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Small loans, big changes
Opportunity International
Opportunity International

Opportunity International Australia exists to provide opportunities for people living in poverty to transform their lives. With over 40 years’ experience in microfinance and support services, we use a business approach to solve poverty. Rather than a hand-out, we provide our clients with a loan as small as $100 to help grow their small business. This enables them to earn an income and afford food, water, shelter and an education for their children. Visit www.opportunity.org.au

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Diary note: a sign of dignity and empowerment

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Today we visited a village 10 kilometres outside of Varanasi, India. As we arrived at the village, we stepped back (way back) in time! Although the poverty was extreme, we witnessed a level of empowerment and progress that gives great hope.

The village on the outskirts of Varanasi can only be described by pictures. It comprised of mud huts with dirt floors, straw as bed, basic agriculture and animals everywhere – even in the bedrooms. I felt like I had walked into the stables where Jesus was born! The only resemblance of the 21st Century were mobile phones and one florescent light bulb!

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We were visiting this village with Cashpor, Opportunity International Australia’s microfinance partner in Varanasi. Cashpor serves women living in extreme poverty, in one of the poorest states of India – Uttar Pradesh. The state’s population exceeds 180 million which includes more than 90 million people living on less than $2 per day. In most cases, the women that Cashpor serves are making less than A$1 per day.

We sat down in a community group meeting and the level of excitement was high. The first thing the women did was sign their name on the loan register. These women are illiterate, yet Cashpor has taken the time to teach every one of them to sign their own name – no finger print; no X; but their own name. This seems insignificant to us, yet for the women of this village it represents dignity and empowerment.

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The women explained to us that the loans from Cashpor have enabled them to buy buffalo and sell their milk to a local wholesaler. This additional income is used to educate their children and save for the future. It was a joy to see their happiness and their hope. They told us that without Cashpor helping them, their only source of capital is from money lenders who are charging interest rates at over 120% pa. Not only does Cashpor provide microfinance and small loans to generate a new source of income for their families, but they provide savings facility via affordable mobile phone technology (yes the poor have cheap mobiles but not toilets!) and also educate, empower and provide dignity to the poorest of the poor. (To find out how the poor can afford cheap mobile phones, please click here.)

This year Cashpor is launching a new service focused on community health. Opportunity is supporting this initiative. Microfinance is more than lending, it’s about helping communities to prosper in a number of ways.

You can help by providing a donation of just $200 to help women like this to educate their children and to progress out of poverty. Click here to donate today.

Stephen Robertson
Opportunity International Australia
www.opportunity.org.au

Posted by Opportunity International

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CEO diary note: A typical day

It looked like a typical day for me in India. Ranjani, Director of Opportunity’s Indian Subsidiary, Dia Vikas had arranged a string of meetings including  breakfast, lunch and dinner meetings and others in between. Am I getting too old for this unrelenting pace? Still, being presented with a cream birthday cake at breakfast with typical Indian pomp and ceremony energised me for the day.

The breakfast meeting was with one of our key advisors in matters regulatory, Nandan Singh Bisht and our CFO in India, Monty Sen. They’ve been reviewing Ranjani’s plans for a web campaign to inspire thousands of citizens to encourage the central government to put and pass its draft Microfinance Bill. The draft bill is a good step forward but it’s nothing if it remains a draft. And in India that’s not unusual. Read about the bill at http://www.opportunity.org.au/Latest-News/New-bill-gives-clarity-and-confidence-to-Indian-mi.aspx

After breakfast, we met with Sam Chander, the new MD of our microfinance partner in Chennai, GO Finance. Sam dressed up for the meeting; he normally dresses to fit in with the people in poverty he serves. He has spent considerable time with them, understanding their needs. There’s much I like about Sam. There have been times where he’s taken the tough option, acted in accordance with the organisation’s high values and paid a financial price. He’s building a quality organisation that is truly serving the poor in Chennai.

Next was a meeting with the tireless Mukti Bosco, the head of Healing Fields. This great organisation helps make health care affordable and accessible to the marginalised in India. One way is to train local people in poor, rural areas to be community health leaders. They then bring basic health education to the people in their own communities. Microfinance organisations are great distribution platforms for such a service and Healing Fields works with two of our key partners in the north of India, Cashpor and RRDC.

Often we think of health insurance as the answer to affordable healthcare. But insurance doesn't cover outpatient care – the vast majority of health interventions. Typically the poor will pay for a consultancy ($1) but when facing a prescription bill of $5 to $20 they will hand what they have to the pharmacist and say, “Just give me what this will pay for“. So they only take part of a course of antibiotics and they often get sicker. Microfinance coupled with health training can address that by giving specific small loans tailored to the cost of all the medicines prescribed.

We’re not experts in health but Healing Fields is. Together we’re planning ways of making healthcare more accessible and affordable for the poor.

We ended the day with Nandan and over dinner considered ways to get more funds into the sector. It needs it. We didn’t need another birthday cake. But you don’t want to be rude. This was anything but a typical day in India.

Robert Dunn
CEO
Opportunity International Australia

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Birthday greetings in India

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