Givers Embrace Micro-Loan Programs
Alex Counts considers Dallas his Promised Land.
More individuals here support his crusade to give small loans to really poor women than any other place on earth.
“Here, the story of self-help, entrepreneurship, people working their way out of poverty and taking charge of their lives as economic actors is a best-seller,” the 41-year-old founder and president of the Washington, D.C.-based Grameen Foundation said during a recent visit.
“It’s the old boys’ network brought down to the level of low-income women. People here get that.”
His foundation works in 25 countries and has helped an estimated 18 million people. It’s modeled after the Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, whose founder, Muhammad Yunus, was a Nobel laureate in 2006.
The Plan Fund makes micro-business loans of $500 to $4,000 to help the tiniest and riskiest entrepreneurs in South and West Dallas. Since its inception in 1999, the nonprofit has made $710,000 in loans to beauty parlors, auto repair shops, catering companies and other businesses that wouldn’t have had a ghost of a chance with a traditional bank.
Can a $50 loan really start a business?
“In these Latin American cultures, it’s absolutely the case,” said the 55-year-old developer of One Arts Plaza in downtown. “This meager amount is enough to buy materials to sew blouses or stock chickens. One lady gets coal from the mountains and sells it in the town.”
Photo by Julia Manzerova.
cassy on November 8th, 2008 6:33 pm
$50 is a small amount but if a person knows how to handle the money and used his resourcefulness then it can help him to start a business.
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