In order to provide effective assistance from outside the county, The Colombia Project relies on Colombian partners -- grassroots organizations working within Colombia to screen loan applicants, disburse funds and mentor loan recipients. As compared to most other types of assistance programs, successful micro-credit programs are relatively costly to administer as they require far more than just delivering goods or services. Before giving cash to people who have a multitude of very real and very urgent immediate needs for food, shelter and clothing, the administering agency must determine that the applicant has the ability, determination, wisdom and discipline to invest that cash in deferred rather than immediate gratification.
From the many people requesting loans, the administering agency must learn to identify the applicant who has a good business plan, the ability to carry it out and a core belief in the possibility of a better tomorrow. These are the individuals who have the ability to succeed and serve as role models for others in the community.
After screening the applicants and disbursing the loans, the local partners’ work has only just begun. Grassroots organizations working closely and effectively with displaced populations in Colombia provide the support system, technical training, and moral support that help displaced families to rebuild successful lives. Typically, The Colombia Project partners introduce their loan recipients to government training programs, university professors, lawyers and social activists who conduct workshops and provide consultation as needed. They offer their clients a host of services to increase their chances for success.
In the absence of a caring, knowledgeable agency, micro-credit might be extended to people who are not ready or able to set up a small business. In those cases, the un-repaid loan becomes an additional burden on the displaced person and adds to their sense of failure and hopelessness. Good partners are essential to ensure that micro-credit loans sent from abroad actually help rather than harm vulnerable populations.
FUNDEHUMAC
Foundation for the Development of the Human Community (FUNDEHUMAC), added Colombia Project micro-credit loans to its repertoire of social service programs in 2004. Under the leadership of Alba Lucia Moreno FUNDEHUMAC has worked with conflict resolution, scholarship programs for displaced students and with human rights, and is well-established within marginalized communities in the Magdalena region of Colombia. While FUNDEHUMAC had no previous experience in administering loans, it did have an extensive support network of social workers, lawyers and university professors and a dedicated coterie of displaced students who actively participated by setting up their own businesses (see Roberto De La Cruz, Jorge Arrieta and Alex Cuello' projects) and assisting with the administration of the program.
APRODEFA
In 2006, The Colombia Project approached Audes Jimenez, an Ashoka Fellow who had established APRODEFA, a community development and successful micro-credit loan program in Barranquilla targeted at marginalized, internal refugees. The Colombia Project board asked if she would enter a partnership to replicate that program in another city. She selected Cartagena and developed a team that quickly set up programs in two displaced settlements. APRODEFA had experience working with displaced people and with microcredit programs but they had not worked in Cartagena before. This was the first time that The Colombia Project partnered in a location that was new for TCP and for our partner. While this has presented challenges, the program is thriving. Loans are given to expand existing businesses, headed primarily by women. Completion of a training course is a pre-requisite for receiving a loan. An added feature of the APRODEFA-Cartagena program is a micro savings program that allows participants to save as well as borrow money in their local neighborhood. This valuable service evolved solely from the initiative of the Colombian partner. Networking among The Colombia Project partners is encouraged as a means of sharing valuable program ideas such as community banking, much the same way that loan recipients network to share their small business ideas.
MINICOL
MINICOL is registered in both the United States (Miami) and Colombia to support education projects in thirteen municipalities. Based on the success of the program at the first MINICOL site, which opened in 2007 in Quindio, a second site at Concordia was added in 2008. MINICOL is an exciting partnership for The Colombia Project because it provides the possibility of expansion into multiple areas of Colombia, while providing the stability of oversight from the MINICOL board members who make site visits and hold an annual meeting of all MINICOL partners in Colombia.
