More microfinance

Today, I set off to further investigate Esperanza's microfinance program with Daniel Castillo, who helps the organization take care of their visits from the outside. Daniel told me that they get quite a few people that come in internationally, mostly from the US, to observe the innovative microfinance sysem, as well as to provide health-care clinics and provide the community with dental service. There is quite a significant interest in microfinance to help empower impoverished communities, as evidenced by the success of the American organization, Kiva, which sponsors programs in countries throughout the world.

We first visited a small town close to the Mets complex. About forty women were gathered in a school room, separated into groups of five (the five people form a group, who are collectively responsible for the project). The purpose of the meeting was to collect payments on the loan, which occurs bi-weekly. Yet, the women were not able to provide the entirety of their loan payments; several women had not come to the meeting, and thus, the entire 40-person group was $30 short. The loan collector from Esperanza insisted that he could not leave until all the money was collected; the women are part of a community bank, and must hold each other accountable. Thus, in order to ensure the long-term viability of their bank, the women had to take funds out of their personal savings to pay the collective debt.

While Daniel assured me that the practice was not common, it was interesting to watch. Some women yelled at each other, some laughed, as they tried to gather all of the funds. It is part of Esperanza's greater philosophy, though, to ensure that the women can become self-sustainable, rather than only relying on the Esperanza organization. In the end, they came up with the money, and were happy to leave the meeting.

We then had the opportunity to walk through the town with the women and visit their businessess. The town is poor; the dirt roads made driving almost impossible. But the women were all excited about their businesses; one owned a clothing store (based out of her house on the side of the road, she sold shirts and shoes for about $1 each). Another woman had a successful vegetable stand. Another woman we met had just decided to join Esperanza's program to help with her eatery; she had actully utilized another local loan agency in the past, but their rates were too high, they collected on a weekly basis, and provided no logistical support. All of the women were grateful for the help that Esperanza had provided them.

I talked to Daniel for a while about the aim of Esperanza's programs. In addition to the microfinance program, they help put floors on houses (we got to see a few houses that had recently done this), provide an inexpensive health care service, and provide the baseball fields I talked about earlier. Their general philosophy is to, as Daniel put it, teach the people how to fish rather than giving them the fish. They hope that the people will not need their services after their businesses take off.

This is relevant to baseball because of the way that the academies tackle their programs. Daniel told me that the Mets support has been indispensible for Esperanza; they have funded their programs, provided them with land for the baseball fields, and even offered to host Esperanza's office at their academy. But this reflects a general Mets philosophy of empowering the community as well, rather than just providing them resources. Daniel told me that the Mets are planning to open a field across the street from their current facility for kids in the community, and their work through Esperanza shows their committment to the larger community.

Daniel also told me that it's important for major league teams to actually get into the community and help out, like the Mets, A's, and Padres, rather than just staying in their exclusive spot and giving out supplies. He specifically mentioned the Dodgers as a team that had been in the country since the 1980's, but had undertaken little concrete activities to actually help empower their nearby communities. Teams have the potential to make a difference, but not everyone is doing it.

The trip today confirmed earlier sentiments; if teams really want to make a difference, they need to make a committment to understanding nearby Dominican communities and becoming active, rather than just giving out gloves and calling it a day. When I make my final recommendations at the end of the project, that will be paramount. Teams need to demonstrate a real committment to the community if they hope to surpass image-based equipment donations. I hope, that in the coming years, we see more Mets, Padres, and A's, and less Marlins, Reds, and Dodgers.