Celebrity spotlights global poverty

from The Daily Trojan

Natalie Portman speaks to 1,200 students about third-world microfinance.

Stephanie Harnett

Natalie Portman was on campus Friday to explain the microfinance program of a nonprofit organization that makes loans to poverty stricken citizens of third world countries.

Portman spoke in Bovard Auditorium as the Ambassador of Hope for the Foundation for International Community Assistance, which provides banking services - loans, savings and insurance - to the world's poorest entrepreneurs, giving them the opportunity to improve their standards of living. The company operates in 20 countries worldwide.

Portman has spent the last week on college campuses from UC Berkeley to UCLA raising students' awareness about FINCA's village banking program. At Friday's event, sponsored by USC Program Board and USC Global Business Leaders (Globus), Portman spoke to more than 1,200 students and faculty.

"We knew the star power Natalie Portman had would help draw the crowd," said Chris Monteverde-Talarico, the speakers director of Program Board. But he said the event was advertised primarily to business students, and a good portion of those in attendance were more interested in microfinance than in the celebrity.

Portman explained that FINCA's system of microfinance, which it calls village banking, sets up community-run banks in third-world countries with high rates of poverty. These banks make small loans - as little as $50 - to the most poverty-stricken entrepreneurs, most of whom live on $2 a day.

Portman, who has traveled to Mexico, Guatemala, Ecuador and Uganda, has witnessed the effects of village banking on third-world communities. She told the audience the story of Naima, a Ugandan woman who received a $50 loan from FINCA 10 years ago. Before the loan, Naima, a mother of 10 girls, was beaten by her husband for not having a son and lived in such poverty that she was forced to use her neighbors' dirty laundry water in her home.

When Portman visited her, Naima had grown the roadside food stand she bought with her loan into a restaurant with indoor seating and a staff of seven other women from her village. All her daughters were in school and one attended a university.

"It's incredible to see a woman who signs her loan with a thumbprint because she cannot read and her daughter graduates from medical school. [A loan] really can break the cycle of poverty in one generation," Portman said.

FINCA has already given more than 600,000 loans to the working poor, which it estimates to be more than 3 billion people and hopes to increase the number of loans to 1 million by 2015.

Portman said these loans and the economic and social mobility they provide empower their mostly female recipients.

"The most powerful thing I've seen about microfinance is the psychological impact on women. When I go into a group of women and I say, 'What's the most important thing to you today?' [They answer,] 'I put pride in myself. I have agency in my own life. I can write my own life story … I can chose my own business … My kids are proud of me,'" she said.

The majority of FINCA loan recipients are female, Portman said, because women comprise 70 percent of the world's poor. Women are also approved for the loans more often, according to the foundation, because they are more likely to invest in their children. In fact, the foundation found many loan recipients prioritize educational expenses even before the expense of buying food.

The foundation has also found that female recipients are more likely to pay back their loans; 97 percent of loans are repaid on time, a rate that FINCA calls "astounding."

Angela Sundin, a junior majoring in economics and mathematics who attended the event, said the high repayment rate isn't a surprise to her.

"It's like a kid from Compton getting a full ride to 'SC. What's he going to do? Fail out of class? Maybe- but you take that chance. Coming from a really poor background, he's probably going to want to make the most of it," she said.

Globus leaders and Marshall School of Business administrators said they backed the event because they want students to be more informed about international business practices and the cultures that influence them.

"We want to make sure that we as a business school and we as a university are truly relevant to what's happening in society," said James Ellis, dean of the school.