NetIP is continuing its ongoing support of the Grameen Foundation, which works with local microfinance institutions (MFIs) to expand access to microfinance and technology for the poor. NetIP has pledged to raise $10,000 for Grameen Foundation through its 24 chapters.
By supporting this effort through a donation from our South Asia site, you are helping to scale microfinance and create opportunities for the world’s poorest, especially women, in South Asia. Your support helps us reach deeper down to change this staggering statistic: One third of all the world’s ultra poor are Indians. Despite the economic progress of ‘modern’ India, the economic growth fails to reach the poorest of the poor. Though microfinance has proven to be an effective tool to fight poverty in India for over thirty years, our goal is to scale microfinance to reach those who need it the most – the rural poor.
With your support, we are addressing the following hurdles to accelerating the impact of microfinance on India’s poorest people:
1. Lack of access to capital - Grameen aims to get capital to the MFIs that serve the under-served and help advisory firms, like Grameen Capital India, connect more MFIs with lenders and investors. Grameen will also help enable MFIs to attract and retain better human capital.
2. Lack of access to information – Grameen will assist twelve mission-focused MFIs to implement an objective and cost effective way to identify the poor and track their movement out of poverty: the Progress out of Poverty Index (PPI). The PPI is fast becoming the global standard for social performance and its use will soon be an industry standard practice in India.
3. Lack of technology – Less money in operating costs translates to more microloans for the poor. By using technology to manage their operations, MFIs can lower transaction costs, provide up-to-date information for loan officers, create less paperwork and automate calculations that result in better and timelier services for their poor clients.
Lastly, Grameen is establishing a company in India to grow the scale of these efforts. Your donations will support programs that help the poor and local staff that will serve them.
Please take the time to make a donation today and be a valuable contributor to our quest to end extreme poverty in South Asia.
A very special thank you from NetIP North America to the following key contributors who supported our “Help Haiti Heal” campaign with Grameen in January!
Aashi Vel, Ariadne Horstman, Farah Khan, Fathima Mariam Zainudeen, Hetal Naik, Jayanth Gowda, Krishna Erravelli, Kul Bhushan Bhoombla, Leena Bhudev, Linda Daniel, Meeta Patel,Moiez Karim, Nirav Patel, Pooja Masand, Preethi Nayak, Puneet Puri, Raghavendra Nelli, Ratna Shah Craig, Rohit Mehrotra, Santosh Perla, Sonal Parikh, Sowmya Garton, Suneeta K.
Contact Ruby Bola, Philanthropy Chair, at ruby@netip.org with any questions or suggestions on how we can better support the ongoing quest for poverty alleviation in South Asia.
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About The Grameen Foundation
In 1976, Bangladeshi Muhammad Yunus planted the seed that created Grameen Bank. He made a loan of $27 to a group of 42 poor women out of his own pocket who were facing the extortionate interest rates of moneylenders and unable to move themselves out of poverty. His $27 loan sparked the beginning of the microfinance movement.
Thirty years later, Muhammad Yunus and Grameen Bank were jointly awarded the Nobel Peace Prize bringing global attention to the field of microfinance and poverty alleviation. Microfinance Institutions (MFIs) provide a variety of financial services to their borrowers, or microentrepreneurs, on a small (micro) scale. If the poor have access to financial services, they have the economic opportunity to grow their micro-enterprises and move themselves out poverty and towards financial self-sufficiency. The Nobel committee stated that “lasting peace cannot be achieved unless large population groups find ways in which to break out of poverty…[development of the poorest] serves to advance democracy and human rights.”
Grameen Foundation President Alex Counts trained under and worked closely with Professor Yunus during his six-year tenure in Bangladesh. Counts created Grameen Foundation in 1997 to accelerate the impact of microfinance on the world’s poorest people, especially women. Grameen Foundation works with local MFIs to expand access to microfinance and technology for the poor.
