The Saturday-night Grinnell tradition of missing a meal to help others enabled the group to make loans through the international microfinance organization, Kiva.org. The Social Entrepreneurs of Grinnell – SEG – was launched.

Later, SEG moved toward making loans directly to international partners. But as time passed, the group started helping people in Iowa. Jeff Raderstrong remembers how that developed.

JEFF RADERSTRONG: “It sort of really quickly became clear that there was a lot that we could do in the community, in the Grinnell community. Because, you know, the town itself, there is some wealth but there is a lot of poverty, and it’s is a lot of rural poverty.”

Mark Root-Wiley was another early member of SEG. He says the group recognized that small targeted loans at zero-percent or low interest could help local residents. SEG money has helped people make car payments so they can get to their jobs. It also helped patients in need of temporary housing near the medical center where they receive treatment.

And that’s the VOA Special English Education Report, written by Jerilyn Watson. For more news about education and for transcripts, MP3s and now PDFs of our programs for e-readers, go to voaspecialenglish.com. I’m Christopher Cruise.