{"id":29,"date":"2012-09-28T19:09:21","date_gmt":"2012-09-28T19:09:21","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/?p=29"},"modified":"2012-09-28T19:09:21","modified_gmt":"2012-09-28T19:09:21","slug":"im-not-afraid-of-storms-for-im-learning-to-sail-my-ship-aeschylus","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/2012\/09\/28\/im-not-afraid-of-storms-for-im-learning-to-sail-my-ship-aeschylus\/","title":{"rendered":"“I’m not afraid of storms, for I’m learning to sail my ship.” Aeschylus"},"content":{"rendered":"

Idealism<\/strong><\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

The picture-perfect agricultural school<\/p><\/div>\n

When I first learned about social entrepreneurship, I was so entranced by the innovative ways social entrepreneurs were promoting social change and helping to improve millions of lives. Based on all the YouTube clips I watched, books I read, and enterprises I researched, I was convinced that social entrepreneurship is the most effective way of achieving sustainable solutions to eradicating poverty. I was impressed by the way it used the capitalistic system and open-market principles to generate economic development and how it differed with top-down policy and multilateral aid approaches that have historically characterized development.<\/p>\n

I anticipated going to Paraguay and doing this groundbreaking work where I could see the positive transformation that my contributions were having. I felt that social entrepreneurship was a field that reconciled many of the paradoxes that pervaded my life such as my call to service and my competitive nature or the humanistic side of anthropology and the practicality of business. In a sense, my excitement and enthusiasm for social entrepreneurship blinded me from the difficulties and tribulations within the field.<\/p>\n

Skepticism<\/strong><\/p>\n

The first week FP appeared to be the organization I envisioned. We toured the agricultural school which was very remarkable and seemingly well-functioning. We met with managers who emphasized the impact that FP was making and the potential of its 50 poverty indicators survey. Yet, it wasn\u2019t until I was in the field and actually working in my placements that I began to observe the deficiencies in the organization.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Living standards of women who were sometimes classified at the highest indicator<\/p><\/div>\n

I was most disappointed with the highly praised 50 poverty indicators survey. The managers had told us that nearly all the women were surveyed and data archived. However, when we finally had access to the data, only 20 women for each assessor were surveyed and nearly all of them were at the green level (highest level) for almost every indicator. I also had the opportunity to see the survey administered and most of the time the assessor was either leading the question of not even asking one. In many ways, the 50 poverty indicators survey was a microcosm of the occasional disorganization and lack of effectiveness at FP that I struggled with the most.<\/p>\n

At times, I felt that FP\u2019s size diverted it from its mission. The organization stresses quantity where one assessor is responsible for over 800 women and is expected to recruit more. It is nearly impossible to supply the individual attention needed to help someone breach the poverty barrier when one person is responsible for so many people. The assessors didn\u2019t even know the names of all of their clients. Rather than emphasizing quantity of loans given, I wanted FP to stress number of people lifted from poverty. In this regard, microfinance can become a one-size-fits all model of development that social entrepreneurship typically tries to avoid.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

A protest regarding President Lugo’s impeachment and an example of the challenging nature of FP’s target market<\/p><\/div>\n

However, faults of microfinance was not solely on the part of the microlenders but on the clients\u2019 side as well. Women did not care about learning entrepreneurial skills so the assessor would usually not even administer the workshop assigned. Simply, these women just want to just get their money and go. I encountered the same question that Poor Economics<\/em> posed- why are poor people spending precious money on televisions rather than on healthier food? When I asked an assessor, Margarita, this question, she actually had the sensible answer that food goes bad but TVs last, but this did not alleviate my frustrations that women were not fully utilizing these loans. Such experiences made me question if social entrepreneurship was truly the field for me.<\/p>\n

Optimistic – Realism<\/strong><\/p>\n

After some self-reflection, I realized that my expectations for FP were unrealistically high and that I was na\u00efve in thinking that FP did not have its weaknesses. I tried to look at things from FP\u2019s point of view and began understanding why they do certain things in specific ways. For example, they pump numbers and put so much emphasis on quantity because they depend so much on outside funding. After my critical analysis, I actually had a greater appreciation for FP because I understood more clearly what they are up against. Not only do they face the normal, everyday pressures of all companies, but they operate in a developing country with fewer resources and different cultural standards. On top of that, their organization targets some of the most underprivileged people in the world.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Craftswoman who FP was connecting to more profitable markets<\/p><\/div>\n

One of the most valuable conversations I had occurred during the last week of my internship when I was left alone with a woman who was receiving microloans. I asked this woman if FP was helpful, and she unhesitatingly replied, \u201cYes, in many ways.\u201d While this response was short, it had a great impact on me because it helped me grasp that although the positive effects of microfinance may not be readily observable or as grand as everyone hopes, it does not mean that microfinance is wholly ineffective. Microfinance still empowers women and helps them to participate in the public sphere which exposes them to ideas like the importance of education. Also, FP still provides services that are otherwise unattainable to these women. For instance, I met with women who were selling their woven crafts to FP at a discounted price, and FP would give these crafts to other women who could sell these goods in towns where the market was not as flooded. If it weren\u2019t for FP\u2019s scale and size, the women who made the goods would have to compete with hundreds of other distributors in which case they would constantly have to lower their prices, and the women who sell the goods would not have a stable source of income.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>

Riding on and embracing opportunity<\/p><\/div>\n

In the end, the challenges I faced actually fueled a burning interest for me to work through the difficulties I experienced at FP, and it has confirmed my desire to start my own social enterprise someday. I think that microfinance has a lot of potential, and I want to come up with solutions such as incentivizing saving so that more women and communities are lifted from poverty. The experience was one of the most trying and enriching experiences of my life. My patience was tested; I grappled with the insecurities of not knowing the language; I felt useless at times. However, I believe that people learn more from failures than they do from successes. I have not changed my values or goals, but I am more critical and cerebral than ever before. My placement may have not been exactly what I wanted, but it was what I needed.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Idealism When I first learned about social entrepreneurship, I was so entranced by the innovative ways social entrepreneurs were promoting social change and helping to improve millions of lives. Based on all the YouTube clips I watched, books I read, … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":242,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"qubely_global_settings":"","qubely_interactions":"","kk_blocks_editor_width":"","_kiokenblocks_attr":"","_kiokenblocks_dimensions":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-29","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"gutentor_comment":6,"qubely_featured_image_url":null,"qubely_author":{"display_name":"aearmstrong","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/author\/aearmstrong\/"},"qubely_comment":6,"qubely_category":"Uncategorized<\/a>","qubely_excerpt":"Idealism When I first learned about social entrepreneurship, I was so entranced by the innovative ways social entrepreneurs were promoting social change and helping to improve millions of lives. Based on all the YouTube clips I watched, books I read, … Continue reading →","post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/242"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=29"}],"version-history":[{"count":8,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":46,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/29\/revisions\/46"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=29"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=29"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.scu.edu\/aearmstrong\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=29"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}