April 02, 2009
Dr.
Linda M. Sama, Associate Dean for Global Initiatives and Professor
of Management at The Tobin College of Business, along with her
inaugural Global Micro-loan class, sponsored Micro-Finance Day on
March 27th to promote the goals of the newly launched Global
Microloan Program, or GLOBE. A student-managed program, GLOBE
(Global Loan Opportunities for Budding Entrepreneurs) is guided by
its mission to help alleviate poverty in developing countries by
providing small business loans to entrepreneurs in impoverished
areas who would otherwise not have access to traditional sources of
credit. GLOBE is inspired by the work of 2006 Nobel Peace
Prize-winner Muhammad Yunus, founder of Grameen Bank and pioneer of
modern-day microcredit targeted at the world’s poorest
entrepreneurs, mostly women, with the aim of lifting them and their
families out of poverty. The day featured a speaker panel and
discussion, cultural music and dancing, photos and videos, food and
raffles. Guest panelists included GLOBE Steering Committee members
as well as representatives from Grameen America and Project
Enterprise, two New York City-based organizations that provide
access to microcredit for small business entrepreneurs in
under-served localities.
The objective of the event was to raise awareness around global
poverty and its attendant issues, and to demonstrate through
discussion, video and information the role that microlending can
play in helping to address these issues, with a special focus on
GLOBE’s emerging efforts to be a part of the solution.
Microfinance Day also served to raise money, which will be directed
to the GLOBE fund for ultimate distribution to borrowers in the
field.
Photo Gallery
In order to help gain access to low-income entrepreneurs in
struggling economies throughout the world, GLOBE partnered with The
Daughters of Charity to act as field partners for the
program. With the support and commitment of Sister Margaret
John Kelly, Executive Director of STJ’s Vincention Center for
Church and Society, and Sister Felicia Mazzola, Director of
International Project Services (IPS) for the Daughters of Charity,
the Daughters have contracted to work with GLOBE in more than 20
regions located in countries that include Bolivia, Ghana, Kenya,
Madagascar, Mozambique, Nigeria, and Thailand where they will
assist in identifying borrowers, forwarding loan applications to
GLOBE, disbursing loans and collecting loan repayments.
"From this program, I think the students will see that other
values must be brought into play if we are to have a world which is
just and moral with all persons living with human
dignity," says Sister Margaret. "They also will come to
know the “people” they will be working with. All Vincentian service
and learning needs to be relational. They will understand
people who live in situations vastly different from their own and
come to be in solidarity with them. This will be a mutual
privilege."
Olukayode Dosunmu, a Graduate Assistant at The Tobin College, was
also on hand to give a personal account of the impact microfinance
initiatives had in his home country of Nigeria, Africa. "In Nigeria
micro loans have been useful in helping women start small
businesses that would allow them to be stable and financially
independent," says Dosunmu. "I also believe that these loans will
help reduce spousal abuse and, therefore, foster stable upbringing
of children."
Over 95% of all micro-loan borrowers are women and over 97
percent of borrowers repay the loan, as was explained by Grameen
America representatives Katy Brodsky and Leslie Kane , Grameen’s
origins in Bangladesh date back to 1976, when its founder,
Professor Yunus a Fulbright scholar and Professor at University of
Chittagong, was inspired to make a small loan of $27 to a group of
42 families in Bangladesh who were suffering from famine. He then
launched a research project to examine the possibility of designing
a credit delivery system that would provide banking services to the
rural poor without the burdens of predatory lending.
Panelist Nick Schatsky, co-founder of Project Enterprise along
with his wife Debra Schatsky, discussed their involvement in
micro-loans. Motivated by the success of Grameen Bank, the
Schatsky’s started Project Enterprise to support and develop
entrepreneurs and small businesses in under-resourced communities
around New York City by providing access to business loans,
business development services and networking opportunities.
“Anybody can do this,” claimed Nick Schatsky to a room full of St.
John’s students. “I am an actor and voice-over talent with no prior
finance experience and I was able to start this wonderful
organization. So if I can do it, you can do it,” he encouraged.
Dr. Sama and GLOBE students achieved their dual objectives on
Microfinance Day, bringing awareness about microlending and GLOBE’s
prospects for realizing positive, transformational change in
adjusting the world’s poverty landscape to hundreds of St. John
community members, while simultaneously raising over $1000 for
future micro-loans.
The Peter J. Tobin College of Business has provided the highest
quality business education for over eighty years. Many alumni
have risen to senior executive positions in the financial services
community in New York and around the world. Degrees offered
include the Bachelor of Science, Master of Business Administration
and Master of Science. The College encompasses the School of
Risk Management, Insurance and Actuarial Science, which is housed
at the University’s Manhattan location in the heart of the New York
financial district. Recent recognitions for the Tobin College
include a listing by The Aspen Institute among the top ninety
business schools in the United States whose graduate curricula
reflect a commitment to social responsibility and sustainability as
well as representation among the “The Best 282” Business Schools in
America according to The Princeton Review.