Our Company, Janta

Although I have been writing about travel, travel, travel for the past several months, I have actually been working as I hop from place to place and wanted to introduce our organization here. Janta is a company based in San Francisco that is working for global child education through micro loans. At this point we have developed three separate loan options for our borrowers roughly corresponding to $100 for a primary student (/year), $200 for secondary students, and $300 for adults seeking vocational training courses. Our loans are designed to reach those who may otherwise not be able to afford education for their children or themselves, and we have been thrilled to have high repayment rates from our borrowers so far. I have been mostly monitoring the progress of the one hundred loans we have been running for our initial pilot program in northern India over the last eight months and trying to streamline the incredibly complex (and sometimes unpredictable) process of working in village areas. As I mentioned before, we are operating through our partner organization, the Drishtee Foundation, who offer small business loans, health services, and job opportunities in roughly 2,000 villages to curb urban flight. As is often the case in micro-finance, the poor pay back their debt much better than wealthy Americans and Europeans pay their credit card bills, and we are hoping to be able to expand across rural India and eventually internationally based on the past successes of microcredit. Faced with the alternative of no borrowing power, the poor have shown incredible repayment rates time and time again.

If you have been following my blog so far and are interested in donating, helping, or otherwise getting involved, I hope that you ask me about our program so that you can lend (or give) small amounts of money to students around the world. We don't have our website up and running as of now, but when we do you can choose which students you would like to fund, and for what amount. If you choose the loan option, your money will return to your account so that you can either reinvest in another student or withdraw from the banking business. I will definitely announce our launch when it happens! Until then, take a look at some of our contemporaries at the following sites:

For Indian street children, drop outs and out-of-school children visit: http://www.pratham.org

For lending money to entrepeneurs around the world visit: http://www.kiva.org

For the work done by People First in Bihar visit: http://www.peoplefirstindia.net

To set up a social giving account as a gift: www.youthgive.org

And for all sort of amazing global projects visit: http://www.oneworldchildrensfund.org