"One Hen": How one person can make a Big Difference

"It is literally true that you can succeed best and quickest by helping others to succeed." - Napoleon Hill.

Katie Smith Milway’s "One Hen: How One Small Loan Made a Big Difference" is the inspiring story of Kojo, a young boy from Ghana in West Africa.

Kojo and his widowed mother are scraping by in their daily existence by selling firewood. One day Kojo gets a few extra coins from his mother and buys a single hen. He decides to sell eggs, and with the savings buys more hens. A year later, he has 25 hens, and savings help him to pay off the loan to his mother and join a school. Eventually, he goes to an agricultural college, and upon return starts a poultry farm. As his farm grows, Kojo is able to spread his wealth throughout the community, providing loans to encourage other people to succeed.

The story of Kojo in "One Hen" is based on the true story of Dr. Kwabena Darko, who worked on a chicken farm in Ghana when he was a young boy. The turning point in his life was when a banker took a chance and gave him a loan to study farming. 

As he became successful, he created an organization (Sinapi Aba) that made loans available to people who could not qualify for normal bank loans due to their financial or social status. The loan amounts are small (a few hundred) but it made a difference in the lives of over 50000 Ghanaians, who have been able to start small businesses. It's good business too: the repayment rate for loans is over 98 percent.

Today there are thousands of mico-finance organizations around the world helping millions of people to rise out of poverty. Also there are thousands of volunteers helping in this noble cause. For my colleagues in the technology business and for my OBT class fellows, here is a link to one of those organizations that demonstrate how technology and OBT work together to help in this great cause: www.kiva.org

(Katie Smith Milway is publisher and global editorial director for management consultancy Bain & Company. She heard Dr. Kwabena Darko telling his life story in one of the conferences she attended. It inspired her to write this book which is inspirational for children and adults alike.

The concept of microlending was pioneered by Dr. Muhammad Yunus of Bangaldesh for which he won Nobel Prize in 2006. This story will be covered in the next FR.)

Your Reflection?

Comments

[Tish]

Here is another story like One Hen.

A man was walking along a beach when he saw a boy picking up starfish and flinging them into the sea. The man asked the boy why he was doing this. The boy explained the starfish would die if left on the beach. The man asked the boy, "What difference will your efforts make when there are thousands of starfish on the beach?" The boy stopped and looked at the starfish he was holding, threw it in the ocean and said, "It will make a difference to this one."

[Alex]

Inspirational story for any one involved in any kind of Involved Program.

Microlending is a creative concept helping millions of people better their lives.

We in technology field can use many of our inventions to help eradicting poverty.

[TM]

Kiva is an innovative way of using technology to help poor people. what caught my eye is that they have real time indicators about "impact this week."

In some organizations, they can't get indicator dashboard working accurately for years and lot of discussions. How can a non profit charity group can get their act together so well while we are struggling with many people involved?

any suggestions?

[Lonnie Hurst]

I find the question above by TM interesting because I see so many organizations that can't make decisions without reams of data to prove or not prove the direction being requested. Kiva and many other micro financial endeavors like most small business decisions are made on "gut instinct" with as much data as can be "reasonably" gathered. I do and have worked with many community organizations and that is the only way they survive but I see too many older companies stuck in the safe decision making state of "if I don't have the data I can't decide." Entrepreneurial spirit like leadership takes strenght of character which both Darko, his boss who sent him to college, and Milway all had -- they took a chance -- too bad more executives and managers don't have that ability or that risk-taking gene in them.

[Vinita Parikh]

So Milway who works for Bains Consultancy Group goes to a seminar about microfinance where Dr. Darko is the speaker. In addition to microfinance she learns about his life and writes a children's book.
Interesting......