Speaker 1: Hi. This is Malan Vervier and this is Kim Azarelli.
Speaker 1: We are co authors of the book Fast Forward, How
Speaker 1: Women Can Achieve Power and Purpose. And you're listening to
Speaker 1: Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought to you
Speaker 1: by the Seneca Women Podcast Network and I Heart Radio.
Speaker 1: Welcome to this special edition today. During these difficult times,
Speaker 1: we're talking to experts who can help us gain perspective
Speaker 1: on the impact of coronavirus, as well as share tips,
Speaker 1: resources and some much needed inspiration. Today I'm joined by
Speaker 1: President and CEO of gramin America, Andrea Young Andrew thanks
Speaker 1: so much for joining us. Thank you. I hope everybody
Speaker 1: is safe and staying healthy and pleasure to be here.
Speaker 1: Thank you, Andrea. Uh So. For listeners who don't know
Speaker 1: um about gromin America, uh tell us a little bit
Speaker 1: about the organization and who you serve. Sure so. Comin
Speaker 1: America is the fastest growing and largest micro finance organizations
Speaker 1: in the United States. We give entrepreneurship loans two women
Speaker 1: and their families who are living at or under the
Speaker 1: poverty line. We serve members in twenty four locations. Uh
Speaker 1: and we are in fifteen cities. We have dispersed over
Speaker 1: one and a half billion dollars of loan capital since
Speaker 1: the organization started in two thousand eight. And what's pretty remarkable.
Speaker 1: These are nonrecourse loans and over that money has been repaid.
Speaker 1: Uh So it's been amazing. We've served over a hundred
Speaker 1: and thirty thousands women and their families across the country. Amazing, amazing.
Speaker 1: Just for the listeners, Uh, what do you mean by
Speaker 1: non recourse? Meaning that if you or I has a loan,
Speaker 1: a traditional loan, we have to have some kind of collateral,
Speaker 1: it has to be back um, and that is not
Speaker 1: the case with Agremen loan. We obviously want to encourage behavior,
Speaker 1: encourage them to build a credit score and repay, but
Speaker 1: if they cannot repay, uh, you know, that is the
Speaker 1: loss of the organization. Amazing. So uh so you're really
Speaker 1: addressing women entrepreneurs in sort of low income circumstances. How
Speaker 1: are they being affected right now? Well, extraordinarily hard him.
Speaker 1: I mean, if I go back before the pandemic, I
Speaker 1: just look back over the last ten years, women in
Speaker 1: general who are business owners um have an a harder
Speaker 1: time accessing capital. A one dollar at his twenty three
Speaker 1: dollars in two thousand eighteen was given to a woman entrepreneur.
Speaker 1: And that's for her sense, and certainly at our level,
Speaker 1: if you're in a woman in poverty, a low income family,
Speaker 1: that's even tougher. So women are been disproportionately affected, um
Speaker 1: in the ability to access capital. One of the things
Speaker 1: that we've been doing, obviously since we started in o
Speaker 1: A is making sure that we level that playing field right.
Speaker 1: The pandemic and is hitting you know, all businesses. I mean,
Speaker 1: certainly the number one priority is the health and safety
Speaker 1: of all Americans in every single city. Uh, and we
Speaker 1: we understand that. But equal to that is is as
Speaker 1: we come out of this health crisis, the economic impact,
Speaker 1: particularly to micro and small businesses is huge. Uh. The
Speaker 1: restaurant owner who you know, spent ten years building up
Speaker 1: a tiny business with two employees. It's a great little restaurant. Um,
Speaker 1: she would have been a member with me and paying
Speaker 1: us back every single week, you know, building credit, serving
Speaker 1: more and more people in the community. She, like every
Speaker 1: other restaurant, is shut. She's not as large, she doesn't
Speaker 1: have the same kind of balance sheet. You know, she
Speaker 1: only has weeks before potentially you know, she has to
Speaker 1: shut down. So the impact on micro and small businesses
Speaker 1: is huge all over the country. To Gramine certainly, but
Speaker 1: to to other organizations that lend two small businesses, and
Speaker 1: to the small business owner herself, uh, certainly for themselves
Speaker 1: and their families, trying to be safe uh and protect
Speaker 1: protect their loved ones, and yet worrying equally and having
Speaker 1: an extraordinary amount of anxiety about the economic impact that
Speaker 1: he's going to have and paying that next month rent.
