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Five Talents wants to expand its microfinance project in Iringa to reach 2,800 women entrepreneurs by 2011. This requires a gradual and substantial injection of loan capital which will be closely monitored by Five Talents in the UK.

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Categories

  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Disaster Relief Disaster Relief
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Human Rights/Advocacy Human Rights/​Advocacy
  • Poverty Alleviation/Relief Poverty Alleviation/​Relief
  • Religious Religious
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)

    Situation

    Tanzania is one of the poorest countries in Africa, with an average annual income of only $350 and where much of the population make a living from small businesses or informal work. Five Talents started a microfinance initiative in July 2007 to encourage the development of small businesses, aiming to give people a helping hand in working their way out of extreme poverty, and we are looking for funding to expand this project and to reach more people. The project is located in Iringa, central Tanzania and is implemented in partnership with the Anglican Diocese of Ruaha and overseen by the Archbishop of Tanzania. There are two sides to the work; financial and non-financial. On the financial side we give small loans to groups of entrepreneurs and small business owners, allowing them access to growth funding capital that is otherwise unavailable. We charge interest on the loans at rates only to sustain the loan pool and in line with the local interbank market. We also provide non-financial support in the form of business training and support sessions. This non-financial support is an integral part of our work and from our other projects in East Africa, we have seen that this highly valued by our clients and leads to improved repayment rates. Whilst the norm is for our projects to mainly serve women, our work in Tanzania is aimed exclusively at female clients. Women have a low position within Tanzanian society, and during the development stages our partners from the Diocese of Ruaha decided that they would like to use this operation as a method of empowering women. By lending exclusively to the woman of a household or family-run business, she will play an increased role in decision making and many of our female clients have felt that their place within their household and community has been increased. The former president of Tanzania, Julius Nyerere, once commented “If you educate a man, you educate an individual, but if you educate a woman, you educate an entire family and the nation.” As of 30th November 2007 the project is serving 186 women after just 5 months in operation. The business plan is to serve 2,800 clients within five years with eight permanent local staff. The majority of our clients have between 4 and 6 dependents and so the cumulative number of people benefiting from the project will be huge. Following a site visit in November 2007, the initial client feedback is very positive. In particular our clients feel empowered by the loans – it gives them the opportunity to work their own way out of poverty - and the increased financial security is very beneficial. We are genuinely giving the poor a hand-up rather than a “hand-out”. Five Talents approach is to empower the local people with business skills and financial resources for their own development. We employ local people in our offices and aim to create a self-sustaining operation in which we play only a background, supporting role. Our total budget for this project is £100,000 for 2008 increasing in further increments towards the fifth year after which it will be self-sustainable. A donation of £100,000 or more would go a long way in helping the programme grow and would benefit a great many people.

    Solution

    100%
    Categories

  • Community Support & Development Community Support & Development
  • Disaster Relief Disaster Relief
  • Education/Training/Employment Education/​Training/​Employment
  • Human Rights/Advocacy Human Rights/​Advocacy
  • Poverty Alleviation/Relief Poverty Alleviation/​Relief
  • Religious Religious
  • Beneficiaries

    • Children (3-18) Children (3-18)
    • Women & Girls Women & Girls
    • Young People (18-30) Young People (18-30)