During
the recent ECLOF Latin American and Caribbean Regional Workshop,
Susana Pinilla, Executive Director and founder of Instituto
para el Desarollo de la Micro y Pequeña Empresa (Institute
for the Development of Micro and Small-scale Enterprise–IDESI)
Peru, who is a sociologist, anthropologist and international
consultant on micro enterprise issues, made a presentation
on "Current trends in the development of new financial
products by micro finance institutions in Latin America,
with particular reference to Peru".
Talents
Must Be Used!
Alice
Kengne Youmbi, President of ECLOF Cameroon, explains how
the sharing of resources and commitment advanced micro finance
in her country.
All
Aboard!
In
the world of micro finance, there are three kinds of stakeholders.
First,
there are the clients–the people who apply for and
receive loans. Then there is the lending agency itself–in
our case that means ECLOF Zimbabwe (ZECLOF). Finally, there
are others who are neither lenders nor borrowers of micro
finance but who have an influence on both.
Readers
will be interested by this article, translated from the
original German, in the 1959 ECLOF Annual Report by Dr.
Christian Berg, who was then Director of the Relief Agency
and Innere Mission of the Evangelical Church in Germany.
It is a well-known fact that the "Ecumenical Church
Loan Fund" exercises a beneficial activity among many
of the World Council of Churches’ member churches.
I will, therefore, not dwell on its various duties and achievements
in detail, but do want to emphasise a few points which may
lead to a better understanding of this unique form of ecumenical
aid among churches and missionary societies. I believe the
significance of ECLOF to lie mainly in the following four
principles:
1)
In the long run it is easier for churches which are themselves
eager to help others, to accept loans than to receive grants.
How often responsible churchmen from Eastern Germany have
expressed to me their anxiety at still having to request
aid for building churches and parish centres, charitable
institutions and many other urgent church undertakings,
when they have already been receiving help in various forms
over a period of ten years. The "Bread for the World"
campaign was warmly welcomed as it gave them an opportunity
to show their readiness to help others.
