OikocreditUSA is non-profit global leader in the microfinance sector that provides credit to trade cooperatives, fair trade organizations, and small-to-medium enterprises in the developing world. Re-Vision Labs is a local, mission-driven start-up offering on-line and offline community building campaigns for worldchanging projects.

The campaign will be launched at January’s Seattle Greendrinks! Seattle Greendrinks has been the premier monthly networking event for professionals interested in sustainability and global development, with regular attendance between 300 and 500 people, and attendance as high as 1,000 at a single event! This  Seattle Greendrinks will be one of the largest in history and will feature socially responsible investment.

Seattle GreenDrinks Oikocredit Kickoff Event

When?  Tuesday, January 12^th

Time? 5:30 – 9:00pm

Where? Evo at 122 NW 36th St, Seattle, WA, 98107 See map: Google map

What? Oikocredit USA and Re-Vision Labs are launching a grassroots campaign to get Americans involved in ending global poverty.

Who?  You, staff from Re-Vision Labs, and Terry Provence, Oikocredit USA Executive Director

If you’d like to learn more about what’s happening with the movement, visit our Community HUB at http://oikocreditusa.socialgo.com/.

Please come, bring your friends and family, and support!!!

Hope to see you there!!

Check out the following two articles for more information on how the ‘Obama small business plan’ is creating a big job for micro enterprise nonprofits:

http://www.reuters.com/article/pressRelease/idUS22108+17-Mar-2009+BW20090317

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/12/business/smallbusiness/12micro.ready.html?_r=1

Tomorrow afternoon, Washington CASH is having their 8th annual Holiday Bazaar! 30 of Washington CASH’s clients will be displaying and selling their items throughout the day. There will be a great variety of products and services including hand crafted items, food products, professional services and household items. All of the vendors at the Bazaar have started their businesses with the help of Washington CASH’s services – and many of them have seen advancements in their businesses through the help of microloans.

This is a great opportunity to not only do some christmas shopping, but to support your local businesses…and your local microenterprise organization!

Where: Northwest African American Museum, 2300 South Massachusetts Street, Seattle, WA 98144

When: November 22, 11:00a.m. – 4:00p.m.

I (and I don’t think I am alone here) like numbers. I like to see statistical evidence that progress is happening - in addition to reading inspiring articles and stories. So for everybody out there who is like me and wants to see the evidence in graph form that Microcredit works and is progressing…..here you go.

I will start today by posting two graphs which I created using data from the Microcredit Summit Campain 07′ Report - I would recommending reading this report in full as well, as it is very insightful.

I hope these graphs are as inspiring to you as they are to me. In 2006, 69.8% of the total clients reached were considered ‘poorest clients’ – that is a significant increase from the 56.3% reached in 1997.

I realize that many more programs are reporting in 2006 than in the 1990′s, and that clearly the number of ‘poorest clients’ reached will be higher - but the bottom line is… Microfinance is growing and reaching more of the ‘poorest of poor’ than ever! And if you look closely at the percent increases you will see that while the number of programs reporting increased on average by 21.7% over the span of those nine years, the number of ‘poorest clients’ reached increased on average by 33%! Now that is exciting.

I will try to keep the graphs and statistical analysis coming! Until then…

But what do you get when you turn Micro Finance on its head? You get Jamii Bora.

Established in 1999 by Ingrid Monroe at the initiative of 50 beggars in Nairobi, Jamii Bora has now become the largest Micro Finance Institution in Kenya. Of the belief that, “any family, however poor, miserable, and hopeless, is capable of getting themselves out of poverty”, Jamii Bora extends loans to not only the poor – but to the poorest of the poor. Loans are extended to anyone who is willing to learn how to help themselves: thieves, criminals and prostitutes alike.

At Jamii Bora, there are no ’clients’ or ‘customers’ – just members. Jamii Bora offers its members various types of loans for micro-businesses, school fees and housing, and has additionally implemented its own Health Care and Life Insurance System. For a mere 15 US$/year, a family of five persons can receive a year of health insurance (and this insurance does not just cover the basics…heart surgeries and hip-replacements have all been performed!)

It is a fact that the poor pay more in rent per square meter than the rich. Jamii Bora quickly reached the conclusion that if the poor could construct their own houses, than they could pay the same amount of money per month in loan repayment and soon own the house they live in. This would not only lead to increased savings in their household budget, but would open the doors to investment opportunities for both their businesses and the school of their children. To aid in this process, Jamii Bora purchased a large plot of land on which their members could build their houses. In a sense, they created a town. Now home to approximately 14,000 members, Jamii Boras’ town has a commercial center, a sewage treatment plant and allows for the reality of business growth.

I had the opportunity of listening to Ingrid Monroe speak at this months RESULTS conference call. To say she is inspiring would be a mere understatement – she is revolutionary. Now in the process of building its second town, we can only expect Jamii Bora to grow even larger and continue to eradicate poverty one dream at a time.

I could go on and on about the successes and innovative strategies of Jamii Bora – but there is simply not enough room on this page (and I’m sure I’d lose all my readers)…but check out JamiiBora.org for more information, updated statistics and Ingrid Monroe’s future plans.

My name is Michelle Grocke, I’m 24 years old and I just moved to Seattle a few months ago. I graduated from William Smith College in upstate New York with an economics and modern language degree in the Spring of ’06. Immediately after my graduation I moved to Geneva, Switzerland and completed a research internship with the I.L.O.
(the UN specialized agency which seeks the promotion of social justice and internationally recognized human and labor rights).

While at the I.L.O., I edited a few working papers on microcredit and soon discovered how brilliant, how widely successful and how simple this method of eradicating poverty really is! I soon began to immerse myself into any and all literature I could find regarding microcredit – and knew that this was something that I wanted to become and stay involved in for the rest of my life.  Side note: If you have not already done so, you should read both Muhammad Yunus’ book Banker to the Poor, and Alex Counts’ book Small Loans, Big Dreams.

Not knowing exactly how to get involved with microcredit I decided to take a break, move to Jackson Hole, Wyoming, and go skiing for two seasons – I thought maybe the crisp air and powder would provide some sort of clarity…

Well low and behold it finally did, and that is how I wound up here. After a mere four-day visit to Seattle I realized how involved and active everybody here was with not only microcredit, but with an abundant array of both domestic and global issues. In Jackson I almost always had to follow up “I’m going to Seattle to hopefully get a job working with Microcredit…” with “Oh, okay…well basically Microcredit is….” That’s not the case in Seattle.

In addition to looking for a job, I am currently continuing to educate myself with the ‘what’s new’ in the world of microcredit – and will be posting my findings on myKRO.org. Sorry, I realize this introduction wasn’t exactly short, but now at least you know a little about the newest contributor to myKRO.