Where most people see poverty, Jason Ng sees opportunity.
Ng is one of the founders of the Northwestern chapter of Opportunity International, a nonprofit organization that loans money to residents of poverty-stricken countries to start businesses or improve failing ones.
After reading a Time magazine article about the organization this summer, the third-year engineering graduate student visited Opportunity International’s headquarters in Oakbrook, Ill., looking to bring a pilot program to campus.
On Wednesday night Ng spoke to 10 students in Fisk Hall at the first meeting of Opportunity International’s NU chapter — the first chapter on a college campus.
“Students like to get involved in solving world poverty issues,” Ng said. “I don’t see any other student group that combines service and advocacy.”
Opportunity International establishes “trust banks” to loan money at reasonable interest rates to people in impoverished countries, a process known as microlending. The money helps low-income people found or improve grassroots businesses.
The repayment rate of such loans is 96 percent, said Voltaire Miran, Speech ’91, director for donor acquisition and new media for Opportunity International.
“There is a different dynamic when you give them $25 as a loan, when you ask them to pay that money back, when you give them basic business skills and help them start their own business,” Miran said.
“There is a sense of dignity, a sense of pride, and a sense of transformation when you give a person a job,” he added.
Sieren Ernst, a Weinberg senior who worked with a microlending organization in El Salvador last summer, saw that transformation first hand.
“It’s a good opportunity for students to be more directly involved in poverty reduction instead of just protesting policies of lending institutions, like the International Monetary Fund,” Ernst said.
Ng co-founded the NU chapter with Abby Moy, a Weinberg junior, and Dianna English, a Weinberg freshman.
English said she wanted to get involved to make more than just a short-term impact.
“It gives the opportunity to people to lift themselves out of poverty,” English said. “Over the years it will continue to have a lasting impact on their lives.”
Other students at the meeting also saw potential in the organization.
“I’m excited at the opportunity to do something that will use the principles I believe in,” Weinberg senior Robert Finn said.
“Rather than dish out money for a short-term unsustainable system, it’s worth a try to educate people at the lowest of levels. Personal ownership of one’s future is the best way to get somebody motivated,” he said.
Both Finn and Ernst said they plan to join Opportunity International.
Of all loans the organization makes, 85 percent are to women, who make up the “poorest of the poor,” Miran said.
“The first thing they will do is feed their children, put clothing on their backs, give them a place to sleep that’s warm and dry, and send them to school,” he said.
Opportunity International, which was founded 30 years ago and spans 29 countries, created 276,000 jobs in 1999, Miran said.
In addition to the pilot program at NU, Opportunity International is discussing founding chapters at Columbia University and New York University.
