Dave Valle, a former Major League Baseball player for the Seattle Mariners, is the founder of microcredit agency Esperanza, whose mission is to help the poor in the Dominican Republic and Haiti start their own businesses. In addition to making loans, Esperanza has become active in community development: creating a school, computer training centers, a member-funded health care plan, a water treatment system, and a home improvement initiative. The organization has also spearheaded the construction of five baseball fields.
Esperanza International is the story of what can happen when people believe in an idea and act to make it come true. In 1985, David Valle, then catching for the Seattle Mariners, decided to play winter ball in the Dominican Republic. Like many North American players before him, Dave didn't know exactly what to expect while living and playing outside of the United States.
The reality of the Dominican Republic was not long in coming. After his first game there, David and his wife Vicky walked out of the ball park and were immediately surrounded by eight or nine young children. At first David thought that this was normal. Back in the States ball players frequently are met by kids gathering autographs for their collection. But David quickly realized these boys and girls didn't want his signature. Instead, they were hungry and hoping that David and Vicky would give them food.
The young boys and girls were from the poverty stricken communities near the ball park where thousands of families live in makeshift shacks. They are among the poorest families in the Dominican Republic. Soaring unemployment, illiteracy, malnutrition and inadequate healthcare are just some of the barriers keeping the children and their families trapped in an ongoing cycle of poverty.
As parents and as people who take special interest in kids, David and Vicky were deeply troubled by the condition of the boys and girls. That night they spent many hours talking about the children and made a commitment to themselves that as soon as they were able they would return to the Dominican Republic to do whatever they could do to make a difference.
In 1995, Dave and Vicky founded Esperanza International as the response to their commitment.
Dave Valle isn’t Dominican or even Latino, he is an Irish-Italian New Yorker. Nor did he speak Spanish very well at first. His epiphany occurred one night in 1985 waiting with his wife and infant son for a bus in Santo Domingo. He was playing in the winter league for the Dominican San Cristóbal Caimanes after an injury during a Mariner’s game had put him on the disabled list for three months. Some children approached him and he thought they were going to ask for an autograph but instead he found out they were hungry and begging for food. He and his wife paid a vendor at a nearby kiosk to cook up her remaining food and feed it to the children. Knowing that the food would only provide temporary relief, they vowed to do something more if they were ever in the position to do so.
The Dominican Republic has a population of 8.9 million people with approximately 4 percent living on less than USD 2 per day, according to information available on the Microfinance Gateway. 29 percent of the country does not have access to banking services. As of 2005, based on a report by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB), there were 13 MFIs in the Dominican Republic with a combined portfolio of USD 158 million, serving 145,332 borrowers with an average loan size of USD 1,087.
Six years after Valle’s stint in Santo Domingo he received a lucrative three-year deal with the Mariners and his wife reminded him of those children. Esperanza, which means “hope” in Spanish, was established in 1995 with USD 30,000 of Dave’s and his wife, Vicky’s, savings. According to the organization’s website, Esperanza has since dispersed approximately USD 14 million through 78,000 loans, including nearly 17,849 active accounts in 2009. 87 percent of Esperanza’s borrowers are women. The organization offers short-term, low-interest loans ranging from USD 125 to USD 1000. Loan tenures range from four months to twelve months and pay interest of 3.7 percent per month and the average loan size is about USD 180. According to a 2007 annual report Esperanza had total assets of USD 2.1 million and debt-to-equity ratio of 0.99. Esperanza is not profiled on the MIX Market, the microfinance information clearing house.
As for the baseball fields, Esperanza secures land through long-term leases with the government, and it provides the expertise and project management skills to construct the fields. The community donates labor to build and, later, maintain them. Any child who participates in leagues and tournaments has to be enrolled in school. The vision is for fields to be part of larger complexes that might someday include vocational training schools.
Valle has stayed connected to baseball by doing color commentary for the Mariners. When he’s off the Mariners’ clock he spends almost all his work time on behalf of Esperanza, which began paying him a salary last year. “You start out and you want to be successful,” Valle said, “But once you do that, you want to do something that matters.”
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