A local man's interest in world cultures has taken him to Sri Lanka to assess the social impact of MEDIC Canada's micro-credit program.
Joe Crawford will spend the next four months in the South Asian island documenting how the extension of small $50 to $500 loans to the poorest of the poor helps them start small businesses, become self-employed and move above the poverty line.
“(Micro-credit) can be used to lift people out of poverty. It's something that isn't perfect as there have been good and bad situations of it. This is an amazing opportunity for us to take part in real first-hand development work,” said Crawford.
The Sri Lankan program is administered through MEDIC Canada (Mercy Economic Development International Canada Corp.) which aims to eliminate poverty through the empowerment of people creating self-sustaining economic communities within developing nations.
Crawford's trip is part of an independent study he is completing with another student for his courses at Renaissance College in New Brunswick.
He has just completed his second year as a Philosophy in Interdisciplinary Leadership student.
The Olds High School graduate will be surveying micro credit clients to quantify something that MEDIC Canada CEO Robin Knudsen says is more than just an economic result.
The loans are given to Sri Lankans trying to start businesses or become self-employed.
At least 85 per cent of the loans are to women.
“And now immediately we get into the social impact. Women who are self-employed can do so much,” Knudsen said.
Applicants must take business courses, present a business plan and commit to paying the money back.
They have no collateral to put up as guarantees for the loans, Knudsen says. Most Sri Lankans exist on about $2 a day.
“These are the poorest of the poor. So there's no collateral. What we do have is trust,” he said.
Applicants are grouped together and each guarantees the other's commitment to pay back the money. If one fails, they all fail.
When in need, fellow applicants will help each other out to make their payment, and sometimes other groups in the program will pitch in for the success of another group, he said.
The payback success is 98 per cent worldwide.
“So when they start making $10 to $15 a day, what do you think that does? They feed their kids, clothe them, take them to school - there's big effects.”
Crawford's success at documentary filmmaking will be of great benefit in this project, said Knudsen.
The young filmmaker's accomplishments include the creation of a documentary for Parks Canada on the Gwaii Haanas in British Columbia which was featured at the Banff Mountain Film Festival.
And he is no stranger to Olds, Knudsen said.
When he was 17, Crawford was named Youth of the Year by the Olds Rotary Club. In 2009, he won the Rotary's Paul Harris Award for exemplary international service.
The now 22-year-old spent a year in Thailand on a Rotary exchange and said the experience helped set him on the course he is on now.
“One experience that caused me to view the world differently and steered me towards Renaissance College, came from time spent along the Thai-Burma Border where hundreds of thousands of refugees have been forced into Thailand by the brutal dictatorship. It caused me to ask questions and took me out of my rural Albertan box.”
His interest in how people's unique views of the world affects the way they interact with one another other and the environment has been evolving during his time at Renaissance College.
“We have this course called World Views and Religion. It shows how people see the world differently and how that affects the way they interact with others. That really helped.”
