The best way to fight poverty
Is there a better way to fight poverty, than with innovation and entrepreneurship?
A couple weeks ago, I was reading a posting by A VC, where he presented the Grameen Foundation.
Here is a little of what he wrote:
My friend Mary told me about Grameen. Mary is working with them on a program called The Phone Ladies.
They give $300 loans to women in Bangladesh and Uganda. With those loans the women purchase a mobile phone, a small antenna and a battery or solar panel. The lady then becomes the phone booth in her village. People come to the door of her shack and pay her to use her phone.
It is a real win-win. The woman makes a better life for her family than she ever imagined and gains respect in the community. The mobile phone company has a new distribution network. The village has a means of communication they never had before. They no longer need to ride a donkey 25 miles to a doctor or to find out what market is offering a better price for rice.
I love the concept of Microfinance – It’s a way of getting the ball rolling. I’ve been familiar with the concept for a long time and it’s something that I’ve always wanted to explore. There is so much innovation lying within people that do not have the tools to capitalize on it. People in developing and third world countries are no less intelligent than those in developed nations – who knows, maybe 20 years from now, companies in the Philippineswill will be outsourcing to Sierra Leone.
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