Why Microfinance

The Economics of Injustice

‘The poor stay poor not because they are lazy, but because they have no access to capital.’ Milton Friedman, 1976 Nobel Prize in Economic Sciences.

40% of the world’s population has no access to the banking system that Western society takes for granted and could not function without. Imagine your life with no one and nowhere to borrow money from. No cheques or credit cards, bank loans or deposit accounts, mortgages or savings. How would you start a business if you could not get credit? How could you create jobs? If there were no jobs how would provide for your family? The lack of credit would constrain the development of every aspect of your life. No matter how hard you worked, you and those you love would be forced to live hand to mouth generation after generation. This is the plight of almost half the world’s population.

The Economics of Emancipation

WildHearts are part of the global microfinance revolution. We fund banking for the unbanked, the excluded and the down trodden enabling them to work their own way out of poverty with dignity and self respect. How does this work? A group of 25-40 people come together to form a WildHearts Trust Bank. In the spirit of solidarity they guarantee each other’s loans. Microfinance turns conventional banking on its head by giving loans to the people in poverty who have no security or formal ID. Its genius is that it capitalises the resources that the poor have in abundance; self-reliance, inter-dependence and trust. The results speak for themselves. In all locations over all time periods the recipients of microfinance have repaid their loans at 98%. The world’s poorest people are the safest people to lend to.

The Economics of Compassion

WildHearts microloans are repaid and recycled every four months enabling WildHearts to multiply the impact of its initial investment exponentially. This means that an average loan of £150 will actually fund three businesses a year. Furthermore, our statistics show that one loan actually transforms the lives of seven people as the recipient will be able improve the lives of their families and employ staff. As a result one WildHearts microloan actually transforms 21 lives every year and will continue to do so into perpetuity. Incredibly over a five year period one £150 loan will sustainably transform 105 lives.

The Economics of Social Change

WildHearts are investors in the human spirit. We use finance as a vehicle for social and economic justice. This is due to an unforeseen side effect of microfinance and the group lending system; the personal transformation of the loan recipient. This is enhanced by the fact that over 90% of our micro-clients are women. Not only do these women free themselves from the external symptoms of poverty but as they become economically empowered they free themselves from the internal effects of poverty; they learn to value and respect themselves and refuse to accept the abuses they had previously been subjected to. They become active citizens, create jobs and educate themselves. Moreover, children of micro loan borrowers are less likely to be child labourers, are more likely to attend school, have improved nutrition and receive medical care.* These new female role models are breaking the cycle of poverty for themselves and pioneering a social revolution in the developing world. Read more about why WildHearts empower women here.
*Source: UN International Year of Microcredit