Anne’s on the plane… and Dave is doing the post…

Anne's on the plane, so I get to do the post today!!  I'm so obviously not a poet, but I wound up writing a poem about my experience this week.  Bear with me…

Just An Individual

(a poem)

I’ve known that
there is hunger and grinding poverty – today.

I’ve known that babies are literally starving – today…

I’ve seen the
pictures…

I’ve tried to
ignore the commercials and

felt lousy
when I did.

I look at it,

Overwhelming,
Dark, Depressing …

But I’m just an
individual, what can I do about it?

I’ve given money
to the organizations…

Sure I have,
…some…

It disappears down
a rat hole.

Corruption,

I don’t want to
give for that.

But I’m just an
individual, what can I do about it?

Children in this
world should not go hungry.

Never,

not ever.

But I’m just an
individual, what can I do about it?

I can still give
some money,

babies still
starve – today.

And I can still
help – for today.

But I can also
help people help themselves,

isn’t that what He
said to do?

Help them help
themselves,

help them help
each other.

Teach a man to
fish…

I’m just an
individual,

but I can help – for tomorrow…

I worked at church a couple of days this week at a leadership conference that they were participating in.
I was just running some of the video equipment so I had
plenty of time to listen. 

I heard the “usual” stuff about poverty that always
frustrates me. 

 Every time I see the UN or the World Bank in the news on
this I think, “Oh, PLEASE!  Give it a rest!”  They send massive
amounts of tax money to the same corrupt officials year in and year out, people
remain in poverty, and in the worst cases babies die. 

 Lots of them…

 I see charity organizations advertising and I hope that they
have better results, but they are still just trying to plug the hole in the
dam.  Immediate needs that they cannot keep up with.  They don’t deal
with the longer term and the problem doesn’t improve.

 Then, we heard about “microfinance”, (which was new
to me).  Apparently it isn’t new and it’s well established. 

 It fits my style exactly.  I can loan money DIRECTLY to
poor entrepreneurs to help them improve their situations.  AND I can do it
in little tiny increments if I want to.  As little as 25 bucks can
make a huge difference.  I can loan as little or as much as I
like.  Start out small and test the water… 

 There is an organization called Kiva that puts lenders
together to fund small loans to these people. Tremendous!

 Please take a look at http://www.kiva.org.
 Spend a few minutes.  Click on “Lend”.

Even I can loan
someone 25 bucks!  Kiva has great reporting so you’ll see what’s being
done with your money.  You won’t make any interest, but heck, it’s only a
few bucks and it will be fun to watch as the folks repay your loan and grow
their businesses!

 I’ve already got a couple of small loans set up and I’m
thinking about putting together a group, (one of the things you can do with
Kiva), to do some loans for these people.  If you might be interested, please let me know at davebrown99@sbcglobal.net
.  I’d see it with a few people to make decisions for the group and
provide regular reports to all about the money and where it stands.

 Dave