Social Entrepreneurship in Omaha
Omaha is embarking on some wicked social entrepreneuship projects.
Check out this excerpt from the Grameen America blog...
Grameen America Comes to Omaha: Part I
| Written by Jenene Allison on Monday, 08 June 2009 |
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| In early 2008 when Grameen America opened its first branch in Queens, New York, many people asked, “Why bother with microfinance in America?” Since then the Queens branch has lent more than $1.6 million to over 600 poor women in a neighborhood with a distinctive immigrant community, and the organization is now expanding to Omaha, Nebraska. Areas of high poverty are usually very well-defined parts of town. While some areas of Nebraska have poverty rates as low as 4%, in other parts the rate reaches as high as 25%. With this in mind, Grameen America is starting in South Omaha, with plans to expand to North Omaha later. Branch Manager Habibur (Habib) Chowdhury has just hired his first associate, Patrick Laird, who formerly worked at the Phoenix House domestic violence shelter. “I would like to have more staff recruited by now,” Chowdhury says, “But this is a good start. Patrick is very interested in Grameen and I have started staff orientation with him. We are also telling people that we are ready to start making loans.” The Grameen lending model relies on community- and relationship-building rather than just handing over a check. Unlike a traditional American banker, a Grameen America banker goes to the borrowers. This connection between banker and borrowers helps to ensure the remarkable 98% repayment rate—before a borrower gets into trouble, her peers and her banker know about the problem and can offer ways to help... In his first year, Chowdhury hopes the group will hire six more staff, reach 700 borrowers, and disperse $1.3 million in small loans. “Then, we will try to open a new branch in North Omaha,” he says. Grameen America has arrived in the Cornhusker State—and at a critical moment in the economic crisis. As state budgets are cut, and lawmakers quibble over how to help those in need, there is more need and fewer resources. According to the blog Poverty in America : “now more than ever we need people who see a problem, roll up their sleeves, and get to work. If we can't count on government... then we'll have to help each other." |