ABSTRACT
Microfinance volunteers who work for microfinance institutions (MFIs) for longer amounts of time do obtain a deeper understanding of some of the challenges faced by their host organizations. This chapter focuses on Opportunity and Niti as Christian organizations. Christian missions have been part of colonial and imperial interventions, especially in the areas of health, education and emergency relief, and have contributed to the rise of humanitarian sentiments. A large study comparing the performance of Christian and secular MFIs also found relatively fewer female clients in Christian MFIs, which might seem at odds with the female empowerment agenda espoused by many MFIs. Tourists have been described as ‘secular pilgrims searching for the authentic’ and their pastime as ‘the modern equivalent for secular societies to the annual and lifelong sequences of festivals and pilgrimages found in more traditional, God–fearing societies’.
