July 14, 2011
Alina Rizvi and Marco Sementilli, this year’s GLOBE student
fellows, accompanied Dr. Linda Sama to Vietnam for the program’s
inaugural international visit with potential microloan borrowers
and local Daughters of Charity, who serve as GLOBE field
partners.
During their 13-day trip in May to Ho Chi Minh City, Dalat, and
the Mekong Delta, the trio shared information about financial
literacy training with Habitat for Humanity; visited with Nike’s
microloan affiliate program; met students at an English language
school; introduced GLOBE to the sisters of the Lovers of the Holy
Cross order; engaged with young students at the Daughter-run school
in Da Lat, including a class of autistic children (see photo); and
spoke with entrepreneurs at the Daughters of Charity’s Home for
Single Mothers, Home for HIV, Embroidery Club and Credit Union.
Spending time with young women at the Daughters’ Home for Single
Mothers just outside Ho Chi Minh City, a haven for women who become
pregnant out of wedlock; making rice paper with borrowers from the
Women’s Union, Nike’s microcredit affiliate program; buying
products made by the women training at the Vocational School at the
Domaine de Marie convent in Da Lat; and, meeting entrepreneurs who
are part of a group loan program through the Daughters’ Credit
Union in the Mekong Delta, all revealed potential partnerships and
loan opportunities that made this a unique experience for the
fellows.
“This is a great step forward for GLOBE. Our operations will
spread from home in the United States, through Africa and all the
way on the other side of the world in Vietnam. It is such a great
feeling that I directly helped in the process of gaining these
ties. I am excited for future GLOBE managers to start reviewing
applications and to begin the process of lifting people out of
poverty,” stated Marco Sementilli.
While in Cai Mon, in the Mekong Delta, the Fellows Program
identified a new borrower from the Credit Union who needs $300 to
buy a machine that would cut bamboo for the baskets he makes,
allowing him to increase production that would double his earnings
to $2 per day. Alina Rizvi explains, “It was astonishing to
see what skills and knowledge some of the poorest of people had.
You would meet someone who was so gifted at what they did, and then
be dumbfounded upon learning they make less than a dollar a
day.”
The Peter J. Tobin College of Business has provided a
high-quality business education for over eighty years, offering
individuals from throughout the world the opportunity to study in
New York’s dynamic business environment. The innovative
curriculum emphasizes an analytic and hands-on understanding of
business practice that prepares graduates to excel in today’s
global marketplace.
GLOBE’s mission is to help alleviate poverty in developing
countries by providing small business loans to entrepreneurs in
impoverished areas who would otherwise not have access to
traditional forms of credit. Simultaneously, GLOBE students learn
about the intricacies of microlending policies in the developing
world and the value of business in helping the poor to help
themselves.
Every year, peer students and the GLOBE Steering Committee
review applications and qualifying essays to select one or two
student fellows to travel to a destination where microloans are
currently distributed. Selected student fellows prepare for their
trip by reading about the cultural, economic and political
conditions of the country they will visit and the impact that
microlending has there. This year’s fellows worked with
former and incoming GLOBE managers to translate key documents into
Vietnamese to facilitate communication with their hosts.
For more information about the GLOBE program, please visit
www.stjohns.edu/tobin/globe or contact GLOBE at
tcbglobe@stjohns.edu.
For additional information about the Peter J. Tobin College of
Business, please contact Asia Hauter at (718) 990-6218 or via
e-mail at hautera@stjohns.edu.