John Hatch, founder of the non-profit Foundation for International Community Assistance, promotes village banking to encourage private enterprise in the Third World. What he foresees is a body blow to world poverty through bootstrap economics.
"Village banking," one effort to ease world poverty, appears to work. Envisioned five years ago by John Hatch, the plan is a system of investment using small revolving loans to poor women to finance their small, quick-turnover, private enterprises. There are now 400 village banks, each with 40 to 50 women, in nine countries. Portfolios total $1.6 million and repayment is 96%. Hatch has support from the Catholic Relief Service, Rotary Club, and U.S. Agency for International Development, and proposals pending with other foundations and corporations. Loans are small, but with quick payback, low interest, and savings a woman's credit line increases.