I really believe that the strengths of a country are its people. Take 1000’s of people and give them the opportunity to make their own living, and with little or no help they will succeed. Success breads success.
In N. Africa I visited a Carpet factory where the government took the first born female and trained her to loom and make carpets. They gave her a loom and yarn and sent her home. It was her responsibility to teach and train all the other females in her home. What a great way to help people become self sufficient.

My name is Hao Zhang. I enjoyed reading your post because I readily identified with how you got involved with Kiva. Although no relative introduced Kiva to me, I discovered the site after watching the Yunnus interview on the Charlie Rose show.

I plan to apply for the Kiva Fellows program in the fall and hope to learn more about microfinance. In the mean time, I’ve been doing some background research on the field. I’ve come across a great deal of literature both praising the results of microfinance, as well as dismissing the long term economic impact of microfinance. For the latter argument, people claim that the loans are used for microbusinesses that does not hire many workers. They argue that to more effectively stimulate the economy, loans should be made to small or mid size businesses.

In addition, I’ve also wondered how people use these loans. I presume that these people have very little education and that they have a lot of domestic responsibilities such as child rearing. How do they open and maintain a business? And if many people use the loans, wouldn’t their businesses compete against each other and decrease overall profits?

What are your thoughts on these points?

Best,
Hao Zhang