A Little Does a Lot

Fred in Rwanda

Each year at this time, Jo and I reach out to help one person who is looking to improve their lot in life. We work through Kiva, a group of people that acts as a go-between to locate and vet people all around the world who need just a little help to get their business up and running.

Up until this year, we have made it a policy to help women because of our experience around the world. The safest loan recipients seem to be women because they invariably will move heaven and earth to meet their commitment to pay back their loans. Men seem to give in to hopelessness more quickly and throw in the towel earlier.

But this year, we decided to take a chance with Fred of Nyagatare, Rwanda because, as luck would have it, we’d just watched a television program last Sunday morning which told about a new technology that has sprouted in Africa where people are able to transfer money instantly and safely by using their cellphones. And Fred is on the frontline using the technology.

Here is Fred’s story via Kiva:

Fred is an enthusiastic entrepreneur who wants to thrive by growing his business. His company is a mobile servicing company that offers mobile retail services to its clients. These services include money transfer, withdrawing and depositing. In addition to that, the company deals in airtime credits, electricity voucher selling and mobile technical support services.

Fred's business is located in rural Northeast Rwanda near the Uganda border. His regular clients are people from his village, but he also does a significant portion of his transactions from people crossing the border by bus. Being able to transfer money, even small amounts, from mobile phone to mobile phone is a revolutionary resource in rural areas. Often when people move to the city for better jobs and economic opportunities, they want to send money back to their families in the rural villages. Through Fred's business, he is creating an opportunity for people in the villages to receive money without having to take long bus rides or relying on other people to deliver cash.

Fred is doing very well in business. He is well-known in the community as a highly motivated entrepreneur and a reliable person. However, he is not meeting all his clients’ demand. With working capital of about $4,000 USD, Fred will be able to triple his business to meet the growing demand for his services.

African Entrepreneur Collective has been working with Fred for about six months, and he has continued to be motivated and inspiring. AEC previously gave Fred a small loan, which he paid off always on time. AEC is thrilled to help Fred with his growth plans, enabling him to support many more people in his community. Fred is very successful and has always fulfilled his payment obligations, and this time will not be different.

Jo and I, in the past, have given small loans to people like Yun for her retail business in Cambodia, Sokhoeun for construction in Cambodia, Bou and her group of farmers in Cambodia, Le for her tailoring business in Vietnam, as well as March for her vehicle in Cambodia. All these women have paid back 100 per cent of the loans they were given and all report their lives have improved in dramatic ways because of the loans.

What we like most is that our donation get used and reused many time over as these entrepreneurs pay it back and the money recycles so it can be re-loaned to another person.

If you like this idea, click on www.kiva.org

Fred lives in Nyagatare, Rwanda  in the northern corner of the country.

A Lesson for All of Us

A scene from the movie "Spotlight" in which editors and reporters struggle to get their arms around the pedophile priest story in the Catholic Archdiocese of Boston.

We’ve just returned from watching the new movie, “Spotlight”, which put me in mind of the “must-see” movie I carried across the world for more than a decade while I was working as a trainer/mentor of journalists in countries as diverse at Cambodia, Nepal, Bhutan, India, Malaysia, Pakistan and Namibia in Africa.

Back in the day, the story was “All the President’s Men,” about Woodward and Bernstein’s dogged reporting saga that brought down Richard Nixon. I’d have a VHS copy of the film in my briefcase and, when the time was right, I’d produce it for the instruction and entertainment of the journalists I worked with.

“Spotlight” is the new go-to movie for instruction and inspiration for tomorrow’s journalists. What a spectacular accounting of dogged journalism that uncovered the horror of twisted priests in the Boston archdiocese who ruined the lives of countless young men and women. And, as the story unfolds, you come to understand the complexity of the cover-up by the Catholic Church, as well as the difficulties faced by the team of Catholic reporters on The Boston Globe as they struggled to get their minds around the enormity of the crimes.

Back in the day, I would arrange a social evening at each of my stop-overs as I hopped around the globe, working with journalists. I’d provide the beer or soft drinks and chips and we’d watch the movie about all the president’s men.

 I’d pause the movie maybe 20 times so we could dissect the action, the ethical questions, the questions that resulted in ever-more questions, the earning of trust between sources and the reporters, the earning of trust between the reporters and their editors, the endless pressure and abuse that emanated from the highest echelons of the government.  All of that – and more – are repeated and enriched in the saga of “Spotlight”.

And it also highlights – for me, at least – how expensive it is to pay for this kind of in-depth journalism in an era of sinking-and-drowning newspapers. But our country will be the poorer if these kinds of long-term investigative reports are trimmed from the budgets of dying newspapers.