Women Saving to Save the World

New article written by Wendy posted on Reject Apathy's website!

http://www.relevantmagazine.com/poverty/features/21522-women-saving-to-save-the-world

Beatha's Big Change

Check out Beatha from Rwanda's story of how her Savings for Life group has impacted her!

http://worldrelief.org/Page.aspx?pid=2454

Field Note: Hekima Microfinance DR Congo

by Gareth Evans, Deputy Director of Economic Development, World Relief

I am currently in Goma, Eastern DR Congo with Hekima, World Relief's microfinance institution (click here for their Kiva profile)

Hekima was started in 2003 and has grown to be the most successful microfinance institution in the area. They are currently in the processing of adding new innovative products and services such as Teacher and Agricultural loans.

The Teacher loans will help teachers spend more time in the class room teaching, rather than supplementing their (sporadic and meager) incomes by working elsewhere. It will also mean that they are less dependent on parents paying their school fees in a lump sum, which will give parents a longer time period to pay the fees and will stop their children from being sent home for non-payment.

The agricultural loans will help farmers improve their incomes by providing access to finance for improved (expensive) seeds and fertilizer, which will improve yields giving them more crops to sell. Access to finance will also mean that farmers should be able to hold on to their stock for longer and not need to accept a low price for their crop, therefore further improving their income.

These two new products that are being developed are a small example of the work that Hekima is doing to support the poor in eastern DR Congo. The areas in which Hekima operates are extremely fragile and suffer from instability and have been drastically affected by volcanic activity. Yet, by helping to improve the livelihoods of the vulnerable, Hekima is improving the stability of the region.

Helping to alleviate poverty is a huge task, and Hekima is only able to do this thanks to the contributions donors make to World Relief. Thank you for your ongoing support.

Blessings,

Gareth

Queens Elizabeth

Our journey today took us out to new areas of Kenya that I had yet to experience, into the Maasai Land – a region of seemingly unending stretches of plains full of acacia trees and wildlife. We were on a journey to visit more savings groups in the region, where I came across two women by the name of “Elizabeth”.

Our first visit of the day was to the women of the “Biraka Miracle” group. “Biraka” in the Maasai language means “water trough”. Around 50 or 60 years ago, a large watering hole in the town attracted the area’s large population of thirsty zebras for a cool drink. The town was named “Biraka” and its main road, “Oloolotikosh” (meaning “zebra” in Maasai). The watering hole has since dried up, likely in large part due to seasonal droughts that often devastate this region, but the town retains its name. The zebras (from what I hear though unfortunately did not see) still reside nearby.


Here in Biraka, in the Biraka Miracle group, we met our first Elizabeth. She is a widow with 3 children, 2 who are grown, and a 12 year old. She earns an income by cooking French fries and selling them in the town. But her goal is to one day become a shopkeeper. She pointed for me across the road from where we stood to a grey building, and said that there are spaces for rent in the building. She wants to save enough money to rent a space there and with a loan from her group, start her own shop. I asked her what she would sell in her shop and she said things like sugar and milk. She says that though she has little now, she continues to wait on God. She knows God has a future, a better future, ahead for her. She tells me many times in our conversation to remember her when I return to the US. “Remember me: Elizabeth,” she says. I tell her I will and ask if I may take a picture of her so that I may remember and pray for her. She tells me to greet my people in the US. So, I send you greetings from Elizabeth of Biraka.

A long and dusty ride through the grasslands of Maasai Land takes us from rural Biraka to the lively city center of Kitengela. The town is bustling with activity, and the whole area is under transformation as development is popping up everywhere. We pull into the Kitengela Health Centre, a hospital offering free services, primarily focused on HIV testing and treatment. Here we meet the Joiners Association, and our 2nd Elizabeth of the day. When we first arrived today, the Joiners Association was a 14-member group, all of which are women. By the time we left today, it had become a group of 20 women, as six more women showed up at the end of the meeting asking permission to join. They had found out about the group’s activities, and were eager to participate themselves.



