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Page 1
SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION, INC.
54 Wilton Road,
P.O.
Box 980, Westport,
CT
06881
1-800-
SAVETHECHILDREN
www.savethechildren.org
Save the Children is an international nonprofit child-assistance
organization working in nearly 50 countries worldwide,
including the United States. Our mission is to make lasting,
positive change in the lives of children in need. Save the
Children is a member of the International Save the Children
Alliance, a partnership of 30 individual country members
working in more than 100 countries to ensure the well-being
and protect the rights of children.
D
evaki Thapa of Routbesi, Nepal, may
only be 19, but her life has already
been dramatically improved by Save the
Children's work in education and
economic opportunities. Her mother's
death forced Devaki to end her schooling
and care for her younger brother. After completing
one of our nonformal education programs for women,
she joined a women's group and received a loan for
a goat from Nirdhan, a financial services institution
for which we provide training and support. Devaki
raised the goat and sold it at a profit, which she
used to pay back the loan and pay for her brother's
schooling. She also had money to resume her formal
education. She ultimately became the first young
woman from her community to pass Nepal's prestigious
School Leaving Certificate exam-an amazing
accomplishment. She is now working with a women's
cooperative and advocating for women's rights.
Supporting the onsite technical capacity building
Save the Children delivers to all its microfinance
partners is just one way that generous gifts of any
size underpin our global economic opportunities
work. Gifts are pooled with other public and private
resources to support every facet of this work, giving
us the ability to train and retain professional staff,
provide vital program support, work with our part-
ners, sustain and strengthen current programs
as well as develop and deliver new ones, and provide
seed capital for new projects.
Gifts of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, or more work
hard, exponentially increasing our ability to empower
women and improve children's lives.
I
Gifts That Work
for Women
and Children
Gifts to Save the Children
have made it possible for
Houriub Achmed (above)
to sell more used clothes
in Jordan and Jacinta
Jaime Jossias (right) to
sell more vegetables at
her stall in Mozambique.
Both mothers participate
in microfinance groups.
Throughout the developing
world, mothers such as Ameh
Ismail Hasam (left) can do
more for their children when
Save the Children empowers
them with programs to help
themselves.
BILL FOLEY
B I L L F O L E Y
M I C H A E L B I S C E G L I E
EDITOR: JOHN KAZZI
DESIGN: CYNTHIA GLACKEN ASSOCIA
TES, INC. 67453-M
6/ Save the Children Insights
®
This global program
has been an
indisputable success
for poor women
and children.
I
Small groups of women microentrepreneurs come together with Save the Children's helping
hand and agree to guarantee each other's loans. Groups usually range in size from 6 to 30.
I
Each group elects its own management committees, which draft bylaws, maintain
the accounting books, manage the funds, and supervise the use of women's loans.
I
Each woman receives a small loan, usually $30 to $250, to maintain or expand her
existing income-generating activity. The repayment period can be three to six months,
during which women in the group benefit from each other's personal support and advice.
I
When all members of the group successfully complete a loan cycle, they become
eligible for another, larger loan,
effectively opening up a long-term line of credit and a sustainable
income that benefits women and their children.
I
Save the Children partners with local organizations to develop their institutional and
technical capacity to provide credit and savings services.
SAVE THE CHILDREN'S
Economic
Opportunities
Program
The Making
of a
Microfinance
Program
GROWTH AND SUCCESS FOR SOME OF THE WORLD'S POOREST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Performance Indicator
1997
1998
1999
2000
Number of active clients
19,000
55,800
76,400
90,000
Number of children benefiting
76,000
223,000
305,000
360,000
Private program budget
$233,868
$338,700
$268,000
$278,000
Total program budget
$6,500,000
$7,600,000
$8,400,000
$8,400,000
Private cost to reach one child
$3.00
$1.50
$0.88
$0.77
R A N A M O G H N E I H O F E A S T T Y R E ,
LEBANON,
D I S P L AY S H E R S AV E T H E C H I L D R E N L O A N .
I
Four years ago, we served 19,000 women and 76,000 children. Today,
106,000 women and 424,000 of their children are benefiting.
I
Clients have a loan repayment rate in excess of 98 percent, ensuring that
loan capital funds continue to revolve.
