I have the distinct pleasure of consulting Ms Lillian Masebenza. I forgot to mention in my last post that Ahmed Kathrada told a story of a someone coming to South Africa to meet with him and saying that he’s adopting Ahmed Kathrada, who doesn’t have any children, as his South Africa father. Mr Kathrada extended the offer to us. So if Mr Kathrada is my South African father, then Lillian, who shares my confirmation name, is my South African mother.
She’s a robust woman with a big smile and kind eyes. Her short hair is silver, short, and covers her head in tight curls. She’s a self-admitted hugger. She gives great hugs. She was laughing and almost signing with excitement after we were discussing our plans to start a microfinance fund with her. After mentioning that her next appointment was at 1600, which was an hour from that point, she admitted that she was so excited that she might ‘forget’ about some of her appointments this week.
Shivon is to my left out of the picture. Fatima, Gwen, hiding Shakeel, and the lovely Lillian.
I’m so excited, too. I could burst. After discussing our plans with her, I even more have this profound sense that this project is the most important thing that I have done in my life. I’m so blessed, and I know that everything happens for a reason.
Clearly, I apologise, I can’t begin to explain what this project means to me and what I’m feeling. Everyone, this is what I live for. I sat down to-day and discussed plans for creating a microfinance institution with an Ashoka fellow, a Nobel Laureate of the social entrepreneurship world. This is happening, and we are doing it.
In two weeks, we will have a financial model for the institution, including borrower profiles, a financial education curriculum, loan criteria/pre-requisites, a loan application, loan conditions (interest rate, loan amounts, loan terms, et cetera), and how to monitor borrowers and at which stages; a sample business model and a sample marketing plan for potential entrepreneurs; and a DVD and website for Lillian. This might be ambitious, but as Peter says, it’s better to under-promise and over-deliver. Our deliverable will be a skeleton of the institution, customisable to fit Lillian’s needs and flourish from there. We could do so much more, but we have only 2 weeks.
This is amazing. This is how I want to live my life. If I can settle in an area and experience this level of excitement at each new MFI (microfinance institution) opportunity for the rest of my life, then I would die so, so happy. I just have to figure out how to reconcile this wandering existence with child rearing and living on a farm in the Pyrenees (in Andorra, a country without an extradition treaty with the United States--Ryan, dear, you have the best ideas).
Follow the link for a rambling rant written right before bed last night about how excited the concept of microfinance makes me, with some edits this evening...
Microfinance has a special place in my heart because it is so innovative. How great is it that I am entering an industry in which the rules are unwritten, thus I get to make them up as I go along? I'm consulting an Ashoka fellow, for honesty's sake! She trusts me to draft a microfinance programme for her! HOLY SHIT! Life is crazy! ARE YOU BELIEVING THIS!?
So how do we go about planning this? We have only 2 weeks, so I won't be able to implement all of the ideas that I have. I think that instituting a mandatory savings fund for a specified amount of time or monetary amount should be an integral part of microfinance, so as not to create a credit culture. I believe in educating borrowers before they can borrow. I believe in solving problems in a community model and creating a culture of socialism whilst preserving a libertarian spirit. It’s a cross between communism and capitalism. What? I know, right!? But THIS IS WHAT GET ME SO EXCITED!
Let me redefine knowns! Let me blow your minds! This is the crux of it all, people! Let’s use capitalism to solve coummunal problems. Let’s create businesses that give something back to the community. Let’s create businesses whose purpose is not to maximise profits, but to maximise benefits to local citizens. That’s something like Yunus’s social business model, but I want to take it further.
I want to rip apart the social fabric and stitch it back together again in such a way that businesses operate both for profit and for the greater good. I want to create an entrepreneurial spirit and cultivate it in all those individuals who can grow in that way, and I want to educate others with the skills that they need--whether intellectual or mechanical--to grow in their own ways to help the businesses and their communities. I want to create a never-ending blanket of opportunity that can stretch to fit over all the land, and I want it to warm the heart and soul of each individual living under it.
I want no more hunger, no more depravity, no more ignorance, no more insecurity. I want equality of opportunity for all individuals, irrespective of gender, class, race, religion, sexuality, or any other differentiating factor. Are you curious? Are you motivated? Are you great? Come here! Let us march forward and change the world together.
Bring me communists, bring me capitalists. Bring me democrats and republicans. Bring me impoverished and weak and bring me rich and strong. I want all of these worlds to collide with the momentous energy necessary to demolish all that holds things back in the world and explode into something complete different. I want serene insanity and I want it now.
Here is mine heart, my soul! Here is a frank and candid look at me. HERE IS A GIRL WHO WHO WANTS TO REDEFINE THE WORLD.
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