The Elizabeth of Joiners is a seamstress of table linen. She buys material and sews 14-piece table linen sets to sell in her community. The material she buys costs 900 Kenya Shillings (about $12), and from that she can make 3 sets of table linens for which she sells at 1,200 Shillings each – a total profit of 2,700 Shillings or $35 from one purchase of material! She’s thankful for the Joiners Association because it’s enabled her to access loans at the sizes she needs. Loans offered from nearby banks are too high, she tells me, and with this group she can save in amounts that are manageable for her. Elizabeth dreams of buying a piece of land one day and building a house of her own. She has two children, a 14 year old girl and 6 year old boy. She laughs with me when I tell her that a girl of 14 must be difficult to manage! She says it is okay though. She feeds her healthy food, and the girl is well-behaved. Elizabeth speaks with an air of confidence that shows me she is not fearful of the future, but instead looks towards it with hope.

Both of these women are Queens in my eyes. They are strong and full of conviction. They dream of a future that is beyond what they can see now. They have faith in God to provide for them, and they work hard each day to support themselves and their families. They are business women, mothers, women of God. They exhibit power worthy of a royal title, so, in my official blog scroll, I hereby dub them Queen Elizabeth of Biraka and Queen Elizabeth of Kitengela. Long may they reign, and continue to grow in God’s grace.

Wendy

My Visit to the Savings Groups of Kware Slum

Today, our team from World Relief and Faraja Trust visited two groups within the Kware slum of the Ongata Rongai area, just about 30 minutes from the center of Nairobi, Kenya. Kware is like many of the slums of Nairobi, though likely not as large and with conditions not quite as destitute as some of the those around the city center. It is a place that cars can pass through rather easily, as long as you’re able to dodge the pedestrians, bicyclists, and various forms of animal life that crowd its bumpy dirt roads. The animal life roaming around Kware slum includes ducks, chickens, goats, dogs, and donkeys. Children are at play among muddy dirt paths and as our car rolls past them and they see the “muzungu” (white person) in the car they shout out emphatically “How are you?” over and over… The only 3 words of English they know. The HIV epidemic has hit this community hard, and as a result, HIV “Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centers” and health clinics have sprung up and are interspersed among the many butcheries, hair salons, and soda shops. The main road into Kware is like a huge shopping mall of stalls selling everything from Croc-like sandles to underwear to vegetables to small household gadgets.

Our first stop is the Kware Vision savings group. Composed of 20 members, all women, Kware Vision meets in a small one room structure which they rent for 400 Kenya Shillings per hour (about $5) from a private resident of the area. The group meets every Tuesday to receive training in the methodology and to contribute their savings. So excited about the prospect of savings and accessing loans from each other, the group began saving from the very first meeting. To date, they have saved 7,000 Kenya Shillings ($91). The minimum contribution a member makes to the savings fund each week is 50 Shillings, just under $1.

The group’s chairperson, one of the older members of the group, regally wrapped in a shawl and wearing an expression of pride on her face, greets us and stands as she explains how the group is doing. She explains that this concept they have been taught is simple, and it has been easy to see how they will grow as they save and work together. They had heard many times of microfinance institutions in the area, but had never had access to them. But now, they are using their own resources to give loans to each other, and creating a “Social Fund” that they will use to support each other in times of emergency.



On this day of our visit, the group is completing their last initial training session with Martin, a volunteer of Faraja who is acting as a community agent for mobilizing and training Faraja’s savings groups. Martin teaches them today about the “Daily Savings” concept. With Daily Savings, they can save even in-between meetings by taking their money to the box keeper to slip into the small slot on the top of the lock box, in exchange for a token that they bring to the next meeting to exchange for a stamp in their passbook. The group listens intently as they listen to Martin’s teaching, and they agree that this element will help further their discipline in saving the cash that they bring in, helping to prevent their spending it on items they don’t need or could do without.

After our visit to Kware, we head over to another part of the slum where we meet the “Best Ladies” savings group. When I heard the name “Best Ladies”, I assumed that it would be a group of all women. But alas, one man, James, has recently joined the group after seeing how the group functions to support one another and create needed access to financial services. He is a vibrant, good-spirited fellow, who when introducing himself to us, says in very clear English “When I come here, I am part of the ‘Best Ladies’, but when I go out, I am still a gentleman!” We all laugh at his good humor. James is the Box Keeper of the group, and he sits at the front with the other leadership committee members supporting the financial transactions that take place during the meeting. He reports to us that “This group is doing very well, but we know it is not from our own efforts, but from our Almighty God who provides for us.”



