By Sophie Barth
Financial life was comfortable for Mwanjuma Kupka until her husband committed suicide in 1990.
Shortly afterward she was forced out of her Kenyan home because she was the second and younger wife. Kupka returned to her parents with nothing but her little girl and the determination to be independent. After another marriage and abandonment, Kupka borrowed 500 schillings from her sister and began her own kerosene business.
Without expanding her business, however, she could not afford to cloth or educate her two young children. Expansion was not an option without additional funding, and Kupka did not qualify for a traditional bank loan, according to the Yehu Microfinance Web site.
Kupka''s determination led her to Yehu Bank, a non-profit microfinance company based in Orem. Yehu Microfinance services rural areas throughout Kenya, offering small, short-term loans to finance small business to people otherwise considered unbankable.
'Yehu Bank means ''our'' bank in a native dialect,' said Sam Stapp, a BYU junior majoring in accounting who spent his summer working as one of Yehu''s financial consultants in Mombasa, Kenya. 'Commercial banks won''t process them because these people don''t have any traditional collateral. So instead of traditional collateral, we provide small loans to individuals in social groups.'
These organized groups meet every other week, Stapp said. The group members are liable for the others'' loans, so social pressures and support keep the repayment rates high.
This model has been so successful in alleviating poverty that numerous microfinance organizations have begun servicing people worldwide.
'There''s always room for more organizations because poverty is so widespread,' said Anne G. Stewart, director of development for Enterprise Mentors International.
EMI started operating in the Philippines and is now in Guatemala, El Salvador, Mexico and Peru, Stewart said. It is a non-profit organization that trains natives to run their microfinance operations.
'We''re unique because we work from within the country, employing only locals,' Stewart said. 'It provides not only the benefit of loans, but our native executive directors and project directors also get training, jobs and income.'
EMI uses student interns from the states to help with fundraising and the advisory council, Stewart said.
Many organizations choose to send interns to the countries to help with administration and training. Yehu sent five interns to the Kenyan bush last summer.
'We''re looking to send volunteers year round,' said Troy Holmberg, executive director of Yehu Microfinance. 'We focus in on BYU because we''re here in Provo, but we''ve sent interns from around the country over.'
The Center for Economic Reliance through the Marriott School of Business is BYU''s own tie to microfinance programs.
The Economic Self Reliance Student Association and the center estimate 75 to 100 students are involved in microfinance or one of its branches, said Todd Manwaring, the center''s managing director.
'We provide students with the opportunity to actually do something about poverty,' said Jeff Mower, president of the student association.
The student association acts as the link between students and organizations, Mower said.