By Katherine Green

Breaking out of the cycle of poverty is kind of like the “you need ID to get ID” scenario.  For the people of poverty stricken areas of the world it can be almost impossible to get that first lump of cash to get ahead. Trying to get a bank loan with no collateral, employer or credit report is like falling out of the sky, dusting yourself off and walking into the passport office to get approved. 

Banks just don’t find the poor of the world…bankable.  To overcome this problem in parts of India, groups of people would save money to lend to each other in rotation—helping the community when they came across unexpected expenses.

This is the same model that is now used to alleviate poverty with microcredit.  A system that is helping hundreds of thousands of people through small loans of just a few hundred or thousand dollars, and it’s catching on quickly.

British Columbia based Global Agents for Change is one organization hopping on the microcredit bandwagon.  Actually they are hopping on their bikes, and riding them all the way from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico in order to raise money for microcredit.

Their annual Ride to Break the Cycle tour lasts seven weeks and they have almost raised $100,000 since 2007.  It all started when Shawn Smith, the director of Global Agents for Change, and his cousin thought they would ride the 3000km to Tijuana because “honestly… it was the craziest thing we could think of doing,” Smith recalled.

“We were not cyclists when we launched this tour and it seemed to be a massive mental and physical personal challenge. Before we knew it, there were 21 of us riding as friends and family rallied around the mission. We raised $35,000 in the first year, and as this momentum was building we realized we had created something far greater than a single project, so we registered the organization, and began planning other core programs in addition to the first,” he said.

Global AFC operates only with the help of volunteers.  All 25 participants in the 3000km trek have to fundraise $3000 to be accepted on the tour and they continue to raise funds along their way.

Emma Banks was a ride leader in the last tour that was completed in July and she says the fundraising was one of the major challenges of the whole process. “Fundraising was as influential of an experience as the ride was because you had to come up with so many interesting ways to make money,” she said.

No matter how hard it may seem to come up with $3000 by your self in a matter of months Banks said that the differences with microcredit were something that people could get behind even if they didn’t usually like to donate money:

“[Microcredit] is different from other poverty alleviation methods because it works all over the globe without as much of us deciding what they (the borrowers) need.  And the fact that we were riding our bikes helped – people are like, wow! I could never do that, here’s five bucks.”

Global AFC manage their money through an online microcredit platform called kiva.org.  Kiva works as a middle man between lenders such as Global AFC and field partners in various countries around the world to distribute the lent money to the borrowers. 

Currently Global AFC has helped small business entrepreneurs in the form of 279 different loans varying in size generally from $500 to $1000.

One loan was given to Pedro Leon Esteban Velazquez in a small border town in Mexico. He lost his arm in an accident and recently started a general store; however it wasn’t big enough to support his family. He requested a loan on Oct. 26, 2007 and by Oct. 29 he was given his requested amount of $575 in order to renovate and expand his store.  Velazquez paid back the money to Global AFC over the course of six months finishing in late April, 2007. Now the money is free to be lent out again.

Microcredit has become such an important and quickly growing tool to fight poverty that 2005 was named the International Year of Microcredit by the UN.

Any one can become a part of microcredit.  You can get involved with Kiva on your own or become a part of Global AFC’s efforts to raise money for microcredit.

Global AFC are launching a European bike tour for summer 2009 alongside their North American tour from Vancouver, Canada to Tijuana, Mexico.  They also run various other projects such as the University microcredit challenge and a new scholarship program for students who cannot afford to continue their secondary or post-secondary schooling.

For more information on all programs visit, http://www.globalafc.org/.  For information on microcredit lending, visit www.kiva.org.