PEER Servants Gift Catalog

MED (micro-enterprise development) is:

The process of starting or growing very small businesses through the provision of capital (generally in the form of a market interest rate loan) and basic business training in such fields as business planning, marketing, and bookkeeping.
One of the most efficient means of empowering the materially poor. Traditional models of trying to empower the world’s materially poor focused on giving huge amounts of capital to governments and large institutions that, in theory, eventually benefited the poor. In reality, these funds rarely reached the palms of the materially poor and, instead, made the rich of the target area richer.
Used by a growing number of Christian organizations as a means of making the love of Christ known in credible ways to the world’s materially poor.
Modeled after, in large part, the pioneering work of Mohammed Yunus, a Muslim from Bangladesh, who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in MED. Yunus completed his PhD at Vanderbilt University on how to create effective economic empowerment models for the world’s materially poor and then returned to his native Bangladesh to implement such a model, the Grameen Bank, as an Economics Professor at Chittagong University. The Grameen Bank, with an average loan size at one point of $60, has become one of the largest banks in the country, attracting funding from the World Bank and other international funding organizations.
Capable of being established such that the interest revenues can cover not only the administrative costs of the program, but also grow the loan portfolio so that others in the community can benefit, and create explicit ministry funds to support indigenous forms of mission.
Generally designed using a much different lending model to encourage high repayment rates than the institutional lending models used in the Western world. The concept of a “solidarity group” is often used, where each member is ultimately responsible for the repayment of the loans within the solidarity group and the peer pressure element leads to attractive loan repayment rates.
A means to not only create direct access to business capital and training, but doing so in a way that builds up and encourages the materially poor, gives them a real hope, and lets them apply their God-given entrepreneurial talents to provide for their families, churches, and communities.
Not the sole nor always even the best means of addressing the needs of the materially poor, but should be an integral part to any ministry focused on the needs of the materially poor, especially those living in developing world countries.

Gift Catalog > Overview of MED

	MED (micro-enterprise development) is: The process of starting or growing very small businesses through the provision of capital (generally in the form of a market interest rate loan) and basic business training in such fields as business planning, marketing, and bookkeeping. One of the most efficient means of empowering the materially poor. Traditional models of trying to empower the world’s materially poor focused on giving huge amounts of capital to governments and large institutions that, in theory, eventually benefited the poor. In reality, these funds rarely reached the palms of the materially poor and, instead, made the rich of the target area richer. Used by a growing number of Christian organizations as a means of making the love of Christ known in credible ways to the world’s materially poor. Modeled after, in large part, the pioneering work of Mohammed Yunus, a Muslim from Bangladesh, who received the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize for his work in MED. Yunus completed his PhD at Vanderbilt University on how to create effective economic empowerment models for the world’s materially poor and then returned to his native Bangladesh to implement such a model, the Grameen Bank, as an Economics Professor at Chittagong University. The Grameen Bank, with an average loan size at one point of $60, has become one of the largest banks in the country, attracting funding from the World Bank and other international funding organizations. Capable of being established such that the interest revenues can cover not only the administrative costs of the program, but also grow the loan portfolio so that others in the community can benefit, and create explicit ministry funds to support indigenous forms of mission. Generally designed using a much different lending model to encourage high repayment rates than the institutional lending models used in the Western world. The concept of a “solidarity group” is often used, where each member is ultimately responsible for the repayment of the loans within the solidarity group and the peer pressure element leads to attractive loan repayment rates. A means to not only create direct access to business capital and training, but doing so in a way that builds up and encourages the materially poor, gives them a real hope, and lets them apply their God-given entrepreneurial talents to provide for their families, churches, and communities. Not the sole nor always even the best means of addressing the needs of the materially poor, but should be an integral part to any ministry focused on the needs of the materially poor, especially those living in developing world countries.