The Daily Tell

No one is being hit harder by the global recession than very poor families in the Third World. The Christian community has the power to substantially lift these families out of chronic poverty, but churches are unaware of the most effective poverty-fighting tool: microfinance.

In the first faith-based guidebook on microfinance and employment-based solutions for alleviating global poverty, Peter Greer and Phil Smith, authors of The Poor Will Be Glad: Joining The Revolution To Lift The World Out of Poverty, show the Christian community how self-sufficiency through self-employment can be created among extremely poor people in developing countries.

“Our book is an introduction to microfinance and its impact, and how Christians can make a significant difference in alleviating global poverty,” say the authors. “This is a critical time for the Church in America to fight poverty in a way that demonstrates what the Church stands for and not only what it stands against,” said Peter Greer, CEO of HOPE International, a Christian microfinance organization.

“If the Church gets on-board with microfinance, what an opportunity to really impact the world in the alleviation of global poverty, and in the fulfillment of the Christian message to serve the poor,” said Phil Smith, philanthropist and former oil executive.

“The question before the American church is this: How can Christians extend compassion and good intentions into action that makes a lasting difference?” ask the authors. Peter Greer and Phil Smith strongly suggest that most traditional forms of charitable giving by the Church have been short-term, in some cases actually perpetuating the unending cycle of poverty in the developing world.

In interviews with the authors upon the completion of their book, Mr. Greer said: “The Church in America has not invested in microfinance simply because of a lack of awareness about what it is and what it does. While 120 million poor working families are currently served through the microfinance movement, faith-based initiatives are serving only 2 million; and according to the World Bank, 800 million families who stand to benefit from microfinance still have no access to it. The number may even be in the billions. Consequently, faith-based groups are currently serving only .2% of the 920 million people who are either on microfinance programs or the greater number who have not yet been reached.”

“I don’t think the Church knows about microfinance,” said Mr. Smith. There is a model of charity and mission that is representative of only one slice of charity, without recognizing there are other far more effective tools out there that have to do with microfinance and self-employment,” he said.

“I believe that Christians can make a huge impact in addressing the needs of the world’s poor,” said Phil Smith. “The Christian Church – Protestant denominations and Catholics – have the organizational capacity to rally huge support for microfinance contributions here in America, and with their physical presences and church infrastructure in Africa, Latin America and Asia, they have a major distribution capability as that can reach the poorest across the face of the developing world,” Smith said. “What is wonderful and astonishing about microfinance – which includes not only the loan itself lent by a MFI (Microfinance Institution), funded by donors or commercial lenders – but the degree to which it transforms lives economically and spiritually,” said Smith. “A poor woman who can suddenly feed her family, send her kids to school and awaken to a new sense of self-esteem that comes from running her own business, experiences a spiritual uplift. Microfinance means for its recipients not only an end to hunger and material poverty, but also an end to a culture of poverty.”