The Perfect Storm

Traveling in a foreign country can be interesting at times. It was one of the first observations I made upon landing in Johannesburg four days ago. Outside of the airport there were dozens of cars, vans and trucks lined up for 200 yards. But wait a minute; we are in a foreign country. So, they were actually lined up for about 191 meters. Who is keeping track though? Meter and yards aside, driving on the opposite side of the road is astonishing at first. I still catch myself getting into our van and wondering what in the world our driver is doing on the left side of the road.
Tuesday we traveled to another township. As we drove into the township, to again meet with Dave Toms, we discussed our three hour brainstorming session from the night before. Some of our ideas upon second thought do not seem as viable. Two ideas carried through for further discussion. A community bank type model and continuing adult education program. The former struck a chord with me because my schooling and internship has been in banking; a community bank.
One issue presented to the people of these townships is a lack of storage for their earnings. Most people store their money in coffee jars in their houses. Well, as soon as one family member notices another has more money, they will ask that person for a loan; knowing full well the loan will not be repaid. The people in these townships do not say no. They were raised on the belief that your money is our money and your food is our food. To combat this, establishing a low scale model of a community bank may be possible. It will alleviate the pressure of one person working for all. Savings will then occur and allow for an aspiring entrepreneur to build of the capital necessary to start a small business. As long as the bank maintains a high capital requirement, say 60 or 70 percent, the remaining could be put towards a micro-lending program on the backend. The problem with the micro-lending would be the default rate on the loans. Hence, there would be a high capital requirement. The bank model has been successfully employed by Mohamed Yunus in Bangladesh.
Another useful idea that came from our discussion was the need for continuing education for adults. Most children after attending school return to a broken home. They are left to make their own decisions at an age where they need an adult presence to reinforce the lessons they are taught in school. This dilemma is where continuing adult education comes into play. With the adult education, parents would hopefully take some of the lessons learned and apply them to everyday situations in the home. Unfortunately, calculating a return on investment would be troublesome because you would have to look at how successful the lessons were in being passed from adult to child. This would limit any major funding from a program of this structure.In closing, the brainstorm was exactly what we all needed. Our ideas came together like a perfect storm. It was emotional at times. Yet, the session was very productive in the sense that we all had ideas that complimented one another. It is something we will try and grow on in the future.