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English-To-Go supports Microfinance
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Microfinance has proved to be one of the most cost effective
tools in the effort to eradicate global poverty that forces
over three billion people to live on less than $2 per day. Microcredit
is based on the idea that if you give a poor person a very small
loan for use in a self-employment venture, you will get an amazing
return on your investment. The borrower will not only work to
end her poverty, but will also improve the life of her family
and strengthen her community.
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2005 was the United Nations International Year of
Microcredit (UN-IYM) (www.yearofmicrocredit.org)
As part of the UN effort to cut extreme global poverty in half by 2015,
it named 2005 as the International Year of Microcredit.
 English-To-Go
supported the UN-IYM by providing a set of FREE lessons.
The Instant Lessons, Instant Workbook and SelfAccess.com lesson
on this page are available to everyone for free.
Please invite your friends and colleagues to do these lessons
and to support this great cause.
Instant Lesson (Print and Teach. Click on the red and white
PDF icon to get the free lesson.)
Topic: Muhammad Yunus, 63, is the founder of Grameen Bank,
which has made more than $4 billion in tiny loans to poor Bangladeshis,
providing a lifeline for millions and a banking model that has been
copied in more than 100 nations from the United States to Uganda.
Skills / Knowledge Areas: Microfinance, microcredit, Bangladesh,
problem solving, reading and predicting, general knowledge, comprehension,
multiple choice, jigsaw reading, identifying present and past tenses,
pair crossword.
Level: Intermediate |
Instant Lesson (Print and Teach. Click on the red and white
PDF icon to get the free lesson.)
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Topic: Maqsood is one of more than 1,600 beneficiaries
of a micro-credit program launched by the International Committee
of the Red Cross (ICRC) in Afghanistan. The program provides interest-free
loans to disabled Afghans eager to start their own small-sized
businesses. There is also an interview with the founder of SPBD,
a microfinance organization in Samoa.
Skills / Knowledge Areas: Microeconomics, microfinance,
Afghanistan, jigsaw reading, vocabulary in context, comprehension,
past perfect, synonyms, discussion.
Level: Intermediate |
Instant Workbook (Online Interactive Exercise. Click on the
blue and white "i" icon to go to the free online exercise.)
Loans
For Hope  |
Topic: A microfinance organisation.
Skills: Listening to the CEO of a microfinance company and
vocabulary - prefixes.
Level: Intermediate |
SelfAccess.com Lesson (Online Interactive Lesson. Click on the
picture or title to go to the free online academic lesson.)
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A Model of Self-reliance
Topic: See how disabled people in Bangladesh are being helped
through micro-credit loans. Listen to the CEO of a micro finance
organization. Is giving financial is the best way to help developing
countries?
Skills / Knowledge Areas: Wealth and poverty, business, International
aid, listening, writing an essay giving your opinion, completing
a cloze, sentence transformations, looking for mistakes in grammar.
Level: Intermediate |
English-To-Go Supports a Leading Microfinance Institution
South Pacific Business Development Foundation
(www.spbd.ws)
South Pacific Business Development Foundation (SPBD) is a privately
run charitable microfinance organization working with underprivileged
families in the remote Pacific Island nation of Samoa. Since it's founding
in 2000, SPBD has helped 5,000 needy families in nearly 200 villages
build small businesses. SPBD provides a meaningful "hand-up" to these
families by providing training, unsecured credit and ongoing guidance
and motivation to help them initiate and grow small sustainable businesses
(e.g. sewing, agriculture, livestock, fishing, light manufacturing,
distribution, food production, tourist services, etc.).
SPBD has already provided over US$2.5 million in financing to its micro-entrepreneurs
who have in turn grown their businesses and paid back their loans so
that others may be financed. SPBD's members have recorded an impressive
repayment rate in excess of 99% indicating that they are generating
significant additional income from their ventures.
In addition to helping the poor generate ongoing sustainable income,
SPBD also provides financial assistance for basic housing improvements
(e.g. access to better sanitation, electricity and running piped water)
and childhood education expenses. The program also works to boost the
self-esteem of its women members and delivers a positive impact on the
broader Samoan economy.
SPBD has many individual and institutional donors and funders. A small
business in Samoa can be financed for as little as US$200. A really
great aspect of microfinance is that when a loan is paid off, it is
recycled back into the portfolio and a new loan is issued to another
needy aspiring micro-entrepreneur. Thus a gift to SPBD, of any size,
is truly the gift that never stops giving.
You too can support a small business in Samoa via SPBD by making a
donation online at: www.spbd.ws/fundingspbd.html
Selected Microfinance Websites
PlaNet Finance
South Pacific Business Development Foundation
Microcredit Summit
Grameen
CGAP
United Nations International
Year of Microcredit Ð 2005
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