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Gansu Province, China
Small loans change lives in China


The first time Ms Ma Fangtumai came to hear about a new microcredit finance project in her remote Chinese village in Gansu province, she timidly hid around the corner of a nearby building with other women.

With much persuasion, she and her friends eventually crept forward to hear how they could receive small loans to invest in a small business. Now, over a year later, Ma Fangtumai, 49, has new confidence and a small but

Ms Ma Fangtumai shows off some of her animals in her remote village in Gansu province, China. She has received a number of small loans through the China poverty alleviation project. MCC photo by Wang Zongsun

healthy business raising sheep. She can also write her name and complete a simple business record.

“To an educated person, this may not be very impressive, but for a rural, illiterate minority woman (Hui Muslim), this achievement took much concentration and hard work,” reports Paul Wang, an Amity Foundation staff member.

The microcredit finance project in Ma Fangtumai’s village in northwest China is part of a larger poverty alleviation project. Mennonite Central Committee is halfway through the five-year project, conducted in conjunction with the Chinese and Canadian governments, Mennonite Economic Development Associates, and Amity Foundation, a Chinese agency with Christian roots.

The project is active in two counties in each of four of the poorest provinces, with a range of projects designed to increase agricultural production and ecological sustainability, improve basic health care services, increase access to basic education and increase economic diversification.

In Gansu province, the focus so far has been on increasing economic diversification, using microcredit finance. “Economic diversification was seen as perhaps the quickest way to bring improvement to the lives of people there,” said Tony Enns, director of the China Poverty Alleviation Program. “These are people with little income and limited access to capital. They had ideas about how to improve their situation with access to more capital.”

The first loan disbursement took place in October 1999. More than 1,200 people are currently participating in the micro credit finance project in this predominantly Muslim area. The majority are women.

Most women, who come from subsistence farming backgrounds, invested their money in animal husbandry, such as raising cattle, sheep or pigs. Over 80 per cent of loan recipients made at least 100 yuan ($19) profit in the first year, in an area where the annual income is about 750 yuan ($139).

“A benefit is that these women have been encouraged to try things on their own. Those who have been successful – which has been most of them – have increased their self-confidence and increased their initiative,” said Enns.

That’s certainly true for Ma Fangtumai. She has participated regularly in literacy training classes as part of the project. “Your loan project is very interesting; my wife and grandson sit together on the floor doing their homework as soon as they finish their supper,” her husband told Wang. “You’d think they are competing against each other to enter university,” he joked.

Ma Fangtumai also attended training on animal husbandry. Over the first year she received two small loans, and now has six sheep. She has paid back her loans and plans to buy a cow with her third loan. Looking back over the year, she said, “There were pressures, sadness and worrying but also happiness. And I have more confidence.”

 – Carol Thiessen, MCC

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Last modified October 6, 2001.

© 2001 Mennonite Brethren Herald.
Published by the Canadian Conference of MB Churches.
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