Microfinance CEO can identify with clients
TORONTO, ON--After over 20 years of senior management in Christian and charity organizations, Paula Curtis can still remember what it was like to start out as a young single mom running her own business from home.
Now as the new president and CEO of Opportunity International--one of the world's largest microfinance organizations--she finds herself inspired by the entrepreneurial creativity of her clients.
"Eighty-five percent of our clients are women," says Curtis, "many of whom have been faced with unparalleled challenges. On a recent trip to Colombia, I met a woman who was running five businesses from her home. She and her husband cooked chicken, sold soup, supplied cell phone minutes, ran an internet café and washed motorcycles. She had a real strategy because the police would drop by for cell phone minutes, stay to get a meal and use the Internet. And by the time they were done she'd have their motorcycles clean."
"That's the inspiration--people doing their work where God has placed them."
Opportunity International works in 27 developing countries on five continents to provide microloans and ongoing training.
"We work with our clients hand-in-hand as they launch their businesses," Curtis says, "We are concerned not only about their economic well-being; their physical, emotional and spiritual stability is also essential."
Martha Arias, program director for Latin American, says: "The spiritual component is very important. We serve clients from every spiritual journey, but we are motivated by Jesus Christ. We are committed to showing them that we will respect them, we will honour them and we will treat them as equals."
Arias, who is originally from Ecuador, says many clients are thrilled to discover that, along with receiving a loan, they also receive support from a group of other women who are Opportunity International clients.
"In many cases these people have had very hard paths and the chances are very slim that they would be able to get on their feet and provide for their families without these loans," says Arias. "But more than that, Opportunity International gives them peer support, training which helps increase their self esteem and enables them to become leaders in their communities."
Mark Petersen, director of Bridgeway Foundation, and a long-time supporter of Opportunity International, accompanied Curtis on her trip to Colombia.
"We've had people profoundly spiritually changed through the trips," he says. "Through this work I've seen the hope that is really there. I don't see impoverished areas as depressing anyone. I don't even see people as needy. I see the potential for them to make a way forward for themselves, so I come back from the trips, not depressed, but hopeful.
"Through these small business loans people are empowered to become contributing members of their communities. It provides dignity to people. It empowers them to rise to the challenge of work."
On a recent trip to Colombia, Aria visited some women who used to sell hand-made hammocks by the road before guerrilla soldiers took over the highways.
"[The guerrillas] threatened them with violence and extorted money from them, so these people were unable to sell their crafts for probably 10 years," Aria reports. "[The women] lifted their clothes and showed me the gunshots they had received from just being on the street. When the new president militarized the roads, we were one of the first organizations to enter these towns and help these people start their businesses again.
"We review each client as a person with their own assets. They have the skills, the creativity, the motivation, and by giving them a loan we help them give birth to their opportunity."
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