The Bridge – Costa Rican Microloan Program

In another thread in this forum, someone mentioned http://www.kiva.org which provides microloans to small scale entrepreneurs in a number of countries. Costa Rica is not represented. Microloan programs have proven successful in raising the standard of living of poor people worldwide since the concept’s inception shortly after World War II.

In brief, small amounts of money are loaned to carefully selected individuals (at interest) to enable them to undertake an enterprise and, if successful, to raise their family’s standard of living. For example, as little as twenty dollars is enough to buy a few chickens, provide a source of eggs and chickens to sell, and improve the family’s diet. This support is always in the form of money loaned at interest, and the repaid loans are recycled to assist other borrowers. Participants are carefully selected and monitored, and the default rates are very low.

There is a social service program in Costa Rica which, while not affiliated with kiva.org, does include a microloan program. The website is http://www.elpuente-thebridge.org.

According to the website, the BriBri are an indigenous people of southern Costa Rica and northern Panama. They are very poor, with little economic opportunity. A project called The Bridge provides a number of services to this population. Included in those services is a microloan program. If you wish to make a significant splash here in Costa Rica, The Bridge might be a place to begin.