Dear readers,
This isn't one of those blogs where you hear about donation and charity and how we make world a beautiful place and all that sort of ****. During my course of Summer internship, i cane across a project on micro finance and how it is the next big thing. This blog will change your mindset on helping the poor by donations, & i thought Good Friday is a great day for it.
When i was small, my grandmother used to sit with me and talk about how we should help the poor and make them happy, i was so fascinated about this idea that i wanted to make a NGO and spread smiles, however, in the process of me growing, i came across ugly pictures of poor people of wars, diseases, poverty, so i became nervous on how should i deal with my passion of NGO and this ugly picture. Not only me but i assume most of us do get this feeling of guilt of our own relative wealth when compared with the BPL. So i had stopped thinking that things would ever change.
However, i recently came across this gentleman Dr. Muhammad yunus from bangladesh and his idea of Grameen Bank . . Dr Yunus is one of those person who did make a difference without donating even i single penny.. He has won a Nobel Peace prize on Micro finance.
During this research report, i came across so many people who had changed their lives receiving micro finance. These were poor people who were "strong", "determined" & wanted to make a difference not in the world but in their own lives.. It was amazing the way we heard across stories of changes and how these poor people created opportunities from sacrifices. Their could now afford education for their children, proper health care and easy 3 times a day meal. Without taking donations. And they were so proud of what they had achieved in their lives.
LOAN IS BETTER THAN DONATION. WHY? It may sound the same thing but the difference lies in communication. Donation would be "here you take, bye" whereas, loan is "here you take, make and give back", giving back may sometimes be a trouble. But we have to understand and trust the ideas of these people as they are no less than entrepreneurs. even a small loan of Rs. 10,000 will help them to change their lives.
This isn't one of those blogs where you hear about donation and charity and how we make world a beautiful place and all that sort of ****. During my course of Summer internship, i cane across a project on micro finance and how it is the next big thing. This blog will change your mindset on helping the poor by donations, & i thought Good Friday is a great day for it.
When i was small, my grandmother used to sit with me and talk about how we should help the poor and make them happy, i was so fascinated about this idea that i wanted to make a NGO and spread smiles, however, in the process of me growing, i came across ugly pictures of poor people of wars, diseases, poverty, so i became nervous on how should i deal with my passion of NGO and this ugly picture. Not only me but i assume most of us do get this feeling of guilt of our own relative wealth when compared with the BPL. So i had stopped thinking that things would ever change.
During this research report, i came across so many people who had changed their lives receiving micro finance. These were poor people who were "strong", "determined" & wanted to make a difference not in the world but in their own lives.. It was amazing the way we heard across stories of changes and how these poor people created opportunities from sacrifices. Their could now afford education for their children, proper health care and easy 3 times a day meal. Without taking donations. And they were so proud of what they had achieved in their lives.
LOAN IS BETTER THAN DONATION. WHY? It may sound the same thing but the difference lies in communication. Donation would be "here you take, bye" whereas, loan is "here you take, make and give back", giving back may sometimes be a trouble. But we have to understand and trust the ideas of these people as they are no less than entrepreneurs. even a small loan of Rs. 10,000 will help them to change their lives.
These women received LOANS and not DONATIONS. So they made a proper change in their own lives. We spend Rs. 10,000 on a new cell phone, the same amount will change their lives, and this is an INVESTMENT, you will get the interest as they don't want to create more troubles for themselves.
We don't have to go to a NGO to do all this, we can start it from our Drivers, Servants, Workers anyone. This will definitely change one families life, i have done it, we all will do it,. I don't need to persuade you all, you all know the real picture, But we are afraid to TRY. The power of believing in each other is tremendous, lets give it a shot.
Lets all rise & shine.
Cheers,
Akash Poddar
