Written by Kayoko Mitsumatsu

From Posture To Power: Microcredit Changes Lives On Both Sides of the Ocean

We can talk about making change. But affecting real change in the world comes from
impacting the lives of individuals. It comes from empowering people to be independent
and able to make a living on their own while at the same time being fully integrated in
our interdependent global community. Sometimes it takes something that seems to be
radical to make this change, but these shifts can be deceptively small. They can be even
as small (or as large) as the cost of a Los Angeles Yoga class.

How could this be? In the practice of microcredit, lending seemingly small amounts of
money to small-scale entrepreneurs allows them to succeed and change their
circumstances. This is the fundamental basis of microcredit’s transformative power; it’s a
revolutionary concept in finance. This practice shifts the emphasis from financial
transactions being focused only about large loans and large scale businesses, which are
out of reach of many one-person operations, institutions and organizations – to lending
practices that actually make a positive difference in a person’s life. Microcredit practices
based on social justice and empowerment operate through a combination of small-scale
loans based on trust and community support, with structured repayment plans and
programs that encourage savings. In these situations, people actually have the opportunity
to solidify long-term change in their lives.

Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the Yoga Gives Back Team: Joel Bender, Leslie Hendry, Dr.
Muhammad Yunus and Kayoko Mitsumatsu (left-right)

In 2006, economist Dr. Muhammad Yunus and the institution he founded, the Grameen
Bank, were awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. This award was in recognition of their
revolutionary efforts to create this micro-credit model, support sustainable economic
practices, and provide an alternative to what were exploitive norms. When a person is
caught in a cycle of poverty, they may become trapped in the system, particularly since
large banking institutions have historically ignored people without assets or credit
histories, who are just starting out and who may not have already proven themselves.
Most banks prefer to lend large sums of money that represent a greater profit margin and
are set up only for large loans in order to make a profit themselves. And even making it
more challenging, people at the bottom of the economic scale worldwide have had to rely
on moneylenders charging usurious terms and interest rates to obtain funds to plant the
next crop, buy inventory of new equipment, or upgrade a business in any way.
Institutions such as the Grameen Bank and their affiliates are offering another approach.
It’s one that has significantly impacted millions of people.

As Dr. Yunus described in an exclusive interview with Yoga Gives Back in May, 2009,
“We started in 1976, and today within Grameen Bank in Bangladesh, eight million
people borrow micro loans, ninety-seven percent of them women.” This represents an
enormous potential for change and empowerment that just did not exist on a large scale in
this form prior to 1976.

There is a social cycle in economics, and Dr. Yunus explained this: “Poverty is not inside
the person. Poverty is forced from outside. Poor people are as capable [a] human being as
anybody else. They have the same power and energy, same potential. But they are denied
such facilities. They cannot express themselves. Money is one of the most important
items missing in their lives. You need a dollar to catch a dollar. You cannot catch a dollar
with an empty hand. So, that first dollar, nobody has given to her. So she remains
dependent on someone else. She has to be hired, to slave; she has to work to make food
available on the table. What we have done, we have put that first dollar into her hands as
a banking proposition. Conventional banks never come to the poor people. They go to
rich people to make more money. The person who does not have a dollar – she cannot get
it. So we did it. We did it in a way that is affordable to her. Because we do not insist on
collateral. There is no collateral.”

While that may seem like a radical concept, the Grameen Bank has proven that their
success is much more than ideological. Dr Yunus cited statistics for us, “The repayment
rate is almost 100%, without collateral or anything. This is the strength of microcredit
which is now spread all over the world. There are by now at least 150 million borrowers
in the world today. Bu it is still very small comparing to the need. We need more
microcredit organizations in the world so that more people can be reached.”

Yoga Gives Back is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization begun in LA, with the goal to
provide a way for Western Yoga practitioners to give back to India, the birthplace of
Yoga, which has given us so much. We’re heeding Dr. Yunus’ call to reach more people
through expanded opportunities for and awareness of microcredit and have targeted India
and Indian families, women, and would-be entrepreneurs, who would be otherwise stuck
in the cycle of poverty that Dr. Yunus described. Yoga Gives Back supports
microfinancing operations in India, through the Grameen Foundation, headquartered in
Washington, DC. Donations go directly to Grameen Koota, Bangalore, South India and
our YGB awareness campaign focuses on the real stories of how poor women are
changing their lives with small loans from Grameen Koota.

