The Real Solution to Global Poverty: Micro-Financing <?xml:namespace prefix = o ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:office" />
 
Caroline Lewis
 
Recently, Barak Obama, has co-sponsored a Senate bill (S 2433) called the Global Poverty Act which causes our government to be responsible for giving $845 billion dollars to the world through "aid, trade, and debt relief." 
The question is, "does this sort of financing actually solve poverty?"
Muhammed Yunus, founder of the Grameen Bank in <?xml:namespace prefix = st1 ns = "urn:schemas-microsoft-com:office:smarttags" />Bangladesh says, "No."  In 1983, Yunus founded the Grameen Bank which seeks to stop the cycle of poverty by granting small loans to the poor, mostly women, who are then able to use that capital to start small entrepreneurial businesses for profit.  While foreign aid appears to be beneficial to underdeveloped or impoverished countries, Yunus believes that "foreign aid becomes a kind of charity for the powerful while the poor get poorer."[1]  In other words, those on the receiving end of foreign aid benefit, while the "little people" do not. 
But this does not mean that aiding those in need is a lost cause.  In fact, aiding those in need has taken on a whole new face since the advent of micro-financing.  Yunus and others have seen that this system, which gives small loans to people in economically disparaged, actually works!  It has worked in countries like Columbia, Zimbabwe, Croatia, Indonesia, and the Philippians.  There are amazing stories of people like Lola Tasun of Manila in the Philippines.  She is a 72 year-old woman who, through the loan granted to her, now obtains a steady income through her sales of kerosene lanterns.  Hers and other stories like it are available at www.opportunity.com just one of the many micro-financing companies.
Another micro-financing organization is www.kiva.org.  This organization is so exciting because the donor is able to see who the recipient is, what sort of business he or she is pursuing and how much capital he or she needs.  The donation goes directly to this person who is able to work his or her own small business in order to escape the clutches of poverty.  Over time, the recipient pays back the loan to the donor.  At this point the donor can use that money to help another person in need!  What a deal!
Hope International is another organization which believes that poverty can be solved through granting small loans to people in need.  Hope International's president, Peter Greer observes that there are many creative, hard-working people who are unable to come out of the cycle of poverty due to the lack of capital.  Hope offers these people an opportunity to start a small business regardless of credit history.  This then allows these people to provide for themselves and their family.
            Obama's solution to global poverty is not only expensive in that it will cost 0.7% of our gross national product and increase the price of gas (taxes levied on carbon-emitting fuels is just one of the ideas for where we will get this money) but there is a much better alternative to it: microfinancing.
 
Resources:
www.grameen-info.org
www.opportunity.com
www.kiva.org
www.hopeinternational.org
 
Caroline Lewis is an undergraduate student at Southern Methodist University pursuing a degree in History with a minor in Political Science.  She is also an intern with "Point of View" radio talk show, a nationally-syndicated live radio program which focuses on issues and current events from a Christian perspective.  Caroline is a member of Concerned Women for America, the Eagle Forum, the National Rifle Association, and Council for Life.
 
Please, call your senators today and urge them to vote against S 2433.
 
Find your senators!  Log onto www.congress.org.  Put in your zip code and it will pull up all of your officials and their contact information.  Call or e-mail your two senators listed at their D.C. offices.  Their interns will take note that the constituents are concerned.  They really do listen to their voters!  You CAN make a difference!
 
Furthermore, if Obama truly wanted to help children, he could start by preserving the lives of 1.3 million innocent children who are killed every year in our own country through abortion (http://www.prolifeaction.org/faq/abortion.htm#yearly).  In 2005, Obama voted against the Born Alive Infants Protection Act which basically states that any child that is born alive is considered a person and is thus constitutionally protected as such (http://www.religioustolerance.org/abo_aliv.htm).  Obama's vote thereby reflects that he did not believe that a child who is born alive is a person!  In other words, his vote reflects that he would be in favor of a child being born and the doctors then having the jurisdiction to kill the baby after he has taken his first breath.  While many people may argue about the personhood or not personhood of an unborn child, a born child to most (except the fringe-types who believe that you should have a waiting period to see if you really want to raise the kid or kill it) people agree that one a baby is born, he is a person!  Obama's vote shows that he disagrees. 
            I don't understand how he can be so radically for what appears to be infanticide, yet at the same time desire to help the whole world through global aid.     

[1] Yunus, Muhammad.  Banker for the Poor.  New York: Public Affairs, 1999.  145-46. As quoted in Mark Skousen.  The Power of Economic Thinking.  Irvington-on-Hudson: Foundation for Economic Education, 2002. 61-63.