Help people help themselves: That's the idea
behind microcredit. Small loans-sometimes no more than $50-can
radically improve the life of a poor family. Where development aid and
billion-dollar loans fail, microcredit is emerging as the success story in
the battle against world poverty.
People who were previously considered "unbankable" no longer have
to look to loan sharks for funding. With microcredit, they can become
owners of small businesses. And it turns out they nearly always repay
their loans on time. In many countries, professional organizations have
become active in the field of microfinancing.
To research this book, Kamp traveled to Kenya, Uganda, Bolivia and
India to speak with the people who grant microcredit and those who
receive it. Their stories make it clear that microcredit is a tremendous
stimulus for economic and social development and, in particular, for
people's self-awareness.
Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Ode magazine, Jurriaan Kamp has
published two previous books, Because People Matter: Building an
Economy That Works for Everyone (2000) and It Is Possible (1998).
Praise for Jurriaan Kamp's Because People Matter:
"A wonderful and concise handbook of how modern economic theory
has dealt a body blow to the prospect of a humane world. Jurriaan Kamp
shows the vectors of change that can lead us away from being economic
ciphers to a system that enlivens and redefines what it means to be a
human being."
PAUL HAWKEN,
Environmentalist, Entrepreneur and Author of The Ecology of Commerce
"A powerfully persuasive chronicle of why opposition to the current brand
of globalization is certain to grow."
JEFF GATES,
Author of The Ownership Solution and Democracy at Risk
ABOUT THE AUTHOR: Co-founder and editor-in-chief of Ode magazine, JURRIAAN KAMP has pubilished two previous books, Because People Matter: Building an Economy that Works for Everyone (2000) and It Is Possible (1998).
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