Poor people don't have access to a lot of things, and for a long time, one of them was access to credit. If a poor entrepreneur had a successful pushcart business that she wanted to expand, she had few choices. But beginning in the 1970's, microfinance organizations began to spring up to fill this gap. Give the entrepreneur a $200 loan and she buys another pushcart, creates a job, and pays the loan back with interest.

In 1980, I'd seen the difference that Microfinance
loans can make. So after graduating from college with a degree in economics, I signed on with an organization called Opportunity Int'l
(at the time known as IIDI). Karen and I got married and took off to live Indonesia.

In Indonesia, I met my boss, David Bussau. Bussau is an Aussie who had just started working with Opportunity Int'l. Since then he has become world famous as a pioneer, but at the time he was just getting going and had moved back to Australia. He would fly in to see me once a month and together we helped establish a microfinance organization on the island of Bali that has since morphed into this.

After a year and a half of this, Karen and I flew to the Dominican Republic and established ASPIRE, Asociacion Para Inversion y Empleos. Since 1982, ASPIRE has created well over 100,000 jobs.

The same magic can be applied to the situation in Haiti. Haiti is a country that has needed help, but has become addicted to hand-outs. Haitians deserve more as they dig out from the rubble. When I was there last month, I was accosted by a man who owns a bakery. He has doubled his business since the earthquake and would like to expand further. We talked about how we might be able to help him. I think entrepreneurs like him are part of the answer to Haiti's issues.

AIM has established a microcredit organization channeling loans through churches to congregation members who need help getting their businesses going again. If you'd like to help by providing a loan or a grant, please click here.