Best Ladies has been meeting every Tuesday since January 26th. Each week, they all contribute 20 Shillings, about $0.30, and their fund continues to grow larger each week. They have begun taking loans, and they enforce strict fines when a member is late to a meeting, misses a meeting, or is late on loan repayment. A small plastic basket sits on a chair right by the door of the entrance to their meeting room with the label “Fine” on it. When a member comes in late, they are obligated to drop 5 Shillings into the basket. They take seriously the rules of their group’s constitution, and they observe the meeting’s activities that day intently.

On Thursday of this week, we will visit more groups in a more rural area of the Kajiado district. It is incredible to see how the program is progressing, how the demand for training is keeping our Faraja team in a constant state of planning and strategizing in how they can meet the demand. It is a good problem to have, as it shows how willing and able materially poor communities in the developing world are to address their own poverty, and work in community to grow together.

Wendy

A Day of Celebration in Burundi

Today I got to be part of something that I talk often about in my work but have not yet been able to experience.

In our savings-led microfinance methodology, savings groups form and meet together over a period of one year to save their money and access small loans from their group’s savings fund. As the year continues, the savings fund grows, and loans are taken and repaid with interest. At the end of one year, the group conducts an annual “share out” ceremony, in which their total savings fund is divided out to each member according to what they have saved plus a dividend of the profits they have earned through the retained loan interest and fees paid in by members who violate the group’s constitution. It is a time to celebrate hard work and accomplishment, and to reflect on how they have grown together as a group.

On this day, I was honored to able to attend a share out ceremony of two groups in the Ruziba commune in the Bujumbura province of Burundi. Shigikirana Savings for Life – World Relief’s partner savings program in Burundi – mobilized, trained, and mentored these two groups over the past year. The drive out to Ruziba from the nation’s capital of Bujumbura was short, but it took us to a very rural area on the outskirts of the city where poverty is high and access to formal financial institutions low. We trekked along muddy paths, products of Burundi’s currently occurring rainy season, surrounded by small children who seemed to be leading the way for us. They whispered to each other in the national language of Kirundi, most likely exchanging comments about these strange visitors who had shown up in their commune. We arrived at a large church to greet the two groups who, upon entering the church, were singing and beating on drums to greet us.

The ceremony was conducted in a very formal manner. Speeches were given, songs sung, prayers said, and the day’s main event: the share out. The group members broke out into their two groups and sat in circles around a table where there 3-lock metal box, holding their passbooks and their years worth of savings, was placed. Both groups had carried their boxes to the ceremony that day in plastic baskets, with the boxes wrapped tightly in cloth to disguise what they were carrying. As the three key holders unlocked the boxes and the funds were poured out onto the tables, I was immediately impressed. Piles upon piles of bills in the local currency of Burundian Francs spilled upon the table as they began to sort through and divide the funds according to the number of savings shares each member had recorded in their passbooks. Looking at these piles of money, it’s important to remind oneself that not a cent of this came from any outsider. No infusion of funds was given from a bank or a microfinance institution. No wealthy Westerner walked into this poor community and, seeing the need and the barefoot children in ragged clothing, poured dependency-creating relief upon the people in the form of US Dollars. All of this money was theirs – they had earned it, and they stewarded it. Now they were experiencing the joy of seeing how their hard work and discipline had not only created for them a lump sum of money to support their family and investment needs, but had resulted in a return on their savings of 60% in one group and 65% in the other! Far better than any interest rates you’ll find for a savings account in the US! Together, the two groups, a total of 41 materially poor people, mobilized over $5,000! Incredible to see how powerful people are when they come together and commit to grow together.

