Partnerships, Microloans Help Businesses

"Business is the greatest hope for the world's poor," said Doug Seebeck, executive director of Partners Worldwide, at the organization’s recent summit in Grand Rapids, MI.

Approved for support by the Christian Reformed Church, Partners Worldwide is a non-profit organization that helps entrepreneurs around the world obtain capital, mentoring, skills development, and business knowhow.

"On the ground" organizations offer small loans (typically in the $100 to $1,000 range, significant money in the areas served) to qualified individuals to start or improve businesses. Because these are loans instead of a handout, responsibility and dignity are encouraged.

Seebeck says North American businesspeople have often felt they are at the bottom of a church "ladder," which places preachers and traditional missionaries at the top, and entrepreneurial types at the bottom.

But that is changing.

The Partners summit was buzzing with the phrase "Business As Mission," an avenue for anyone with some kind of working skill to serve Christ. "We don’t have to leave our role in business to go into ministry," said Greg Elzinga, Partners Worldwide marketing director, in an opening session.

Elzinga introduced summit attendees to the components of Partners Worldwide’s work:

• First, there are partnerships between a North American affiliate and an international affiliate located in the country served. Currently 32 North American affiliates partner with 40 international ones, with 6,000 businesses and 7,700 agricultural organizations started or grown.

• Both affiliates aid local entrepreneurs by training, mentoring, and equipping them. Solid business skills and knowledge of the country are key.

• The partnership gives entrepreneurs access to capital, but it does not lead with money.

• Non-monetary needs and loan qualifications are considered carefully.

• Affiliates and the people connected to them act as advocates for the partnership and people served. Advocacy includes prayer, recruiting support from knowledgeable partners, and putting important matters in front of governments through letter writing or other means.

Success stories were shared at the summit. A man named Gonzalo ran a struggling bakery with his wife in Ecuador. They received a loan for baking equipment which turned their business around. Their marriage and spiritual lives have flourished as well.

John and Joyce, a husband-wife team in Uganda, received a loan to start an agricultural storage business. This is an innovative move in a country where lack of storage has meant much of the plentiful harvest typically spoils before it can be consumed. In these cases, and myriad others around the world, the entrepreneurs have turned around and helped others in their communities pull themselves up on their own terms.

Roxanne de Graaf, Partners Worldwide’s director of strategic initiatives, said people in countries around the world are excited about the partnership model because it connects Christianity and business. The exploitative stereotype of Western businesses is challenged and overturned.

Francis Ssenyonjo is a partnership manager in Uganda. As a Ugandan, he is fulfilling an aspect of Partners Worldwide’s vision, which calls for development being in the hands of people who know the country best. He said he is involved in the partnership because it promotes business that is more sustainable.

In his work, he interacts with in-country businesspeople, sometimes encouraging them to take risks which can help improve their livelihoods. "Every single person created by God has potential," he says.

Rob Tribken, a summit speaker, is the founder of a successful packaged salad company in California. He felt a calling to use his skills with Partners Worldwide in 2006 after attending a Partners-sponsored conference in 2003. Still an active businessman, he is now the head of the Uganda partnership, which benefits from his decades of experience.

Anyone who is interested can learn more about Partners Worldwide and the microloan industry through the Partners website: www.partnersworldwide.org and by reading the book My Business, My Mission, co-written by Seebeck. Also consider attending next year’s Partners Worldwide International Business Conference, taking place Oct. 7-8 in Grand Rapids.