I
Less than $400,000 annually from individuals and other private donors is
needed for our economic opportunities work-an investment that helps
to leverage an average of $5 million in annual public grants and helps drive
a loan portfolio of over $14 million.
B I L L F O L E Y
5/ Save the Children Insights
Helping Every Mother
and Every Child
Through Sustainable
Microfinance
The improved health and well-being
of Awa's children, and so many
more of the developing world's
children, are inextricably linked to
improvements in their mothers'
health, education, and income. In
Kolondieba, Mali, and in 15 other
developing nations, Save the
Children's economic opportunities
programs are a catalyst for dramatic
change because they give Awa and
some 106,000 other poor women
microentrepreneurs access to credit
and financial services to break the
intergenerational cycle of poverty.
A
wa Koné, 35, of Mali, needed credit to expand her trading
activity in the Kolondieba market and earn the income to
help her better meet her children's basic needs. An economic
opportunities program from Save the Children was the answer.
Awa joined a women's group we organized and began receiving
small loans guaranteed by the group. She is now repaying her 10th loan and has
used earnings to help her two daughters and three sons survive and attend school-
a remarkable achievement in a nation with one of the world's worst child mortality
rates and where fewer than half of children go to school. Her oldest children are now
involved in income-generating activities of their own. "My condition in life has
improved. I am able to make a greater profit and take better care of my family."
On Economic
Opportunities
A Speci
al Report
for Partners
for Children and
Champ
ions
I N
HAITI,
Marie Therese Thebaun has participated
in economic opportunities programs
supported by Save the Children, giving her
the extra income she needs to help keep
her daughter, Shelove Bechina, in school.
Spring/Summer 2001
Insights
The loans that these women receive
from local microfinance institutions
Save the Children organizes and
supports-generally between $30
and $250-become a large part of
their lives. They buy livestock and
poultry, plant crops to sell, prepare
and sell food and handicrafts, and
engage in trade. These activities
do more than increase incomes: they
empower women to better their
children's lives, give them a voice in
family decisions, and increase local
access to goods and services. At
the same time,
(continues on page 3)
REBECCA JANES
®
Page 2
Mark Eldon-Edington has been
Director of Economic Opportunities
since 1997. He also has served as Field
Officer Director of our programs in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Jordan, and
was our Area Director for the Middle
East. He holds an honors degree from
Westfield College, University of London.
Q: Why are so many poor women in developing
nations denied access to credit?
A: They face laws, policies, traditions,
and a lack of lending institutions will-
ing to lend without collateral or a
guarantee from a male relative. Where
women have access to moneylenders,
they are frequently charged interest
rates of 200 percent or more.
Q: How does Save the Children help?
A:We give poor women access to the
credit and financial services they need
to increase their incomes by bringing
together groups of women who
guarantee each other's loans and by
organizing a sustainable local
microfinance institution. This Group
Guaranteed Lending and Savings
(
GGLS
) strategy is the most widely
recognized of our poverty
alleviation work. We also have offered
non-financial assistance such as mar-
keting and networking to poor women
already working in one industry. In
the Philippines, we've helped organize
women in the ragmaking industry
and have worked with poor women in
rural Haiti who dry and sell fruit.
"As a member of the global staff,
I visited more than half of Save the
Children's programs. I often found that
my previous training as a Chartered
Accountant and Management
Consultant greatly influenced my reac-
tions to what I saw. I was always left
with the impression that while health
and education programs are critical
to the well being of children and their
families, the benefits of our work
could be enriched for the long term
if we were able to add a sustainable
economic development component.
In this way, families would have
the resources to continue to practice
healthy behaviors and purchase
medicine when required. They would
also be in a better position to meet
the costs of sending their children
to school. I wanted to put my finance
expertise to work to help underpin
the other work that Save the Children
was doing, and to help poor families
have a long-term, sustainable income.
"While I was Middle East Area Director,
we started Save the Children's first
sustainable microfinance programs to
address a gaping hole in poor women's
ability to provide for their children-
they did not have the right to credit.
Our Jordanian partner, Microfund for
Women, is now the country's leading
institution of its kind, serving 5,100
women. As with every program we've
started, we have every expectation it
will be serving poor women for
decades to come."
Q: How do your programs differ from others?
A:We focus on the financial needs of
poor women microentrepreneurs first
and foremost. We are widely recog-
nized for singular expertise in microfi-
nance for women in the Middle East
and in difficult situations. And, as an
organization that addresses the needs
of the whole child, Save the Children
also can implement other vital health
and education programs reaching
these same women and children.
