Hall, president of Minneapolis-based Real Estate Recycling, co-founded the Sierra Leone Plymouth Partnership (SLPP), which was recently renamed OneVillage Partners. The organization, which is in the process of becoming a 501-c3 corporation, has brought about $100,000 in aid to three Sierra Leone villages each year since 2006. Hall first became interested in Third World issues while a political science undergrad at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He started a committee to study and raise money to help remedy world hunger. In the process "I decided that, rather than sit at a desk, I wanted to go out and see what was happening in poor areas, and see if there was any hope to make a difference," he recalls. After college, in 1986-87 he worked for the Arkansas-based nonprofit Heifer Project International, making his first visit to drought plagued West Africa. Then he earned an MBA from Harvard, moved to the Twin Cities (his wife, Margaret is from here) and worked for five years for General Mills before joining Real Estate Recycling. Launched in 2005, OneVillage is a long-term, independent partnership between Sierra Leone and Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. Hall lived in the Sierra Leonean village of Jokibu for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1990s, and now leads an annual group trip to Jokibu and its two sister villages Foindu and Pujehun.
RPCV Jeff Hall brings aid to Sierra Leone
Real Estate Recycling's Hall brings aid to Sierra Leone
by Dan Emerson Special to Finance & Commerce
Caption: Jeff Hall, president of Real Estate Recycling, has devoted time and effort to development struggling entrepreneurs in Sierra Leone. (Staff photo: Bill Klotz)
The concept of micro-lending - very small loans made to promote entrepreneurship - is not a new one. It has origins dating back to 18th century Europe.
But it is a very new concept in the remote villages of Sierra Leone, where Jeff Hall has spearheaded an effort to help those in the West African county (which the United Nations considers the second-poorest in the world) pull themselves out of poverty.
Hall, president of Minneapolis-based Real Estate Recycling, co-founded the Sierra Leone Plymouth Partnership (SLPP), which was recently renamed OneVillage Partners. The organization, which is in the process of becoming a 501-c3 corporation, has brought about $100,000 in aid to three Sierra Leone villages each year since 2006.
Hall first became interested in Third World issues while a political science undergrad at Amherst College in Massachusetts. He started a committee to study and raise money to help remedy world hunger. In the process "I decided that, rather than sit at a desk, I wanted to go out and see what was happening in poor areas, and see if there was any hope to make a difference," he recalls.
After college, in 1986-87 he worked for the Arkansas-based nonprofit Heifer Project International, making his first visit to drought plagued West Africa. Then he earned an MBA from Harvard, moved to the Twin Cities (his wife, Margaret is from here) and worked for five years for General Mills before joining Real Estate Recycling.
Launched in 2005, OneVillage is a long-term, independent partnership between Sierra Leone and Plymouth Congregational Church in Minneapolis. Hall lived in the Sierra Leonean village of Jokibu for two years as a Peace Corps volunteer in the early 1990s, and now leads an annual group trip to Jokibu and its two sister villages Foindu and Pujehun.
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The three villages were devastated during the region's 1990s "blood diamonds" civil war, their buildings abandoned and destroyed, and their residents scattered to the jungle and, later, to refugee camps. After the war ended in 2002, villagers began returning to rebuild and start a democracy.
"Micro loans alone won't solve poverty," Hall said. "The only way to eliminate poverty is by adding economic value - creating wealth. With capital (micro loans), training and other resources - appropriate technology, eliminating some middlemen, better understanding of markets - we plan to raise income by 300 to 400 percent."
Investment in the future
As another part of its model, OneVillage pays college tuition for several students per village. To have their loans forgiven, the students return home and work with OneVillage (for a monthly stipend) for a year for each year of college. "Most kids would really like to return to their villages, but there aren't jobs for them. We create jobs, and try to make them sustainable jobs (micro loan officer, education officer, nurse, etc.). We are trying to make it cool (and practical) to return to your rural village, add value among your relatives and friends and reverse the rural-urban brain drain."
OneVillage also gives micro-loans to small business owners and entrepreneurs, and plans to expand the program slowly in the next couple of years to create more wealth and jobs. One example: a loan to an entrepreneur to purchase two bicycles that he can rent per hour for use. "Someone can rent for an hour, take their produce to the market in the neighboring town five miles away, and return the bike," Hall said. "This enhanced transportation helps the local economy and creates jobs.
"This entrepreneur paid back his loan early. Then he hired someone to run the bicycle rental business so he could take a bigger loan to purchase a motorcycle and provide a motorcycle taxi. This further enhances transportation availability and pricing in the local area and creates more value. These small-business loans are very common now throughout the Third World, as many non-governmental organizations - Opportunity International, World Vision and so on - and banks are pushing this tool of development."
OneVillage's main micro-loan program, established in 2007, helps subsistence farmers earn more money from their crops. "This program is unique in the world because we make loans to poor farmers," Hall added. "Poor farmers never have cash in-hand, so they tend to sell some of their crops, and all their cash crops, at harvest time - by definition, the worst time to sell, since supply is greatest.
"We give loans to farmers after harvest to put cash in their hands, but then hold their produce for three to five months and sell when the prices are 40 to 80 percent higher. They pay the loans back, pay 10 percent interest - which goes to pay salaries of the loan officers, creating sustainable non-farm jobs - and have extra profit from their hard work."
Sierra Leone native Rebecca Johnson, who is now senior office and administrative assistant for the Council on Black Minnesotans, has worked with Hall and his organization for the past three years. "What he is doing is so unique. Sometimes you hear about organizations giving money to countries but don't see any results. But Jeff doesn't only give money; he brings it there and uses it only for the people. So, it's like a partnership.
"Through Jeff's help, people are now able to send their kids to school and not worry they won't have money to feed the rest of the family. I'm really proud of what he is doing," said Johnson, who is also secretary-general of the nonprofit La Sierra Leone Community in Minnesota, and a OneVillage board member.
Going forward, Hall hopes to continue building the OneVillage's influence for positive change. "We have a great individual donor base right now, made up of family and friends that enables us to raise $100,000 a year," Hall says. "We're going to build on that with various grants.
"Our goal is not just to stay in business as a nonprofit. We want to help people become more self-sufficient so we can move on and they can, too."
