The current economic crisis in Asia highlights the need for economic opportunities for the poor in all areas of the world. Fortunately, Sen. Dick Durbin has introduced a bill that will do just that, the Microcredit for Self-Sufficiency Act (SB2152).
Microcredit refers to loans of less than $300 to individual poor people to allow them to become small-scale entrepreneurs. As an example, the Grameen Bank of Bangladesh has lent an average of $140 to more than 2 million of that country’s poor (94 percent of them women), with a 98 percent loan repayment rate. Follow-up studies have shown that these emerging capitalists use the money they earn to improve nutrition, health care and education for their children, a clear investment in the future. Microcredit is one poverty program that has proven itself effective.
Sen. Durbin’s bill calls for the appropriation of $160 million for microcredit for fiscal year 1999, with at least half of that money going to institutions serving the poorest of the poor. As Congress returns from its holiday recess, now is the time to contact our representatives to let them know we want them to support Sen. Durbin’s bill.
