Cusco, Peru
Explanation of this lending program:
--------------------------------------------------------
*It's a loan, not a donation.
*You can loan $25, $50, or the amount of your choice.*Loan recipient will pay you back in 10 months or less.
*You can decide to re-loan or get your money back.
*Contact cuscogracias@gmail.com with questions.
----------------------------------------------------------
You may be aware of micro-credit financing, a world-wide phenomenon that is a popular and effective link between the developed and developing worlds. The concept behind micro-credit financing is that those of us with resources can loan money to people without them, interest-free, to help them start their small businesses or help them in some other way. We are able to give these people an opportunity they otherwise would not have; they pay back the loan and are on their way. Two well known models are the Grameen Bank (http://grameen-info.org/) and KIVA (http://www.kiva.org/).
There are a lot of hard-working Peruvians who would benefit greatly from this model. We started this small, micro-financing program -- "CuscoGracias" -- when we lived in Cusco in 2008-2009 with one individual, Marco, whom we got to know well. Since then, we have been able to offer several more loans thanks to the generous response we have received. (See http://cuscogracias.blogspot.
If you would like to join us in helping to support a loan recipient, here is how it works:
1) You can give a loan of $25 or more. Most people have loaned $25 or $50. You will interact directly with us (e-mail us at cuscogracias@gmail.com for more information at any point). This way we can guarantee that you will get your money back, in full. We expect this to happen in 10 months for everyone, based on the monthly payments we have determined for the loan recipients. At that point we will contact you to let you know your loan has been paid back and you can either re-loan the money to someone else -- assuming we have more loan recipients lined up -- or we will send/give it back to you.
2) This is a loan, NOT a donation. We have made up a formal contract that all loan recipients have signed. They have also given us a list of 5 references for us to contact should there be a problem. So far, there has not been an issue with any of the recipients; they have been paying back their loans on our pre-determined schedule. However, should there ever be a problem, this will not affect the money you loan. If a loan recipient is unable to pay back your loan for any reason, we will pay you back. We trust the loan recipients and this model enough that we are willing to take on this financial risk.
3) We are keeping a running list of loans/lenders on the CuscoGracias blog, as we receive them (by last name), and recipients are paying them back in that particular order. You can keep track of the progress there. We will indicate when they have paid off each individual loan.
If you have any questions or would like to make a loan, you can e-mail us at cuscogracias@gmail.com. We can give you more information on a personal basis. Thank you for taking the time to read this, and, if you are so inclined, for making a loan to one of the loan recipients in Cusco, Peru.
¡Gracias!
Rick and Jen Mayes
Muhammad Yunus
