Video updates from Togo part two: collecting updates from the field

After the first part of our video updates from Togo in July, the wait is finally over! Here is part two, at last.

In my first blog about my trip to Togo, I mentioned that visiting our microfinance partner, WAGES, was of particular interest to me because of CARE’s long-standing relationship with the institution. However, the main purpose of my trip was to respond to our lenders’ desire for more updates on how their loans have impacted on the lives of the people they have supported.  So I travelled to WAGES to provide the loan officers who work with Lendwithcare some further training on how to provide updates and more specifically how they can use film to bring these updates to life.

The training was led by professional film makers Fiona Molloy and Nik Wood (the people that also put together our fab TV ad!) and I have to say the loan officers really enjoyed learning the tricks of the trade from Fiona and Nik.  They particularly enjoyed learning how shooting different kinds of footage rather than simply zooming in and out can improve a film.

These three women had specific messages they wanted to pass on to the Lendwithcare lenders:

1.  Akouvi Amouzou – a fish monger from Togo. Akouvi told me “it feels good to be able to build my own house, hire staff to increase revenue and have money for when my children are sick”

2. Ama Nyabledzi – a market trader from Togo. Ama proudly announced when we visited her at her stall that “my palm oil is the sweetest on the market!”

3.  TchallaAdjo – a grain seller from Togo. At 69-years-old Tchalla had generated enough income from her business to build her own house, which I was lucky enough to be shown around

By Tracey Horner, Head of Lendwithcare.org

Read the final part of Tracey's video blog from Togo!

If It Had Wheels, I Travelled On It!

Emma Chase works for the micro-finance institution MicroLoan Foundation and is currently spending three months volunteering in Zambia, where she is helping to set up the partnership between MicroLoan Foundation and Lendwithcare. She has been writing about her time in Zambia in two previous blog posts ("Home away from home" and "Muddy bricks and trainers") and here is her third installment.

A few weeks ago I spent a day traveling to the rest of MicroLoan Zambia’s branches. Initially I was to spend a few days at each branch, but last minute training would see everyone in Chipata the following week. I travelled to Nyimba, Petauke and Katete to meet with each branch manager and brief them on the proposed procedures for Lendwithcare. My day started bright and early and by 4 a.m I was in a taxi, en route to the coach station. Little did I know that come nightfall, I would have travelled on pretty much anything that had wheels.

The coach set off to Nyimba at 5 a.m and in the 3 hours the journey took, the sun woke up and said a very impressive good morning; casting a warm orange glow over the undulating landscape until it reached its peak to settle itself high in the sky, watching over eastern Zambia.

Welcome to Nyimba, the banana district! I arrived and was met by big smiles - John and lots of banana sellers. He took me to the office where we had a very productive meeting, and I successfully used the toilet without losing anything! John was sent to Nyimba to set up the MLF branch all by himself. Two years on and he works tirelessly with a client base of 500 women. We visited Nyimba’s market where lots of these women work. The market is quite large (larger than London’s Borough Market, with about twenty times the number of sellers) and almost all the women there are MicroLoan clients. From bakers (the smell was amazing!), to hairdressers - whatever you could imagine or you would want they sell it, and throw in huge smiles and lots of laughter to go with it.

Now, people drive at two speeds here – fast, and snail’s pace. The former using their car horns to let everyone know they were coming, and would not be slowing down to get out of the way; the calm of the mornings are perforated with honk, honk, honk; the latter when something interesting, like a “mzungu” walking by, is happening. This was how I travelled from Nyimba to Petauke for my second meeting: An hour in a taxi-car, with three men in the back gossiping about the Zimbabwe election. I was given the honoured passengers front seat and within five minutes wished I were squashed between the men in the back. For an hour we drove at lightning speed, catapulting ourselves over giant potholes, listening to loud Christian music that would jump every ten seconds, for company.

I reached Petauke safely. Petauke is smaller than Chipata and I didn’t get such a good vibe from it. I tried to keep my time here brief and after my meeting quickly found a taxi to take me to Katete; an African taxi! Some of you will understand my exclamations. Now when I was visiting Jo-burg years ago I was told never to get in the way of an African taxi… Treasure this advice. A vehicle similar to a serena packed with passengers and their household items – think of the circus trick with clowns fitting into a mini car – driving at faster than light speed, honk, honk, honk, breaking suddenly to pick up travellers on the side of the road, accompanied by Christian music played as though we were in a nightclub. Again, I was given the front seat. Pro: Quick escape. Con: Deafened by the music. I sat in this taxi for 90 minutes before we eventually set off. In the initial bargaining for my business I had told them I needed to leave ASAP, I needed to get to Katete for a meeting. After about 15 minutes of waiting I asked when we were leaving: “Any minute now”.