Speaker 1: We know that your community in particular has a lot
Speaker 1: of service businesses, right, so it seems like that would
Speaker 1: be uh, your community is disproportionately affected. Is that is
Speaker 1: that right? Well? Are half of our businesses are service
Speaker 1: businesses and half of them sell products. And certainly the
Speaker 1: service businesses are immediately hit. So if you're running a
Speaker 1: nail salon, a hair salon, if you are cleaning services,
Speaker 1: people don't want you in their homes. If you're running
Speaker 1: a small food establishment, yes, of course, just like the
Speaker 1: big establishments in that space, but certainly the small ones
Speaker 1: they are being hit super, super hard. And the other
Speaker 1: thing that's amazing about Gramine and the model is, as
Speaker 1: you said earlier, the repayment rate being so incredibly high,
Speaker 1: and I think that's due to the unique way that
Speaker 1: you um lend money. Could you talk a little bit
Speaker 1: about the social capital model. Yes, I mean it has
Speaker 1: been an extraordinary two weeks of a pivot and a
Speaker 1: transition because GRIM in America, like many micro finance organizations
Speaker 1: all over the world, really has been centered around social
Speaker 1: capital and community. So equally important to the money that
Speaker 1: we land our members are the fact that we have
Speaker 1: anywhere from on a given day to thirty people at
Speaker 1: a center meeting, and we have over two thousand centers
Speaker 1: going on every week where women are coming together sharing
Speaker 1: their best practices, really forming a peer network of other
Speaker 1: women entrepreneurs. In addition to having our staff who are
Speaker 1: are financial coaches, are center managers as we call them,
Speaker 1: uh really teach them the disciplines and financial education. So
Speaker 1: that has been the alchemy and the glue of the
Speaker 1: Grameen model for nearly twelve years here in the United States.
Speaker 1: And the first city that started social distancing and then
Speaker 1: that moved to shelter at home and you cannot go
Speaker 1: out obviously put this concept of coming together as community,
Speaker 1: which has been so critical UM at great odds with
Speaker 1: the proper and mandages thing to do. So I'm really
Speaker 1: proud that we have conver it completely to virtual community.
Speaker 1: So if you can imagine um in terms of current
Speaker 1: members who have loans, we're talking about, you know, close
Speaker 1: to sixty thousand literally dialing into Zoom calls thirty at
Speaker 1: a time, entering their past codes and continuing their community
Speaker 1: but over zoom type technology, not in person. That has
Speaker 1: now been converted in every single city across the country,
Speaker 1: So we have tens of thousands of women now participating
Speaker 1: in their GAMIN America Center meetings virtually we have technology
Speaker 1: that can enable the process. So every single GAMIN American
Speaker 1: member has a card. It's a card, a disbursement card
Speaker 1: that we can load their loan onto and it comes
Speaker 1: directly technology wise from our central bank. So therefore they
Speaker 1: don't have to come to us and get a check
Speaker 1: for a loan. They can just have it loaded and
Speaker 1: and sit on their couch at home, not leave their home,
Speaker 1: and get their loan loaded onto it. They can repay
Speaker 1: us with virtual and remote repayments capabilities, and all of
Speaker 1: this wouldn't have been possible several years ago, but we
Speaker 1: are ahead of many microfinance institutions in terms of adopting
Speaker 1: this technology as tools for these women. We've been working
Speaker 1: on it over the last few years. We never dreamed
Speaker 1: that this crisis would be the time that conversion and
Speaker 1: adoption of this would have been a necessity, not just
Speaker 1: an enhancement. But thank goodness because we now have these
Speaker 1: tens of thousands of women who can participate in the
Speaker 1: loan program, who can continue to come together as community
Speaker 1: and support each other in a very very fearful time.
Speaker 1: And that infrastructure is in place and rolling right now.
