Microfinance in China, Helping the Rural Poor

Several months ago, a young individual shared a story with me about his experience giving a microloan to China. Through Wokai, an organization facilitating microloans to the rural poor, he made a small contribution to help another person living in Inner-Mongolia. Wokai are the Chinese words for “I start” and demonstrate their commitment to enable the poor to help themselves. I invited him to write this contributed article sharing about his enthusiasm for Wokai.

Editor, give and tell

"I was first introduced to Wokai when I attended a talk by Courtney McColgan, one of the co-founders of Wokai. Wokai is a Kiva for China, connecting lenders in the first world with micro-borrowers in rural China through the Internet. Courtney and her co-founder Casey initially intended to spearhead the formation of Kiva China, but soon realized that Kiva would have regulatory difficulties expanding into China. They decided to form their own organization instead. Many thousands of dollars, months, and the formation of a Chinese on-shore corporation later, Wokai officially launched in the fall of 2008.

"When considering which organizations to support, Wokai has risen into the top of my list for the following reasons:

1. Money lent to a Wokai borrower will be recycled into a new loan of the lender's discretion. Although lenders will not be able to repatriate their money due to regulatory issues in China, this means that contributions will have years to change many lives!

2. Every gift, however small, is a very efficient use of capital. Because the loan amounts requested are small (hundreds of dollars), every marginal dollar contributed to a borrower has a large impact.

3. Wokai's operations are currently focused on Inner-Mongolia, which just so happens to be where my father's family is from."

Contributing Author

Links:
[1] Wokai. http://www.wokai.org
[2] “About a gift that keeps on giving” yGive, giveandtell.

Disclaimer: The information presented here is based on the contributing author's research and experience, and in no way reflects the official opinion of Wokai or Kiva.