Traveling to rural areas of Africa and India. Starting banks in small villages. Finding ways to fund local education and health care.
These are just a few of the goals of Northwestern’s Microfinance Club.
Microfinance provides small loans for low-income people in underdeveloped countries so that they can work their way out of poverty, said Jesse Wiener, a member of the club’s executive board.
The Microfinance Club hopes to increase student awareness of microfinance as a tool to alleviate poverty in developing nations. To achieve its mission, the club is seeking to organize open forums between students and faculty and to provide students with educational resources, including opportunities for research and independent study.
“Microfinance is a way for people like us to really help change the quality of life of people in underdeveloped countries,” said Wiener, a Weinberg sophomore.
Right now, the club is working to raise $5,000 to start a village bank in Malawi. They hope to send members there one day to gain firsthand microfinance experience and to see the impact of their efforts on the community.
“We’re not just standing by the Arch and trying to raise awareness,” Wiener said. “We’re actually going to be responsible for other people becoming educated and working their way out of poverty. I think that’s an amazing thing.”
Manjari Ranganathan, the club’s vice-president, has firsthand experience in microfinance. Now a Weinberg senior, Ranganathan spent winter break of her sophomore year as an intern at a non-governmental organization working in the rural regions of Karnataka, India. Ranganathan planned on working at the organization’s health clinic, but became interested in its microfinance programs.
Ranganathan returned to India during the summer of 2007 after receiving $8,000 from the 100 Projects for Peace Grant, which she found through the Office of Fellowships at NU. She used the funds to help expand the microfinance loan program the organization had already established, setting up three microfunds for the local school, entrepreneurs and young women who wanted higher education.
“I had a chance to experience the rural lifestyle, learn a new language and hear the opinions and thoughts of rural villagers regarding the rest of the world,” Ranganathan said. “After I graduate, I hope to go back and learn more about microfinance institutions that are operating in other regions of India.”
In its first full year, the Microfinance Club is working to establish its presence on campus. The group had 200 students sign up for their listserv at last month’s activities fair.
Its first event of the year, which will take place on Oct. 14, is called “Microfinance 101.” The event is meant to introduce interested students to the field.
The founder and president of the Northwestern Microfinance Club said students should not be intimidated by the daunting name.
“It’s such a simple concept, but the word is so scary that it scares people away a little,” said Weinberg senior Saba Munir .
Though microfinance sounds like economics, members say it can appeal to anyone.
“The great thing about microfinance is that it can be for any major,” Wiener said. “There are so many different aspects of microfinance that benefit people in underdeveloped countries that it’s hard to say that just one kind of person can be interested in it.”