Speaker 1: You know, obviously we have centers that are spending in
Speaker 1: the middle of Queens um just you know, blocks from
Speaker 1: Elmhorst Hospital. That's the hardest hit obviously at the center,
Speaker 1: and an extraordinary difficult time for our members in New York,
Speaker 1: but every city. But I actually had a call from
Speaker 1: my branch manager in Austin yesterday and said to me,
Speaker 1: basically had a hundred percent attendant online attending virtual meetings
Speaker 1: and that list. I was just so proud, so proud. Well,
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously the bond and the social capital bond
Speaker 1: translates into everything positive that Grimin does, including those incredibly
Speaker 1: higher payment rates um and and the building of credit
Speaker 1: for those women, and it comes from trust. I mean,
Speaker 1: and when people ask me all the time, I mean,
Speaker 1: how do you have an over payment right when there
Speaker 1: is no collateral or recourse on the loans And the
Speaker 1: answer is trust, gratitude. These women aren't able to get
Speaker 1: loans from the formal capital market. You know, credit is
Speaker 1: a basic human rights. Access to capital is a basic
Speaker 1: human rights for women as well as men. And because
Speaker 1: we deploy it so quickly and because we believe in
Speaker 1: giving them that capital, they're so grateful. And in this
Speaker 1: time we're trust on everything is still critical. The ability
Speaker 1: to share their concerns, help each other. It's more important
Speaker 1: than ever all of us who are in social isolation
Speaker 1: right now now that it is may not be in person,
Speaker 1: but the people that we're talking to loved ones for
Speaker 1: peers help and that's what they have with this our
Speaker 1: true meeting. So uh, they get their loans loaded through
Speaker 1: their cards. And obviously, um, this is a very hard time,
Speaker 1: as we said, to be a small business and many
Speaker 1: of these um, many of these womo either won't be
Speaker 1: able to pay or will need certainly significant support. What
Speaker 1: are you doing right now to address the loan portfolio
Speaker 1: that you have. We took some very fast actions, difficult
Speaker 1: but important for our members. So as of tomorrow, I
Speaker 1: will first all the way through the end of June,
Speaker 1: our members will pay zero interest. We will waive all
Speaker 1: interest fees on those loans um. Secondly, UH, they have
Speaker 1: to repay us by these remote digital methods, whether it's
Speaker 1: a direct repayments from their bank and a h transactions,
Speaker 1: whether it's going into a convenience store or pharmacy where
Speaker 1: we have a payment opportunity that goes directly back to us,
Speaker 1: or a debit card repayment. All of those transactions have
Speaker 1: a cost to range from eighty cents to a dollar
Speaker 1: ninety nine transaction. But that's a lot of money to remember,
Speaker 1: So during this period, we are covering all those costs UM.
Speaker 1: And the third thing we're doing is, you know, allowing
Speaker 1: them to restructure their loans UM. If you know, andreas
Speaker 1: in weekly installment with three dollars and I had twelve
Speaker 1: more weeks to pay my loan, and we're doubling that
Speaker 1: and allowing to pay back in twenty four weeks and
Speaker 1: only pay half of the amount. UH. And then for
Speaker 1: those who you know are really struggling with certain businesses
Speaker 1: were certain looking for supporters and partners to help us
Speaker 1: with you know, bridge loans and back stops to help
Speaker 1: some of our members in this time or just struggling
Speaker 1: no fault of their own. I have had um, extraordinary
Speaker 1: business owners who were perfect payments track records, UM, great,
Speaker 1: great business records, want to keep their employees on staff,
Speaker 1: and then because of circumstances out of their control, I
Speaker 1: don't have any customers in this moment. So are our
Speaker 1: goal and our commitment is just trying, you know, tied
Speaker 1: them through this difficult period. And then unlike other organizations,
Speaker 1: I mean, they're not being laid off. You know, they
Speaker 1: own that food card, they have that flower shop. UM.
Speaker 1: Hopefully as soon as things do open up in the
Speaker 1: right time, not too soon, but when the health crisis allows,
Speaker 1: the bounce back will be fast. Um. And our our
Speaker 1: job is to make sure we can bridge them through
Speaker 1: this difficult time and can the stimulus package help. It
Speaker 1: may be able to help some of them, um, but
Speaker 1: the time the administration in terms of how to get it.
