father of Microcredit for helping to establish the Irish Loan Funds in the 1700s to help the poor in Dublin. In the 1800s, the colorful Lysander Spooner encouraged small loans for the poor so they could start their own businesses. Microcredit was also helpful during World War II. Bangladesh made popular use of it starting in the 1970s.

The example I came across last Saturday puts a new twist on the idea. Krochet Kids started with three guys who learned to crochet in high school. They sold their hats to make some money for senior prom (check out the prom photo - hilarious!). In college, they traveled and saw that poverty was far more rampant than they thought. They started selling hats to raise money, and then had an even better idea. They went to Uganda, and taught some of the women there to crochet. These women can now crochet hats, which they send back to the States. The guys sell them, and send the money back to the women, who use it buy more materials and fund basic necessities, both for themselves and for their families and communities. Definitely one of those "teach a man to fish..." examples.

What can you do to fight poverty? You can buy hats from Krochet Kids. You can sell hats for them. You can lend money through kiva.org - even as little as $25. You can join lending teams through Kiva as well. You can teach your skills, crafting or otherwise, to someone less fortunate who may be able to use them to make a living. You can write your own blog post before the day is out.

I said in an earlier post no talking about money on this blog. I've just broken my own rule. I'm not sorry for it.