Teaching People How to Fish

One of our favorite charities is World Vision, a Christian organization that helps needy children around the world with food, water, medicine, education, and overall economic development. Jenny and I sponsor three children: a 14-year-old boy from Tanzania named Abrahamu, an 11-year old girl from Zambia named Sharon, and a 7-year-old boy from Haiti named Rodjino. They also have a cool holiday “gift catalog” where you can buy goats, shares of water wells, seeds, and other items as a Christmas present for someone in need. Part of the reason I love World Vision is their holistic approach. A wise man once said, “Give a man a fish, and he eats for a day. Teach a man to fish, and he eats for a lifetime.” World Vision tries to improve the communities they serve and help them become self-sufficient rather than simply passing out food.

One of their most exciting methods is called a microloan, a small ($50-5000) loan to a business owner to help him/her start or expand a business. In America, a businessperson can typically go to a bank, submit to a credit check, put up collateral, and get a loan. But in developing countries, many business owners have no credit/collateral with which to obtain a loan, making it much harder to start or grow a business. World Vision’s microloans make that possible by providing the funds as well as business training and accountability to ensure the loan gets repaid. It’s a great program that embodies the spirit of World Vision. Any money you donate to the microloan program will most likely stay in the program indefinitely, getting loaned out and paid back over and over again and helping many people gradually pull themselves out of poverty.

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