After the funds were shared out, the whole group gathered again to listen to speeches from the groups’ leaders, the pastors of the two churches the groups had come from, and the leadership of Shigikirana Savings for Life. Even the commune’s Administrators came to participate in the event. One of the pastors explained that after seeing Shigikirana groups operating in a nearby commune, he knew that this program needed to be brought to his community. Now, having seen the success of these groups and what they have achieved, he says they are ready to go and teach other communities. A member of the group, when I asked the group at large what the most important aspect of being part of a group like this was, stood and animatedly said this: “There is love. In this group there is love for each other. When we have a problem now, we go to our group. There is a great love we have to support and help each other that we didn’t have before.”

At the end of the ceremony, we feasted together. The groups together had contributed from their funds to purchase a goat, which we ate as we drank Fantas and Coca Colas and the celebration continued. I don’t believe that I ever stopped smiling the entire ceremony, from talking to and listening to the members of this community, to watching pint-sized children outside from the open door of the church as they danced joyfully to the music being sung inside the church. It was a truly memorable experience, one that motivates me to continue working hard in the job I do to help ensure that thousands more people get to experience this day of celebration and feasting.

Wendy

All photos by Trina Chase

Kiva Update – LEAP, Liberia; Hekima, DR Congo; Turame, Burundi; UOB, Rwanda and CREDIT, Cambodia

World Relief is pleased to add more microfinance institutions (MFIs) to the Kiva.org website. In the last few months, LEAP, Liberia; Hekima, DR Congo; and UOB, Rwanda have joined CREDIT, Cambodia as field partners for Kiva.org. Turame is the first MFI in Burundi to be a Kiva.org field partner.

Kiva.org gives you the opportunity to help a microentrepreneur to develop her business. You lend directly through one of World Relief’s MFIs to a client, who then repays the loan to the MFI with interest. Your loan is repaid by the MFI to you. It is a sustainable method of reducing poverty.

Visit:

LEAP Liberia, Kiva.org

CREDIT Cambodia, Kiva.org

The links to the other websites will be added shortly.

2009 Walk For Economic Empowerment

Update! Walk For Economic Empowerment

Baltimore | Boston 26 September 2009

  

The 2009 Walk For Economic Empowerment is nearly here! This Saturday people in Baltimore and Boston will be walking to support World Relief’s Savings For Life programs in Rwanda, Burundi, Kenya and Malawi.

So far, you have helped us raise over $28,000. We’ve also received gifts from Cambodia, Rwanda, Malawi, Liberia and Tanzania. Our target is to raise $35,000, and it isn’t too late to sign-up and walk, our to sponsor your favorite walker.

Every $25 raised enables World Relief to train someone in financial literacy, helping them learn how to save and effectively manage their money. Working in groups, they are able to lend to one another when they need access to extra capital, either to meet lifecycle events, such as during an illness or in preparation for a wedding, or they can borrow to build an expand a business. By lending funds to one another they receive interest payments that grow their assets even further.

Help us empower more people, sign-up to walk www.w4ee.org or sponsor your favorite walker www.wr.org/wee.

Turame Community Finance Staff Profile - Rose Niyonizigiye

Staff: Rose Niyonizigiye
TURAME Branch: Bujumbura Office
Position: Loan Officer

Rose sits at her desk with a deep sense of satisfaction; her journey leading to TURAME has been a particularly long one filled with many difficulties. Rose is married and mother to five children, the first of which is attending Hope University of Africa. She is also the guardian of two additional children of her husband’s relative.

From 2004 to 2006, Rose was unemployed, and with such a large family to support she found herself in desperate circumstances. Prior to 2004, Rose had been working on a project called FEPADE with UNHCR (United Nations High Commissioner of Refugees), a UN agency that protects and supports refugees around the world. Unfortunately, she had come under corrupt leadership. The leaders of the project stole a sum equivalent to about $300,000; FEPADE was left financially stranded. After working for two months without pay, she had no choice but to leave.

During her time of unemployment, Rose had to rely on income generated from selling phone cards to send her children to school. She found herself contemplating evicting the two children of her husband’s relative. However, she stalled her decision upon hearing about loan possibilities from a community bank called TURAME. She applied for loans from TURAME and eventually became the leader of her community bank group. After three months of being a client, Rose learned of a job opening at the bank and applied. In time, she was hired.

