VOA慢速英语:College Students Get Into Microfinance Lending

Imagine that you have lost your job.You could start a sewing business at home if you had a better sewing machine and a little money to advertise. But you cannot get a loan from a bank.
想象一下如果你丢了工作。如果你有一台好一点的裁缝机和一点广告费，你就可以在家里开始经营裁缝生意了。但是你不能从银行获得贷款。

In recent times, many people in similar situations have received loans from student microfinance groups. Such groups make small loans for business or personal use. Twelve of the organizations are part of a national network called Campus Microfinance Alliance. The Alliance provides financial aid, technical advice and training programs for its member groups.
最近一段时间，许多有类似情况的人从学生的小额信贷组织获得了贷款。这些组织为企业和个人提供小额贷款。这12个组织是一个被称为校园小额信贷联盟的全国性联盟的一分部分。该联盟提供财政援助，技术咨询并为其成员提供培训课程

Each group has between ten and seventy volunteers, many of them college students. They have enabled hundreds of people across the United States to launch small businesses.
每个小组都有10到70名志愿者，他们当中许多人大学生。他们已经帮助全美数百人开办了小企业。

Vanessa Carter is director of the alliance. She says bad economic times have sped the growth of the college microfinance movement.
瓦内萨•卡特是该联盟的负责人。她说，糟糕的经济时期加快了学校的小额信贷运动的发展

VANESSA CARTER: “This really got started because students were walking off campus, it was the height of the economic recession, and they were seeing boarded-up businesses and the effects of high unemployment first hand.”
VANESSA CARTER：“这真的开始了。因为学生们离开校园，这是经济衰退严重时期，他们亲眼看到了封闭的企业和高失业率的影响。”
In Iowa, a student microfinance group at Grinnell College helps people both locally and internationally. The group started in two thousand seven. At that time, Grinnell student Jeff Raderstrong and some friends raised more than six hundred dollars from other students.
在爱荷华州的Grinnell学院的一个学生小额信贷组织同时帮助本地和国际人士。该组织始于2007年。当时，Grinnell学院学生Jeff Raderstrong和一些朋友从其他学生那募集到了6百多美元。

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.
Grinnell学院周六晚上少吃一顿饭帮助他人的传统使得该组织得以通过国际小额信贷组织Kiva.org发放贷款。Grinnell社会企业家组织—SEG，成立了。

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.
后来，SEG开始转为直接向国际合作伙伴提供贷款。 但随着时间推移，该组织开始帮助爱荷华州的人们。Jeff Raderstrong还记得这是如何发展的。

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.”
JEFF RADERSTRONG：“在格林内尔社区，我们可以做的有很多，这一点很快变得很清楚了。因为，你知道，那里有一些富人，但也有很多穷人，这有很多农村贫民。”

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.
Mark Root-Wiley是SEG另一名早期成员。他说，该组织认为零利率或低利率小额针对性贷款可以帮助当地居民。SEG贷款已经帮助人们支付汽车贷款，因此他们能够去上班。它也帮助了在医疗中心附近需要临时住所的病人，他们需要在那里接受治疗。