Arriving in Katete and taking a short motorbike ride to the office I had my meeting and quickly found another taxi to take me home - I traveled in the back this time – sweaty, dusty and greasy. A coach, three cars, van and motorbike later, my bed never looked so good.  

National Ethical Investment Week | Six reasons why a lendwithcare.org microloan makes a good investment

As National Ethical Investment Week (NEIW) 2013 draws to a close and people within the sector call for “bigger, bolder, broader and better”[1] ethical investments from the UK, I have been thinking about how and indeed if, lendwithcare answers this call to action?

© CARE/Emilie Bailey

Lendwithcare enables people to lend from as little as £15 to entrepreneurs running their own businesses in developing countries. 100% of the loan goes directly to the entrepreneur. Entrepreneurs range from fish farmers in Cambodia to beauticians in Togo. The entrepreneur uses the loan to grow their business and support their family, and later pays the lender back. When their loan has been repaid, the lender can withdraw the money and keep it, or re-invest the money in another entrepreneur and help kick start another business.

Essentially it does. After all, NEIW aims to let people know they have 'ethical and green options when it comes to their financial decisions' – that everyone, not just rich philanthropists, can use their money to make a difference. Lendwithcare certainly lets people do this. However, NEIW also aims to let people know they can make a difference and make money. And it is this additional dimension that, although significant, is where NEIW contributors and lendwithcare lenders differ – while you won’t earn any interest on your loan, the vast majority of cases you get your money back in full and on time – unless of course one considers a warm, fuzzy feeling a ‘return’ on your investment.

Which leads me back to my original question: Does this lack of financial gain mean lendwithcare is not a smart investment? Of course not. Below are six reasons why an investment in a lendwithcare business, makes good money sense.  After all lendwithcare loans:

1. Create employmentand contribute towards building sustainable livelihoods in poor communities around the world. Affordable financial services are central to addressing poverty and your investment will help build the capacity of Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) to help the poorest earn a living, grow their businesses and create new jobs.
2. Affordable: Investments start from as little as £15 but those with more cash to spare can lend  the full loan amount required. 
3. Return: Repayment rate on lendwithcare is 99.97%[2] and although we do not offer investors more than their initial investment back, there is always that added ‘warm, fuzzy feeling’ I mentioned earlier. 
4. Ethical: Lendwithcare is an initiative of humanitarian and development charity, CARE International UK and your investment will be used entirely for the benefit of the poor. Lendwithcare only partners with MFIs that have a strong social development mission and promote microfinance as a means to improving the social and economic conditions of poor people and their families. The MFIs we work with also promote and invest in social businesses in the communities they serve. 
5. Unique: Investing directly in a lendwithcare entrepreneur and their business is an innovative way to do something good with your money and let’s face it, with saving accounts offering such low rates of interest it’s not doing much good anywhere else at the moment! 
6. Knowledge, experience and expertise:  CARE International has been active in promoting microfinance throughout Asia, Africa, Eastern Europe and Latin America for more than two decades, so you can be sure that your money is being invested sensibly and expertly.

So join me in #makingmoneygood this National Ethical Investment Week and sign-up to lendwithcare.org!

 

If you sign-up and get two friends lending through our share page before midnight tomorrow (Friday 18^th of October) you could win an iPad mini www.lendwithcare.org/share

By Nancy Thomas, Lendwithcare Executive 

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[1] http://blueandgreentomorrow.com/reports/the-guide-to-national-ethical-investment-week-2013/

[2]Lendwithcare was launched by CARE International UK in September 2012. Since then there have been two defaulted loans and this was sadly due to the two entrepreneurs in question passing away.

How financial literacy can help build the market for microinsurance

by Alexa Roscoe, Private Sector Advisor, CARE International UK

© CARE/Helen Barnes

CARE International promotes microinsurance as part of the range of services and products that the poor need to help overcome poverty and reduce their vulnerability to shocks. However, we also know that as with all products, to be sustainable, any microinsurance model also needs to be profitable. Fortunately for the insurance industry and its clients, it’s being demonstrated that increasing profit and promoting financial inclusion do not have to be mutually exclusive. New research from our work in India shows that microinsurance distribution strategies that prioritize building clients’ financial literacy lead to almost three times as many new enrollments as those that do not.

To read Alexa's full blog please visit the Centre for Financial Inclusion.