When asked what she has gained by being a part of the TURAME staff, Rose responded by saying she had no appropriate words to answer with, she simply gave thanks and glory to God for her employment. She no longer has to deliberate evicting the two children as she is able to fund all her children’s education. Furthermore, TURAME has provided her with employee loans with which she has bought school supplies and a plot of land.

Rose wishes to continue to serve TURAME diligently. She also hopes that the entire TURAME staff will continue to work in Christ, if they do, she believes nothing can stop TURAME from reaching sustainability. She concluded with a prayer request that alluded to Matthew 6:19-24: that “moth and rust” would not destroy TURAME, but that in seeking after “treasures in heaven”, they would become an enduring institution.

Bernadette’s Story – Turame Community Finance, Burundi

Bernadette Nzeyimana
Community Bank Group: “Tuyage” (Let us Converse)
Location: Ngozi

Bernadette is a very tall elegant woman with a wide smile. Because of the war in Burundi, Bernadette was widowed in 2000 and left to care for her eight children - five daughters and three sons - on her own. However, her entrepreneurial skills have enabled her to provide for her family.

Today she runs a wholesale business of ground paddy rice. She has increased the sizes of her loans from 60,000 BIF (Burundian Francs) to 260,000 BIF in her fifth loan cycle. With pride she describe the way she is now able to provide for her entire family. “I’ve never missed any meal for my family.

I’ve got this place [in Ngozi Central Market] for my business and have already bought a parcel of land. Adding to this, I am able to pay my rent, reimburse my loans and remain with a benefit [profit].”

Bernadette says she enjoys being with the other community bank group members, making friendships and supporting each other. In the future she hopes to take a loan out for 500,000 BIF in order to purchase goats and cows.

How did I get here?

Tonight I was sitting and reading, Attacking Poverty in the Developing World, which is a collection of Essays edited by Judy Dean (et al) who is a World Relief board member. The book reviews a range of issues, including Health, Agriculture and Access to Finance. All of a sudden I was hit (again) by the enormity of the work that I am involved with. Poverty is incomprehensibly huge and yet I am involved in helping alleviate it. I sat on the edge of Lake Kivu and reflected that I am the Chairman of the largest microfinance institution (MFI) in Eastern Congo, on the Board of both an influential MFI in Burundi and one of the fastest growing banks in Rwanda.

How did that happen? Why me? It doesn’t make sense to me!

I have never been amazing at school, although I didn’t really have to work very hard. Truth be told I was pretty lazy and I could have achieved so much more academically. However, I did grow up in a Church that somewhat focuses on development programs, locally and internationally. The Salvation Army is probably known to many of you for it’s thrift stores and McDonalds Billions. But did you know it works in 119 countries? My siblings and I are the 5th generation of my family to be involved in ‘The Army’. There are three generations playing in my home ‘corps’ (church) brass band. At one time we had my Mother’s Father and my Dad’s Uncle, along with my Dad, my Brother and myself. My brother currently leads the young people’s band and my home corps, and my sister is involved in the young people’s ministry where she attends. Suffice to say, my family take the responsibility (and The Army) very seriously. In 1995 I was also privileged enough to travel with my brass band to set up a music school in Ghana.

So, growing up in an environment that was mission led, I was always involved in something. Whether it was spending Christmas Day playing carols to those in Hospital and feeding the elderly at church, or participating in the annual ‘self-denial’ appeal for international development, whereby you sacrifice something and give the saved money to the church for development work. I guess I have always been aware of the needs of those who have been less fortunate than I have.

I studied economics at university, and during the summers I went to New Jersey to work at a Salvation Army camp for underprivileged children. I remember saying to one of the counselors that I wanted to ‘save the poor with economics’. At that time I hadn’t even heard of microfinance or World Relief, all I knew was that there was no reason for inequalities. If the market was perfect then they would operate right up until the margin (until they do not make any more profit), and that there must be a way to make a ‘profit’ from providing services to the poor. What I saw when I looked at the current situation was that the markets were lazy, they hadn’t tried to use new technology and other resources to reach deeper into society. I also saw that those who did exploited the poor and made very large profits. There had to be a better way.