Speaker 1: I mean one of the things that Gremine America does
Speaker 1: is tomorrow, uh, you know, in twenty four hours, we
Speaker 1: can deploy capital immediately, no pay for work um, no
Speaker 1: cumbersome confusion. They know the process and that's why you
Speaker 1: know when when they needed the most, because they can't
Speaker 1: wait a week, right, some of some of these applications
Speaker 1: you know, are due by June thirty. If they can't
Speaker 1: wait until June thirty. Yeah, amazing to have to be
Speaker 1: part of this community right now there. I'm sure they're
Speaker 1: very grateful to be part of the Green family. They
Speaker 1: are very nervous in that grade and mostly grateful to
Speaker 1: have our commitment even in these hard times. We'll be
Speaker 1: back after this break. I mean, you've worked with women
Speaker 1: for so many years. I mean obviously first said Avon,
Speaker 1: for many many years leading Avon, and now with Gremin.
Speaker 1: I mean, what have you seen in terms of the resiliency?
Speaker 1: You know, I could get on a soapbox for a
Speaker 1: long time about this because I've had the first hand
Speaker 1: experience over several decades of seeing um, the innovations and
Speaker 1: the resilience of women entrepreneurs. I think it's been well
Speaker 1: known and well documented that when a woman earns a dollar,
Speaker 1: that dollars has a greater impact and she will put
Speaker 1: more of that back to community, to her children, to education,
Speaker 1: to health, um. And I think we're going to see
Speaker 1: that more than ever now. Uh We While on one hand,
Speaker 1: women are disproportionately negatively affected in terms of their ability
Speaker 1: to access capital, when a woman entrepreneur is able to
Speaker 1: run her own business, we see that the growth of
Speaker 1: that business is fact. She pays equally, she takes care
Speaker 1: of her employees, and you know, I think it goes
Speaker 1: without saying. I mean, I think that there's so much
Speaker 1: data again before COVID nineteen that says if we just
Speaker 1: had equal access to capital, equal pay, equal participation of
Speaker 1: women in the economy, it is trillions of dollars of
Speaker 1: economic growth. So just substituted post COVID and say the
Speaker 1: recovery will be disproportionately as far as I'm concerned, driven
Speaker 1: by making sure women start participate and part taking that recovery.
Speaker 1: Women are resilient, they are innovative. Um, that we'll play
Speaker 1: itself out. And I mean that's what we're all crossing
Speaker 1: our fingers for and that's why we have to continue
Speaker 1: to support them to this time. Well, my last question
Speaker 1: was gonna be what makes you optimistic in this moment um?
Speaker 1: But I feel like you've just answered it. It It seems
Speaker 1: like the resilience of women. I mean, it's hard. It's
Speaker 1: such a dark moment, you know, it's it's such a
Speaker 1: difficult time and understandably, so what what has to keep
Speaker 1: us all optimistic and hopeful is the community that we
Speaker 1: are seeing at every level I get to see it.
Speaker 1: You know, it's a two thousand strong right now with
Speaker 1: every green center that is being done in a very
Speaker 1: different way, but it's still community. And you know, while
Speaker 1: they have huge anxiety and fear um, they have to
Speaker 1: be hopeful. They are by humans and women are by
Speaker 1: definition are optimistic, and we will prevail if we do
Speaker 1: all the right things critical to count on them to
Speaker 1: be the moral and financial support of the community. And
Speaker 1: I am optimistic about that. I am optimistic with that
Speaker 1: that will serve us well through this crisis and then
Speaker 1: into what is obviously a critically important recovery period for
Speaker 1: every economy around the world and certainly for this one
Speaker 1: right here in the United States. Well, we're grateful that
Speaker 1: you're leading for me in right now. We could not
Speaker 1: be in better hands. So we appreciate everything you do.
Speaker 1: Andrea um It's listeners want to support or mean what
Speaker 1: can they do in America dot org donate now. Well,
Speaker 1: thank you so much for being on the show. I'd
Speaker 1: love to bring you back if if you can do
Speaker 1: it in the next few weeks and see if you
Speaker 1: can give us an update on what's going on for
Speaker 1: for women around the country. Thank you, said everyone. You're
Speaker 1: listening to Seneca Women Conversations on Power and Purpose, brought
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