My life is fuller for having had the opportunity to travel to Oaxaca, Mexico to see firsthand the radical difference that microfinance can make in the lives of the world’s poor. When we went to the village outside Oaxaca and saw these women, saw their children, saw their homes and their challenges, it struck me what a true accident it is that I was born into my fortunate situation, where opportunity and material comfort were taken for granted.
I understand now that microfinance and Chiapas International is about more than just making credit and fair loans available, but is about empowering these women and giving them a place and a voice in their community; that they traditionally have not had.
If all that microfinance did was offer these ladies a path out of material poverty, that would be a true achievement, but I see now that it does more than that – it gives them strength, hope and dignity.
Nathan Crow
Washington, D.C.
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