Whenever I entertain my friends with tales of my travels throughout the world, they always love to hear about exotic, tropical locales like Thailand. Nobody ever questions why I would want to spend time on a tropical island, but when I turn the discussion to my last trip to Beirut, there’s a different reaction. “Beirut?!” they say. “Why on earth would anybody want to go there?”
Of course, they’re thinking of the war and destruction that has gone on in recent years, but since then, Beirut has been rebuilt and restored to its former glory. It has for centuries been a major center for culture and commerce, and one of the great jewels of the middle east. And yes, people really do go on vacations there.
Traveling to exotic destinations though isn’t all about luxurious hotels and five-star restaurants. It’s great to enjoy those things, but one of the most enlightening things about traveling is being exposed to how the rest of the world lives. Sometimes people who have traveled to places like Beirut are shocked at the levels of poverty and desperation they see. That’s not what they signed up for—they just want a few palm trees and a tropical rum drink served in a coconut shell. But that’s the reality, and it’s important to see it.
In Beirut, despite the rebuilding and the wonderful tourist destinations, there is still poverty—poverty that you will not see in much of the West. Poverty that will shock you. An article in today’s Daily Star, a Lebanese newspaper, gives us some insight and some hope into the situation there. Microcredit is starting to reach Beirut and the rural areas of Lebanon, offering hope in the form of small loans to poor families. According to the World Bank, Lebanon’s microloan portfolio now stands at about $50 million, with somewhere between 38,000 and 55,700 active clients. Sounds impressive, until you read the World Bank report a little further, which says that the number of eligible borrowers in that area is about 190,000. There’s still a long way to go and a lot of people to reach.
If you’re on the tourist path, you won’t see much of that desperate poverty, and in fact, Lebanon is one of the wealthier nations of the Middle East. But there is a disparity, and about 28 percent of the population falls under the UNDP’s poverty line of about four dollars a day. The article in the Star relates the story of two microcredit clients who have done well for themselves. Hajjeh, a Syrian woman in her mid-sixties, uses microcredit funds to buy make-up which she re-sells on the street; and Amal, a young Palestinian mother of three, makes delicious Arabic sweets to sell. How I love Middle Eastern sweets. I wish I were there to sample them! Remarkably, both of these ladies are now earning about $100 a week in their new small businesses.
Club Asteria supports microcredit programs like this, helping to lift people out of poverty the world over. Please join us today, and help support our efforts to bring prosperity to the world.
ไม่มีความคิดเห็น:
แสดงความคิดเห็น