Back to main text of Chapter 4 GRAMEEN LENDING METHODS
SUCCESSFUL IN CHICAGO A combination of peer support and peer
pressure can make lending to members of a group much safer than
lending to an individual, even if the group has to be
constructed first. This, at least, is the experience of the
Women's Self-Employment Project (WSEP) in Chicago which was set
up in 1986 by three professional women and a foundation to help
single mothers on welfare with no credit records break out of
poverty through self-employment. "52% of the Chicago homes where
mothers are raising children alone are below the poverty line"
says Connie Evans, executive director of the project, "and in
1992, when a charity, the United Way of Chicago, studied the
city's needs, it reported that loans to emerging businesses or
start-ups of under $10,000 were virtually non-existent. That was
for all social groups so the chances of the sort of women who
participate in our program getting a loan was, realistically,
nil." WSEP uses an approach to lendin