During my final years of study I learned about The Salvation Army’s Mustard Seed project in Tanzania. A small microcredit program that helped women build businesses and take steps out of poverty. I contacted The Army’s International Development department and asked them about the program. Mistakenly, I tried to write my final year dissertation on the impact of microfinance in Southern Tanzania. While I was talking to The Army about their work, I asked them if they had any vacant positions, thinking that I could take an admin job while I learnt more about international development. While I was working things out with The Army, I took a job at Royal Bank of Scotland in their Intermediary Sales department. I was doing very well and I could see a career developing in banking in the UK, just like my Father had. I also interviewed for a position with a private equity firm, they were looking to offer me the position, but I was waiting to hear from The Army about a position to manage their Tanzanian microcredit program. Would I take a high paying investment banking position or a very low paying NGO job?

Eventually, The Army asked me to manage the program for two years, and it was too hard to resist. I had to get back to Africa, Ghana had such an impact on me and finally I’d found away I could use economics to help people. The program went well, we expanded outreach, managed our liquidity and risk and opened a second branch. It is still running and I keep in touch with the team. After Tanzania I went back to the UK to rest. I quickly took a job in the Civil Service, working in the Permanent Secretary’s Private Office in the Department for Constitutional Affairs (now the Justice Department). I was responsible for the Permanent Secretary’s outward communications and internet presence. I was responsible for writing letters to Lords and Ladies. We had an office in Victoria and one in the House of Lords. After the opening of Parliament I struck up a conversation with the Bishop of London, and at Christmas I received a gift from the Lord Chancellor and the then Permanent Secretary and now head of the joint intelligence committee, Alex Allen. How on earth did I get there from rural Tanzania?!

I didn’t last there long. I missed Africa and working with the most vulnerable. So, I stated to apply for jobs in the microfinance field, but with only two years international experience from straight out of university I didn’t have many choices. However, I applied for a job with World Relief in Liberia, they asked for 5+ years experience and I thought I’d never get it. I guess they were desperate as one Friday night when I was trying to get the tube home I got a call from the guy who would become my boss, Richard Schroeder (now of World Hope International). I also met my future wife, as she prepared me to head out.

I signed up to working for LEAP Liberia for just one year, the idea was that I’d provide technical assistance to the managing director but she ended up going on maternity leave and I was moved in to her position. That year was tough. I had to let half the staff go because we didn’t have enough clients to keep everybody on staff. We also had some fraud which meant I had to fire the Accountant and Internal Auditor. We redeveloped the policies and procedures and got the program back up and running. It was very satisfying to rebuild the program, but again I was ready to head back to the UK.

I started looking for jobs, and I came across a Financial Economist position in the Economist. Again, this was a job I never thought I’d get. The firm flew me out from Liberia for an interview, and a few weeks later they offered me the job. I spent my time providing technical support to a microfinance bank in Tajikistan, writing proposals to DFID, the World Bank and others. I travelled to Bangladesh, Ghana and other places trying to put together a portfolio of projects. We came close to winning the project in Ghana, we heard we had won but they did a recount and we ended up second. Very frustrating. Unfortunately, the finance development department hadn’t made a profit for several years and so we were all made redundant. Fortunately, I was able to find some consulting work with UNDP in Pakistan and World Relief in Mozambique while I applied for other jobs.

At the same time World Relief was looking for a microfinance technical advisor, so I applied for the position and was able to secure a transfer visa from Liberia to Baltimore. After a few months, I was promoted to Deputy Director of Economic Development and I subsequently found myself on the boards of all these MFIs and managing the development of our Savings For Life programs. I feel really privileged to be able to do a job I am passionate about, but it is also very humbling to have all this responsibility.

Every time I come to visit the microfinance institutions I am reminded of this responsibility. Our clients have tremendous stories. Having access to financial services has allowed many to build successful businesses and smooth their income during difficult times. It is amazing how effective microfinance institutions can be. Even though this career is what I wanted, I never thought I’d be in the position I am now. I am grateful for the belief World Relief have had in me and the support of our donors in the US. Thank you for your continued support.

