There are billions more people in the developing world who would benefit from fair trade and other businesses if only they had access to Fair Finance to start their business, to climb out of poverty and to control their own lives. Thirty-three years ago, the United Church, along with others in the World Council of Churches, founded the Ecumenical Developmental Cooperative Society, the first international micro-lending co-operative. Today the EDCS, or Oikocredit as it is now called, is the largest micro-lending co-operative in the world, with more than 30,000 investors who provide credit to some 11 million borrowers worldwide. Anyone in Canada can invest, which brings a modest monetary return and a rewarding social return to the investor and also changes the world for a billion of the poorest people.
Jo Jamieson
Victoria
April 10, 2008
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