A lot has been accomplished over these years, due in part to the extensive promotional efforts that took place and a lot of people have been involved, contacting, networking, seminars, lectures to students and authorities, your meeting with former President Lagos, just to mention a few of the initiatives. Now in retrospect, and after all that took place, I admit that you were always right; those mega projects do not help the poor directly. Of course, they help society as a whole, but they don't help the needy ones. For this same reason, I quit working at IBRD/IFC. I was in the wrong place, and I was not helping the poor.
During our conversation at the airport, you assured me that even if it looked impossible to do, it was possible. Today we have the proof. Our experience in Chile with your revolutionary ideas has allowed providing more than 300,000 thousand microcredits to people. Incredible! BancoEstado has extend 180,000 microcredits throughout the country. Jimena Lopez states that microcredits have reached approximately up to 124,000 people. She also mentions that among the institutions that have replicated your work are BancoEstado, Banco del Desarrollo, Santander, Credcoop, Oriencoop, Fondon Esperanza, Foundacion Contigo, Fundacion La Vaca, and just recently Banigualdad has opened its doors with innovative ways of financing. We should all feel proud. But this is not enough, every night I go to sleep I can not take my mind off those little kids I saw once in a shantytown I visited long time ago sleeping in the floor in a wet clod bed, It is not their fault, and it is not their parents fault. We know whose faults it is, and we have to continue. We still have to reach 3 million microcredits in order to erdicate poverty in Chile, so we have a long way to go; I know that in one way or another, many people will be summoned to your cause bringing to an end to poverty, and I certainly will continue to help you in your efforts.
I remember when at the beginning, the first to come was dear Khalid Shams with his teaching and wam conversations; the books he left with me to start understanding your methods, and very specially, about how you felt and the goals you had. I humbly can say that I feel very small in comparison to you. |
