Last month we handed out 35 loan cheques to mothers who will buy a cow. We also gave out 45 loans to mothers to fund their children’s third level education.
Since we started our micro finance program we have issued 1100 loans to our mothers in order for them to earn an income and to improve their overall living standard and to fund their children’s education. We have a 100% repayment rate and our loan book is now such that the repayments every month enable us to issue 25 new loans.
The mothers learn how to manage money, they earn the self respect of their family and their peers. They know that every repayment every month enables another mother to get closer to receiving her loan.
Over the last few years we have been changing the culture from one of our mothers receiving handouts to one of receiving loans. They are beginning to see the benefits of this.
A major benefit for us is our sponsors money is used more efficiently. The same euro is recycled time and time again
Many mothers join our programs in order to benefit from our child sponsorship program. (handout)
Our objective is that within three years of joining a mothers self help group a mother will receive a loan to purchase a cow.
The income she can learn from a cow is way above the handout we give in the form of child sponsorship. Increasingly also we are only including in our sponsorship program children of widows or from broken homes or single parents. We try to ensure that the money goes to those most needy.