Shurush Initiative and Palestinian Microfinance
October 3rd, 2006
Last month Reuters reported on the humanitarian crisis engulfing the Palestinian territories. As is often the case in these situations, children are the most deeply and unjustly affected.
Six months of a crippling international embargo on the occupied Palestinian territories has brought its economy to a virtual standstill. As a result, children are being driven increasingly to find work to help support their families.
According to the Palestine Central Bureau of Statistics (PCBS), 40,000 children under 18 work in occupied Palestine, 73 percent of whom were forced to work due to severe financial conditions.
According to UNICEF, two thirds of Palestinian children live below the poverty line (US$2 a day), 38 percent of Palestinian children are anaemic and 23 percent of students and 36 percent of teachers are unable to get to school on any given day.
Named after a word that means “roots” in both Arabic and Hebrew, the Shurush Initiative works to combat these conditions by providing financial and technical support to Palestinian microfinance organizations that offer microcredit loans and business training:
Shurush’s inaugural microloan program is a partnership with the East Jerusalem YMCA to support small, rural enterprise development and create job opportunities in the West Bank small business sector. Eight entrepreneurs under age 35, in rural areas surrounding Bethlehem and Ramallah, have received loans. An additional six entrepreneurs in Gaza have received loans through a partnership with Kiva.
If you’re unfamiliar with the term, the practice of microfinance provides a means for local entrepreneurs, otherwise excluded from traditional financing avenues, to invest in their own local economies.
For more information on how you can invest in small businesses in the Middle East (or elsewhere around the world), check out the investment opportunities at the Shurush Initiative through Kiva for yourself!
Blue Moon Scarf
September 25th, 2006
One of the best things about the onset of fall is the chance to break out your favorite cold-weather clothes!
If you’re shopping for a new item this season, how about this gorgeous, handmade Blue Moon Scarf from Nest for $230?
According to Nest:
This exquisite scarf is handmade of fine rayon chenille, woven tightly using a technique called tabby. It is mixed with an Italian variegated ribbon yarn, with a gold thread twisted throughout. The cashmere merino blend is woven into an elegant, jewel-diamond pattern. It measures 7 inches by 90 inches.
Not only is the scarf beautiful, but it is hand crafted by African refugees trained under the clothing designer. And as you may remember, all the profits from the sale of Nest products go toward microfinance loans for entrepreneurs in developing countries.
Go check out all of Rebecca’s fabulous products today!
Microfinance Finds A Niche
September 25th, 2006
Business Week reported last month on the expansion of India’s largest commercial lenders into the microfinance arena.
…these bigger banks are discovering that lending small amounts to credit-worthy rural borrowers is lucrative as well as socially progressive. “Even as it is part of our sustainable development agenda, the trigger has been the large number of poor people residing in India,” says Moumita Sen Sarma, head of microfinance at ABN Amro Bank.
Ranjan Ghosh, who heads financial institutions for India and South Asia at Standard Chartered Bank, adds: “With fewer defaulters in this sector, clearly the risk return rate is acceptable to banks. We look at it as investment.”
That’s amazing news. It’s my belief that social problems will get solved when the pressure to solve them comes not just from the small number of do-gooders that would have cared about them anyway, but from market forces. When a social problem becomes a market opportunity, you will see change.
Renewable energy and microfinance are perfect examples of this phenomenon. Faced with soaring gas prices and an uncertain oil supply, car manufacturers began to concentrate on alternative fuel vehicles. Similarly, when banks discover that microfinance loans can generate reliable repayment rates of over 95%, commercial institutions will capitalize on the fact that the “poor are bankable.”
To get personally involved in microfinance loans to entrepreneurs all over the globe, check out the lending opportunities at Kiva.org!
Kiva Entrepreneurs
September 18th, 2006
Please consider investing in another entrepreneur from Kiva.org:
MARIA MLEMIGWA
MLEMIGWA POULTRY KEEPING
Location: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania
Activity: Poultry Keeping
Loan Amount: $400.00
Loan Use: BUSINESS EXPANSION
Loan Repayment Term Range: 3-9 months
Status: raising funds
Partner Rep: Altemius Millinga, Fidelis Chuhila, Rodney Chubwa, Innocensia Kopoka, Ndeu Maboja, HAPPY SAMBEGA
Partner: Youth Self Employment Foundation
Maria lives in the Kitunda area of Dar es Salaam. She is not married and has two children, one in primary school and another in secondary school. Maria currently keeps two types of chickens, layers and broilers, near her residence. She plans to expand her current flock of chickens from 400 to 600.
Maria needs to employ one additional person in her business to care for the expanded poultry stock. Her expansion strategy requires some additional funding as more chicks are added along with an increased stock of poultry feed.
Maria’s expansion plan will enable her to pay school fees for her children and increase income for her family. To implement her growth plan she needs additional capital of USD 400.
Your investment of just $25 can help Maria expand her business, educate her children and improve her life. Click over to Kiva.org and find out how you can help today!
RSF Social Finance
September 18th, 2006
Here’s another chance to participate in socially-responsible investing.
The goal of RSF Social Finance is to “catalyze the growth of socially constructive projects that are promoting positive social change.”
Your money is used to fund a variety of areas including children and education; environment and sciences; sustainable agriculture; arts and culture; conomic and social renewal; disadvantaged communities; medicine and healing; and spiritual and religious renewal.
Benefits to investing in the RSF Social Investment Fund include:
Broadening your impact. Pooled with the investments of RSF’s investors, your investment with RSF is leveraged to do greater good for society supporting many socially constructive organizations;
Diversifying your portfolio. The Fund is focused on preserving your capital and providing you with dependable returns. Since its inception, RSF has always honored an investor’s request for repayment.
Maintaining your liquidity. While we especially appreciate our long-term investors, you may request redemption of your investment before the next quarter-end of the calendar year.
Generating social returns. Significant social return is generated for society in a variety of ways such as environmental stewardship, fairly traded products and organically grown agriculture, and schools that address the intellectual, emotional, aesthetic, and social needs of the whole child.
As it turns out, RSF is also helping to fund the RugMark Foundation. Click here to read the recent Think Bigg post on RugMark.
Click here to find out how to invest with RSF today!