World Relief at the Old Ball Game

The World Relief international programs team took the afternoon off to watch the Baltimore Orioles against the Boston Red Socks. In other news, we welcome Derek Wardlaw and his family to Kosovo to manage the BZMF program.

Muhammad Yunus at Meyerhoff Symphony Hall in Baltimore - April 20 2009

Nobel Peace Prize Winner Muhammad Yunus to Speak on How Social Business can Transforms Lives, April 20

Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, author, and founder of Grameen Bank, will discuss how the dynamics of capitalism can be applied to some of society's greatest challenges on Monday, April 20 at 6 p.m., in a special presentation at the Meyerhoff Symphony Hall, 1212 Cathedral St., near the UB campus. Sponsored by the University of Baltimore's Merrick School of Business, this presentation marks the school's commitment to inspiring and educating students to become globally responsible leaders.

Stats Update!

WR Microfinance Stats Update

Click image to view.

Haiti - Short Trip

I am currently on my way home from spending the week in Haiti. I was fortunate to be joined by some of our HIV/AIDS team, Dr. Esther Gwan and Joanna Mayhew, as well as Jeff Demers who provides support to the Haiti office. Later on during the week, we were all joined by a friend of World Relief, Mr. Ken Graber.

My primary purpose for the trip was to work with Ken to start the merger between our microfinance program and another microfinance program managed by World Concern. From looking through our books it is clear our program will definitely benefit from being a part of a larger microfinance program, as I believe will World Concern's program.

We met with USAID and ANIMH (the local microfinance network) and found that this would be the first merger between microfinance programs. This created quite a bit of excitement with the agencies. They are keen for consolidation in the sector, and we hope that we can document lessons learned through our merger, so that we can help other microfinance programs in the future.

I also sat with our HIV/AIDS team to discuss greater support to people giving care to HIV/AIDS sufferers and orphans. We have had a microfinance scheme within our program that has provided them with loans, this year through a grant from Tearfund UK, we are extending this.

Haiti amazes me every time I visit. I have lived in Liberia, immediately following the end of their 14 year civil war, but I think Haiti would be even harder to live in. Port Au Prince is densely populated, and very polluted. Houses cling to steep slopes that are prone to landslides due to the destruction of the environment and soil erosion. With Haiti so close to the US, it is sad that this place is one of the poorest countries in the World.

Much of the food and goods consumed in Haiti are imported. The agricultural sector is very fragile, the regular hurricanes can wipe away crops in a heartbeat. But the food that is produced is often organic, not necessarily by design, but because fertilizer is out of the reach for the majority of farmers.

Our microfinance program is looking at how we can better support the agricultural sector, how we can create 'green' loans to promote good environmental practices, and how we can help the poorest of the poor take small steps out of poverty.

Help World Relief support more people in Haiti, donate now and designate your funds to Microenterprise Development.

Thank you for your support. Gareth

DR Congo Updates

Please see the links below for updates from DR Congo.

World Relief is based in Goma and is looking to respond as soon as is possible.

Help World Relief respond, click here to donate http://community.wr.org/Page.aspx?pid=1278

Miliband admits UK may send troops to bolster UN peacekeepers in Congo
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article5072262.ece

Images from DR Congo

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/template/2.0-0/element/pictureGalleryPopup.jsp?id=5072695&&offset=0&§ionName=WorldAfrica

Too Slow to Act?
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/7705419.stm

Pray for the Crisis In Congo

The crisis in DR Congo has halted our microfinance programs in Goma, DR Congo.

We will keep you updated on the peace process and how our staff and clients are doing.

Please keep World Relief in your prayers and please consider donating to support our disaster response efforts. www.wr.org/donate

SEEP Network Meetings 4 - 7 Nov VA

World Relief will be participating on a panel about non-profit organizations and MFI divestiture.

World Relief has brought on a number of partners to their microfinance institutions. This has been a tool for strengthening the MFI, and has had the positive impact of also monetizing long-term assets for reinvestment.

The MFIs have benefited from increased growth, and technical support.

Find out more by attending the SEEP network meetings.