Microcredit Program in Honduras - presentation by Steve Rickard and Ken Montgomery

Carol Kundrik (Sunrise) introduced from the Calgary West Club to speak about the long-term and very successful micro-credit development project in Honduras which is now in Phase IV since it started in 1984 at the 10^th Int’l RI Convention.  Steve reviewed the long and impressive history of the project that is linked RI’s commitment with the UN to reduce world hunger and poverty.  In 1989, more than 40,000 children were dying daily from hunger and malnutrition related diseases.  Today that number is less than 10,000 but still far too many children are suffering.

 

The micro-credit program has had more than 200 million borrowers and impacted more than 1B people by providing only $1.25/day to minimize hunger. UN’s goal is to eliminate child poverty and hunger by 2050 and RI and the global micro-credit program is playing a key role in this effort.  Ken Montgomery is a retired engineer and active in the project for many years.  He has visited more than 67 countries but is very committed to the Honduras project because it is the 2^nd poorest country in Latin America with more 800,000 people suffering from hunger.

 

This HECD IVth phase of the project lead by his Calgary Club are attempting to raise $150K to be matched by RI and funding partners Opportunities Int’l Canada and IDH in Honduras.  This involves providing family business loans as small as $150 for various entrepreneurial ventures.  Repayment of loans have been very successful > 90% and had a major impact on reducing poverty and increasing their standard of living. Families do not have access to reasonable financing locally given the high interest rates (40-80%).  They are focusing larger SME (small to medium enterprise) projects of about $5K/each that will create 30-80 jobs over the next year and benefit more than 250 family members.

 

 

They are hoping to raise up to $5K from interested clubs.  In this regard Sunrise announced a $5000 contribution to the project and hope that RCLE will be able to contribute as well.

After some lively discussion about the challenges with corruption in countries like Honduras, Ken convinced the group that their efforts in due diligence and oversight have minimized these concerns.

 

Andrew thanked Steve and Ken for their passionate and informative presentation and wished them every success.  Our club will discuss this initiative further and hopefully be able to contribute in some meaningful way.