Endless Stories!!

I know we all miss Honduras soooo much, but the best part about being back in the US is being able to share our stories with everyone! Global Microfinance Brigades provided us with the unique opportunity of getting to know an entire village. For a week we became locals in Pajarillos and we LOVED it! 

From fiestas to workshops we all were able to teach and learn from the community members! Being able to meet members of the Caja and encouraging others to join was a real treat. Finding out about the lives and financial situations really opened all of our eyes. We were only in Honduras for a short time, but we worked hard to provide the community with useful tools. The six of us hope to return someday, but in the meantime we will all tell our stories and get others to join and support Global Brigades!

We're Back! One word: Incredible

Hi Everyone!

We have only been back for a little over a week but I already miss Honduras and the amazing people I met in the Pajarillos community. The village is scattered along the slopes of a nature preserve and the views were well worth the long drive every morning. With no electricity or paved roads, it is impossible for commercial banks and organizations like Kiva to provide micro loans to communities like Pajarillos. The is why the caja is so important. The caja is a community owned bank that provides villagers the opportunity to gain interest on savings and obtain loans. The caja we worked with, Produccion en Marcha, has already made significant progress and is currently completing their first building which we were able to work on our first day there.

I have always been interested in microloans but I did not understand the true impact loans can have upon the people until this trip. A small loan to purchase fertilizer and pesticide can quadruple a farmer's crop yield. As a business major I was amazed by the return on investment farmers were able to attain through the Caja. The caja currently has more loan applications than funds despite a 100% payback rate so we decided to dedicate our loan funds to the Caja so they would be able to provide more loans and encourage others to apply.


For people who have so little, the people of Pajarillos are wealthy in spirit. I was both humbled and inspired by the dedication of Caja members and villagers to improving their quality of life. Any assistance I rendered pales in comparison to the lessons and wisdom I received while visiting this incredible community.

Although I have graduated I hope to return next year as an alumni. To all the sponsors that contributed to our trip, I sincerely thank you and hope you will continue to support us as we plan our next brigade for 2012! 

"Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed, citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has." — Margaret Mead

Scotty Jue

Hello everyone!

My name is Scott Jue and I will be graduating this fall with a B.S. in Business Administration with an emphasis in Finance and Entrepreneurship. As a business major, we are taught to maximize profit and to maximize shareholder value. However, for the past few years I have explored the other spectrum of business, which is the field of social entrepreneurship. Through various experiences and learning opportunities, social entrepreneurship has become a passion of mine as it aligns my values with my career goals. I strongly believe we can use business as a means to help others and to improve society.

If you are a businessman in today’s world, you have to wear profit-maximizing glasses all the time. As a result, only thing you see in the world are the profit enhancing opportunities. Important problems that we face in the world cannot be addressed because profit-maximizing eyes cannot see them. Thus, many of the problems we have had for hundreds of years such as poverty have yet to be solved.

I can tell you very emphatically that in terms of human capability there is no difference between a poor person and a very privileged person. All human beings are packed with unlimited potential. Poor people are no exception to this rule. But the world around them never gave them the opportunity to know that each of them is carrying a wonderful gift in them. The gift remains unknown and unwrapped. Our challenge is to help the poor unwrap their gift. Poverty is not created by the poor. It is created by the system.

Poverty is an artificial imposition on people. Once you fall outside the system, it works against you. It makes it very difficult to return to the system. That is where Microfinance comes in. Microfinance is the solution to help people return to the system as it gives poor people access to essential financial services such as loans.

Majoring in Finance and Entrepreneurship, microfinance seemed to be a perfect culmination of my education and my value to help others. Therefore, Sasha and I decided to re-establish Microfinance Brigades here at Chapman University. As Co-President I have been working hard to ensure the success of our organization, so I encourage you to visit our official donation page and show your support. Additionally, I urge everyone to support not only our organization but the whole microfinance movement as it is an effective and sustainable method to alleviate poverty.

Please join me in showing the world that business does not always have to be viewed through profit-maximizing glasses; that it can be used as a means to help others and improve the standard of living across the world. Together we can make a difference!

