The Microloan Foundation is committed to helping people to help themselves in order to change their lives.
Providing people with small loans, each business idea is appraised and training sessions are given, covering topics such as book keeping and cash flow. All group members are required to save money as a source of security. Each recipient receives their loan as a cheque and opens an account at a designated bank.
What makes this sustainable is that Microloan offer a hand up not a hand out, when the recipients repay their microloans, the money is given to someone else ....when they repay it goes to another to another....and so on...
See the attached case study for a real life example of how the Microloan Foundation has provided help.
In 2010 the SDL Foundation contributed £50K for MicroLoan to open a new branch in Mzimba, Malawi. By June 2011 this branch had made over 3,000 loans totalling some £240k with a 99% recovery rate and is now virtually 100% sustainable. The SDL Foundation have committed to supporting a second project in Zambia and hope to help even more people in a similar way.