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Comment by Robert WoW De Souza on December 13, 2009 at 20:16

Here is a request from Chris Macrae, a friend who has developed a great map which identifies value of the best, ethical, social business structures

Is anyone connected with african networks who might be able to start placing this in newspapers; similarly please pass it on

Also an exercise 2000 people meet in kenya -to do what?
(please complete your numbet 1 wish) -

Mine is that over the 12 months after kenya they clean up a league table of 100 best for the word microcerdits in time for Queen Sofia to celebrate it in spain - with links to what you can go open source from each one, and identification of model as social business or not

Chris
http://valuetrue.com/

From: Sam Daley-Harris
samdharris@microcreditsummit.org

I've written an op-ed on Jamii Bora intended for publication between Christmas and New Years titled: A Holiday Gift of Second Chances. I've sent it to friends who have relationships with op-ed editors.
All the best, Sam

c 202-390-0012
Skype: samdharris2015

Re: A Holiday Gift of Second Chances

As we gather with family and friends for the holidays, many of us search for the deepest meaning of this season. Sometimes that meaning can be found in the most unlikely places, places like the slums of Nairobi, Kenya where Jamii Bora, a microfinance program, offers savings and loans to people who have been beggars, prostitutes, thieves and gang members. Along the way, Jamii Bora has learned that some of the best gifts aren’t given, but are earned through the grace of a fresh start or a second chance.

Just months after the post-election violence that engulfed Kenya two years ago, Jamii Bora received funds to rebuild one of the markets that had been destroyed by fire in the deadly rioting.

Jamii Bora, which means “good families”, decided they had to find the rioters and enlist them in rebuilding the market they had destroyed.

This was a seemingly preposterous proposition, even in the world of microfinance –which knows a thing or two about defying conventional wisdom. For most microfinance institutions, just finding the perpetrators of the destruction would have been a dangerous, if not impossible, task.

Convincing them to rebuild what they had destroyed would seem to be an act of futility. But believing in the impossible comes naturally to Jamii Bora whose staff are all former members who have used Jamii Bora’s combination of savings and microloans to leave behind their lives as beggars, prostitutes, and thieves—lives that at one time were mired in extreme poverty.

What they didn’t leave behind, however, were their deep roots in the community.

Jamii Bora’s staff found the leader of the gang of 200 that had destroyed the market and talked with “the General”, as he is known locally, about helping rebuild. When he first met Ingrid Munro, Jamii Bora’s founder, he told her he was upset with her staff when they first spoke with him because they didn’t seem to realize how dangerous he was. But through persistence they were able to convince the General and his gang to aid in the reconstruction of the market, paying them to guard the materials at night and help rebuild during the day.

After the construction was completed the General and a third of the gang joined Jamii Bora. The others were still skeptical about microfinance, but they were intrigued as they watched the General build a legitimate business constructing cases that children use to carry their books and other materials to school.

Recently the General told Munro that he hadn’t gone to his home village for 13 years because his mother was so ashamed of him. But he had just gone home for a visit and his mother cried for three days because she was so happy about how he had turned his life around.

There are many visions for microfinance, including this one: providing microfinance for redemption. The dictionary defines redemption as restoring one’s honor and worth, setting one free.

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