Microfinance over Spaghetti

This is Milagro (her nickname). I had the pleasure of meeting her this morning during one of the rountine bi-weekly meetings for repayment. The coordinator of her group, I ended up spending quite a bit of time with her and her one friend interviewing them. Milagro sells natural products, from medicines to supplements.But perhaps what is most striking about her is the excitment of the success she has found. She told me during the interview, before we went to her house to take the photo, that she received a check the other day for $127. And then she proceeded to remind me about every twenty minutes. The excitement it gave her, and certainly should, $127 bucks is about RD$4,500 pesos, was amazing and it made me realize something.

For one, microfinance isn't the sweeping reform of economic development people tout it as. And HOPE knows that and doesn't make it out to be anything of the sort. But what it is, and what it does well, is give people hope and joy, something few had before. Even those that find hardships after their loan (like one today, but if you want to read it, you have to become a donor of HOPE so they can send it to you, so go give them money!) say that there is so much more regularity to their lives that the hardships aren't as hard.

Microfinance works. Not as some make it out to. But it works. It is dirty, it is hard, but it transforms. It gives hope, it gives confidence, it makes leaders. Poverty will never go away, but we can minimize the effects of it, and give some joy, such as a paycheck of $127 from hard work.

What about the spaghetti? Well, microfinance works in other ways as well. The focus isn't on the money. Certainly Esperanza needs the clients to repay, and they most definitely hope that they find success with their businesses. But the key to that success comes from building proper relationships. And so, after talking to Milagro and her friend for an hour, they invited me to come over sometime to eat spaghetti. Obviously, I took them up on the offer, and hope to return in the next two weeks for Dominican Spaghetti (which is amazing). Two complete strangers, now friends with me all because of microfinance.