Seed money
MicroLoan Foundation USA plans to make big changes by teaching students about poverty and microlending
Are young people the future of microfinance?
That's the belief of a new Cambridge-based nonprofit that wants to make microlending, a loan system for people in developing countries, a classroom staple for students in Boston and beyond.
Through an educational program called Small Change, Big Changes, MicroLoan Foundation USA plans to create a curriculum for middle schools and high schools that will teach about poverty in Africa, development efforts in poor countries, and the use of microlending - in which modest loans help impoverished people become self-sufficient - as a development tool.
Students will also be encouraged to form microfinance clubs that will raise money in their communities. That money will then be used to provide small loans and basic business training to women in sub-Saharan Africa who have no collateral and no access to conventional banking.
MicroLoan Foundation USA, launched last month, aims to roll out the program in a dozen Boston-area schools in September.
The program, which will be taught by volunteer college students in partnership with classroom teachers, is designed to show students that "just because they're in high school and half a world away doesn't mean they can't actually help someone in an impoverished community in rural Africa," said Lauren Galinsky, 20, a junior at Boston College who is recruiting schools and college students to participate in the project.
On the contrary, Galinsky added: Even small amounts of money raised by large numbers of students can have a powerful positive effect on the lives of disadvantaged people thousands of miles away.
Modeled after globally acclaimed microcredit organizations like Grameen Bank - which with its founder, Muhammad Yunus, won the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize - the MicroLoan Foundation USA is a spinoff of the MicroLoan Foundation, a London-based organization founded in 2002 to provide microfinance services in Malawi, Zambia, and the Philippines. The Cambridge entity was created to bolster the organization's US fund-raising efforts, and to enable US donors to receive charitable tax deductions for their contributions, said David A. Rice, executive director of MicroLoan Foundation USA.
"There's a much greater awareness among the next generation of leaders about what's going on in the world and the role they want to play," said Rice, the founder of Strategic Policy Concepts, a Cambridge consulting firm. "So we want to turn students into fund-raisers, and we hope they, in turn, become educators for their parents."
Microfinance has attracted growing attention in recent years as a way to help lift people in developing countries out of poverty without making them dependent on charitable handouts.
The loans made by the MicroLoan Foundation are typically less than $50 and have gone to more than 10,000 women, who repay the money on a weekly or biweekly basis and receive business-skills training. The foundation's goal is to enable the women to become self-sufficient.
Many women use the loans to buy bulk goods that they resell at local markets for a small profit. Some use the money for telephones and phone line rentals so community members can pay them to make phone calls. Others purchase sewing machines so they can make and sell clothing.
"A lot of people call it banking for the poor, but our goal is not to be their bank," said Galinsky, the Boston College student. "Our goal is to allow them to have credit history and build up enough capital to be able to access commercial banks and graduate into the mainstream world economy."
The pilot school for the Small Change, Big Changes program will be Daniel Hand High School in Madison, Conn., from which Galinsky is a graduate. The foundation's microfinance curriculum - Rice calls it a "courselet" - will be incorporated into social studies, civics, and finance courses, and will be taught by volunteer college students.
The college students will visit the schools once a week throughout the semester to teach about how microlending can help remedy global poverty. Each weekly presentation will run between 20 and 30 minutes.
Students will then form microfinance clubs that will engage in community-based fund-raising activities. With the money raised, each club will adopt a "loan circle" in Malawi made up of 10 to 18 women, and students will decide what types of loans to make.
"This isn't the textbook stuff most high school kids experience. They're going to see how this benefits somebody thousands and thousands of miles away, which is kind of cool," said Francis Thompson, assistant principal of Daniel Hand High School, which expects to incorporate the curriculum into its business education department.
"As the world becomes smaller, we have to become global thinkers and global problem solvers, and this kind of program really lends itself to seeing that in action," he added. "This opens up their worlds in a positive way by showing them what the power of commitment and teamwork can do to help people."
Galinsky has already recruited volunteer student-teachers from Boston College, and hopes to do the same at Boston University, Northeastern University, and elsewhere. She is also identifying schools in the Boston area where the course could be taught.
"I remember being in middle and high school thinking, 'When am I ever going to use this? What does this have to do with anything going on in the world?' " said Galinsky, who will travel to Malawi this summer for MicroLoan Foundation USA.
"So we want to give students information that will really empower them and raise their awareness about microfinance, because we think that will be the best way to mobilize resources to bring to these impoverished communities in rural Africa."
Sacha Pfeiffer can be reached at pfeiffer@globe.com.
