Speeches :
MICRO-CREDIT
SPEECH DELIVERED BY RID ASHOK MAHAJAN AT THE DISTRICT CONFERENCE OF RI DIST: 1580, AALSMEER, HOLLAND, AS R I PRESIDENT’S REPRESENTATIVE ON 9TH MAY, 2009
For Nayantara and me today is indeed a special day in our lives. Special because for the first time today we shall be representing a Rotary International President in your country and sharing with you his vision for the Rotary world and his message to the Rotarians worldwide.
We bring you greetings from RI President Dong Kurn Lee, the first ever president from Korea and his wife Young Jha. I bring you greetings from Past RI President Raja Saboo and Usha from India also from DG Bansi Dhurandar and his wife Dr Surekha from R I Dist: 3140
I am delighted that the theme of this District Conference is Micro-Financing and it was very nice of your District Governor requesting me to address on “Micro-Credit for poor people”.
What is micro
credit? Well, on the surface, micro credit is the act of giving small loans to a
group of poor entrepreneurs so they can rise out of debt to become
self-sufficient. 
But Micro credit is much more than that.
Jeffery Sachs, an economist who specializes in the eradication of poverty, has said that “The key to ending extreme poverty is to enable the poorest of the poor to get their foot on the ladder of development.”
At its heart, this is what Micro credit is. It offers hope to the poorest of the poor. It is a way of saying, “Yes, I believe in you, I honour your work, and I want to see you succeed. ”
So why Rotary should support and become involved in Micro credit?
Because goals of the Micro credit movement and the goals of Rotary International go hand in hand. When Micro credit programmes work, the objectives of Rotary are met. A truly successful Micro credit programme will build fellowship and friendship, foster dignity and integrity and give people hope for a better future.
Micro loans are generally given to a group of people, meaning that people who might otherwise have been competitors are obliged to work together. Like Rotary, micro lending programmes encourage friendship with purpose of service.
In granting Micro loan, lenders uphold Rotary’s belief in the inherent value of all occupations. It is a way of saying to a tailor or a furniture maker – the work you do is valuable. Micro loans honour all those who work and gives them dignity.
But Micro lending – like Rotarian service – reaches far beyond the entrepreneur. The recipient of a micro loan has the opportunity, often for the first time, to make a profit.
Those profits are in turn, put back into community when the entrepreneur buys materials, goods, or services from others. A loan of funds to one entrepreneur benefits the whole community. Success breeds success.
The key to that success is self-sufficiency. We have a popular saying in my country: if you give a man a fish, you feed him for the day- but if you teach a man to fish, you feed him for a lifetime. But Micro credit goes one step further. Micro credit programmes not only teach a man to fish, but they teach that man how to sell his fish and handle his profits – which means that Micro credit programmes can feed an entire village.
As a business man, I know that the success of Micro credit lies beyond the person receiving the loan. Those who are recipients of a micro loan spend their profits in their own villages and towns, and their fellow business people become enriched. This, in turn, gives those people capital to spend. Through one loan, a village can begin to break the cycle of poverty which trapped them. Success breeds success.
Today, the repayment rate of most micro loan programme is astonishingly high. Repayment average between 90 and 95 percent. In some places in the world, where micro loan programmes are well established, the default rate is less than 1%.
Micro credit – when done well- works. It brings communities out of poverty. And that is why it is important to us in Rotary.
Our service emphases often take us into communities that are affected by profound poverty. Because of their poverty, the people in those communities live unstable and dangerous lives. When a man or a woman must work to 14 to 16 hours a day in an attempt to survive, they do not have the time to think about where to get clean drinking water. They are too exhausted to maintain their health. Literacy is only a dream.
Rotary has done extremely valuable work in providing clean drinking water, health care, and literacy programmes to communities in need. But only when we can bring a village out of extreme poverty our service – as tremendous as it already is – take root and flourish.
I am very pleased to say that Rotary understands the importance of self-sufficiency. We recognize that it is the foundation that must be laid if we want our service to stand long into the future. And we have been steadily helping to build that foundation.
In 1999, we awarded Mohammed Yunus, the mind behind the micro credit movement, the highest award Rotary has to offer – the Rotary Award for World Understanding and Peace – in recognition of his work to end poverty.
Over the years, we have developed more resources to help combat poverty.
Rotary International and The Rotary Foundation have committed themselves to expanding our Micro credit and revolving loan programmes and finding new ways to serve through these programmes.
The Rotary Foundation offers matching and 3H grants to Clubs who need to fund a micro credit project.
As you all know, I am from India, where Rotary Micro credit Programmes are very strong. I am indeed very proud of the work Rotary and particularly Rotary in India, have done to abolish poverty.
We believe that all of the work we do, no matter how insignificant it sometimes seems to us, will have an impact. if enough people believe this – then their efforts multiply. There is no such thing as a small act of helping.
Yes, there are roughly 1.2 billion people in the world living on less than one US dollar every day. But there are 1.2 million Rotarians - and numerous partnering agencies – in the world fighting to make a difference.
That is 1.2 million Rotarians finding sustainable ways to enrich the local economy. That’s 1.2 million Rotarians addressing the basic needs of small business people. That’s 1.2 million Rotarians restoring the dignity and self-sufficiency of the poor.
As we gather today and talk about the work of local Rotary Clubs to address and eliminate the cycle of poverty, I want to challenge you. What current service projects are your Club doing that could easily incorporate a Micro credit component? What matching grants or 3H grants from The Rotary Foundation could you apply for? Which organizations or other Rotary Clubs could your Club partner with, in a Micro credit project?
Micro credit is not just revolutionary – it is daring. It offers loans to those who do not seem to have the resources to repay them. It reaches out to the marginalized in our society and gives them tools for survival and success. And it honours every business person’s energy and drive for excellence.
Mohammed Younus is quoted as saying. “One day our grandchildren will go to museums to see what poverty was like”
Let Rotary International be the organization that puts poverty in its rightful place – the past.
ASHOK MAHAJAN
DIRECTOR – ROTARY INTERNATIONAL
Copyright (c)2011 Ashokmahajan.com
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