Thank you for your support!

Chris DeBoer

Hey guys!

        I too am currently attending Chapman University for a major in BS Business Administration with minors in Economics and Peace Studies. I've been interested in the miracle of micro-finance in lifting people out of poverty. Join us in our mission by donating, visiting this blog, like our Facebook page, and stay updated on our fundraising efforts!

 

A Little About Me

      I was born and raised in Aspen, CO and traded the snowy mountains for the California sunshine! 

I love hiking, skiing and anything outdoors. I especially love traveling. In the past I've visited Uganda providing aid to a small medical clinic and primary school. My passion to help those who cannot help themselves lead me to this wonderful opportunity to gain insight into the nature of micro loans, their structure and social impact. 

A little bit about Sasha

Greeting readers!

Welcome to our Microfinance Brigades at Chapman University’s blog. My name is Sasha Ngo and I am currently a junior pursuing a degree in Business Administration with a double emphasis in International Business and Finance. You might be asking yourself, why on earth did she decide to go down this road? Here’s my answer.

Growing up in Thailand, I was granted the chance to experience the world from a different cultural perspective. I have learned that not everyone is fortunate to have the luxury of walking 10 steps to grab a drink of water or the luxury of eating whenever we feel hunger. I have learned that we can’t choose the lives we were given or can we choose the places we were born. I have also learned that the truest test in life is what we can do for one another. I would like to help provide everyone, even those in poverty, the chance to succeed and the chance to fulfill their life-long dream. Through various experiences and opportunities, social entrepreneurship has become one of my many interests. Here I am today with the opportunity to change the world, big or small – that’s not the point. I decided to go into the business field so I could help others do something they can’t already do for themselves. With the same passions and aspirations, this past year my best friend, Scott, and I re-established the Microfinance Brigades chapter of Global Brigades on Chapman University campus. As the Co-President of MFB, I have the responsibility of ensuring the success of this project and that our trip to Honduras is accomplished at its fullest potential. Our team and I have been putting a lot of effort into fundraising so we could afford to go to Honduras and change people’s lives!

Please join us on this incredible journey. A hundred dollars from one of my team members, is much more difficult than $10 from ten of you. You could be a valuable asset to creating long lasting changes in these communities and a life-changing experience for my group members and me. If you have not yet planned service efforts for the Japan tsunami relief or Haiti, I kindly ask you to consider Global Brigades as that initial step! Please visit our fundraising page and help change lives by donating to our Microfinance Brigades group.

Everybody can be great. Because anybody can serve. You don't have to have a college degree to serve. You don't have to make your subject and your verb agree to serve... You don't have to know the second theory of thermodynamics in physics to serve. You only need a heart full of grace. A soul generated by love. -Martin Luther King, Jr.

Britanny Carter

Hi Everyone!

My name is Britanny Carter and I am graduating this semester with a BS in Business Administration with an emphasis in Entrepreneurship and a minor in Leadership and Organizational Studies from Chapman University. In high school I had the opportunity to visit a family bee farm funded by microfinance while providing humanitarian relief in Bolivia. After seeing how this small microloan could transform a family and help enable an entire community to reach self-sustainability, I knew microfinance was something I needed to be a part of.

I was fortunate enough to find the Microfinance Brigades at Chapman and as VP of Fundraising I have been working extremely hard to ensure we can raise the costs needed to help the people of Honduras. I encourage you to visit our official donation page, "like" us on Facebook and visit the Global Brigades website to learn more about the incredible changes we are making!

Ara Finnegan

Hello All,

I am Ara Finnegan, a junior Business Administrations major with an emphasis in management and minor in communications. This semester I am taking a course on Social Entrepreneurship! This is an entirely new concept to me and I find everything about it very intriguing. Learning about micro-finance has been a large part of the course. Through our studies we have been taught just how beneficial these loans can be. Engaging with the borrowers themselves and shadowing loan officers in Honduras will be a great addition to my knowledge!

Working with those less fortunate and helping in sustainable ways is what I have grown up doing and I am incredibly excited for this adventure! Please help sponsor Chapman Microfinance Brigades so we can go make a difference!