Dear friend,

We had a series of interviews this week with candidates for a new Five Talents position. It was great to see how people with dedication and skill have been drawn to our work.

As we were discussing what makes Five Talents special and effective, these candidates all mentioned how important it is that our partners around the world become more self-sufficient. Some mentioned the quote that we are teaching people to fish rather than giving them fish.

And then we talked about “graduation.” Why is that so important? Even with programs like ours that use micro-enterprise development (or micro-finance), it can be easy to fall into patterns of dependency. Just because a program works well doesn’t mean it can ever pay for itself, and programs over time can become dependent on support from the US, Europe, or elsewhere. That’s why graduation is so important.

Most of our groups go through a cycle that lasts about three years: starting with literacy training; moving on to member savings; adding business training; providing loans from group members to each other; and repaying those loans with interest. Some members, of course, choose to take out new loans after they pay back their first loan. But then the group’s volunteer-coordinator usually moves on to another village. The group graduates from our program, their local leaders keep the group going, and the group doesn’t need any more financial support.

How wonderful that these entrepreneurs don’t need us anymore! Time to keep growing the program to meet the needs of so many more people living in extreme poverty.

Thanks for helping us make all this possible.