Ms. Vinatha M Reddy

Grameen Koota was started by visionary teacher and philanthropist, Ms. Vinatha M
Reddy (pictured, above) in 1999, who learned about Nobel Peace Recipient Dr
Muhammad Yunus’ microfinancing and immediately began exploring ways of replicating
his work in her hometown. In 2000, she started providing small microcredit loans,
averaging $25.00 a month, to fifty local women. Today, Grameen Koota’s work is
reaching out to over 280,000 women in Bangalore, Mysore and many areas of Karnataka
state, in South India, making real impact on these women’s lives as well as on the local
economy.

Yoga Gives Back

The Los Angeles-based Yoga Gives Back has a worldwide reach and began out of the
inspiration and dedication of my Yoga mentor Joel Bender and me. Our group has
suddenly started growing almost daily and our mission is shared by a quickly expanding
and loving Yoga community.

When I was growing up in Japan, which is a very middle-class society, I had never
experienced or seen any real poverty, especially growing up in Tokyo in 1960s and
1970s, when Japan's post-war economic miracle was taking place. Then, I had a chance
to live in Brazil in the late 1970s for two years, where as a teenager, I saw the divide
between poverty and wealth, the reality of the real slums, kids on the streets begging
every time you stopped the car at the traffic light, all very much like India. Social
injustice hit me hard.

Once I started Yoga practice and feeling my life being so enriched by it , I felt a need to
use my resources to help others. I was producing a documentary on Social
Entrepreneurship and learned about microfinancing. I shared this information with Joel
[featured in the teacher profile in this month’s issue of LA YOGA] who had been looking
for the way he could give back to India since his first visit there – so we teamed up.

When I think about the growth of Yoga Gives Back thus far, I give a lot of credit to the
entrepreneurship and volunteer spirit of Americans, willing to embrace and support a new
grass roots campaign like ours.

Kayoko Mitsumatsu, co-founder of Yoga Gives Back, is a documentary filmmaker whose

films deal with social justice issues, including First They Killed My Father a memoir of a
Cambodia’s Killing Fields’ survivor.

A Life Changing Story of Microcredit: Jayashree

Jayashree

Jayashree lives in the suburbs of Bangalore and is married and the mother of two
children. We visited her at her humble dirt floor one room home for the first time in
2007. We were touched by her warm smile and most generous hospitality, serving us hot
tea and cookies.

Jayashree was born into a very poor family in Bangalore. When she was a child, her
family’s financial situation became so severe that she had to drop out of school and work
at a garment factory. She toiled throughout her childhood and after she got married at
fifteen, her meager earnings had to support her ailing in-laws. She had two children. Her
husband’s rickshaw business was not enough to pay her sons’ education or secure food
for the family.
In 2007, Jayashree learned from her neighbors about Grameen Koota’s microcredit
program and applied for her first loan. She was granted a first loan of 7,000 rupees
($175), and immediately bought her husband’s auto rickshaw. Owning their own
rickshaw business increased their income significantly.

Jayashree was able to pay back her entire loan in one year and became eligible for her
second loan in 2008. Having proven her diligence, her second loan amount doubled to
15,000 rupees ($375). This time, she bought a sewing machine and started stitching bags.
The family’s earnings have now tripled and she is earning 150 rupees ($3.75) a day. In
addition, she opened a small shop next to her house to sell her products which is earning
her an additional 100 rupees ($2.50) a day.

She is sending her elder son to a medical school. Her son dreams of becoming a doctor
and thanks his mother’s business for providing his education, their own home and daily
food.

To participate in a Yoga practice where the proceeds support Yoga Gives Back and
directly impact the transformation of not only your own life, but that of someone in India,
start your Thanksgiving week at Yogaglo, Sunday, November 22, 10:00 A.M. - 12 noon.
Some of the teachers include John Sahakian, Felicia Tomasko, Alexandra Aiken and Ally
Hamilton; more to be announced. Yogaglo.com; yogagivesback.com.

For more information on Yoga Gives Back or to host a Yoga Gives Back class at your
own studio or location, visit: yogagivesback.org or contact
yogagivesback@earthlink.net .