Q: How do you know that poor women will use
extra income to improve their children's lives?
A: Independent studies of our programs
and others have documented that
women spend this money on their
children's basic needs of food,
clothing, medicine, and schooling.
Evidence shows that increasing
a woman's income has direct and
positive benefits for her children.
Q: What is Save the Children's strategic vision?
A: We want to reduce significantly the
number of women supporting their
families on $1 a day or less. We plan
to expand where we are already placed,
apply our model of Middle East lead-
ership to work in more countries in
poorer regions such as Africa and Asia,
and introduce our expertise into
more post-conflict situations and into
our programs for communities
affected by
HIV/AIDS
. Our five-year
goal is to provide 400,000 women
with access to financial services
and improve the economic security of
some 1.6 million children.
I
M E E T T H E E X P E R T S
M
ark Eldon-Edington
D I R E C T O R O F E C O N O M I C O P P O R T U N I T I E S
2/ Save the Children Insights
Each issue of
Insights
will profile one of Save the Children's expert staff.
Ensuring that women throughout the developing world have the tools they
need to increase their incomes and improve their children's lives is the cornerstone
of Save the Children's economic opportunities strategy. By organizing small
groups of poor women who have the desire to see their children healthy, nourished, and educated, accepting
the group's repayment guarantee as collateral for small loans, and founding a sustainable microfinance
lending institution, we empower more poor women to do for their children what every mother dreams of.
Investing in these mothers pays off at every level:
(continued from page 1)
Save the Children ensures
that its local partners will have the financial, management,
and marketing skills to sustain lending services for
poor women over the long term.
In the Middle East, microfinance and Save the
Children are synonymous, particularly in Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
whose fragile economies must weather the pressures
of unrest, unemployment, poverty, national debt, and
unequal distribution of wealth. Local institutions we
have founded serve more than 15,000 poor women
and have a loan portfolio exceeding $3.2 million. Our
Empowering
Women for Positive Change
I
They gain the power and confidence to take a
more active role in family decisions, including how
income is spent and their children's education.
Families in microcredit programs have been found to
spend 20 percent more on children's education
and enroll more children in school than other families.
I
Studies of Save the Children-founded programs
showed women also using their profits for food,
health care, and clothing for families. They can re-invest
profits back into their businesses, rather than paying
back usurious moneylenders.
I
Women who expand their businesses bring
more goods and services into the community and
contribute to local economic growth.
I
Women hire other women and men to help run
their businesses, giving others an opportunity to
increase incomes, too. This creates a tremendous ripple
effect and can impact even more children's lives.
I
Women earn greater trust from husbands and other
men and have greater status in the community.
As women grow their tiny enterprises, Save the
Children strengthens its local partner institutions
through training in group lending, accounting,
financial analysis, information systems, business plan-
ning, management, governance, and marketing.
Independence and sustainability within five to seven
years are the goals for our partners-goals we are well
on the way to meeting in Armenia, Georgia, Jordan,
Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
I
EVERY MOTHER, EVERY CHILD
Involvement in our
economic opportunities
program in the Nasirnaga
sub-district of Bangladesh
has helped Samola Begum
improve conditions for her
family, including son Dulal.
The family also has re-
ceived seeds and medicine
from Save the Children.
MICHAEL BISCEGLIE
3/ Save the Children Insights
experience and ability to train local staff to sustain their
institution give us a tremendous advantage in reaching
women who do not otherwise have access to credit.
Our leadership in the region is widely recognized: In
Morocco, Save the Children was the United Nations
Development Program's first Microstart technical service
provider. Under the program, the number of microfinance
clients in participating institutions in Morocco increased
from some 2,000 to 27,000 in just three years.
In transitional nations such as in the Newly Independent
States, Save the Children's microfinance activities are a
lifeline to displaced women who are their children's primary
caregivers and providers. For those with tiny businesses,
the lack of collateral and therefore access to credit
are barriers seldom breached without our help. Their
special needs and the ground-up development of a
lending institution demand our expertise. In Azerbaijan,
Armenia, and Georgia, Save the Children-founded
programs serve over 14,700 clients and have a loan portfolio
of over $1.1 million.
This niche is also evident in northern Afghanistan
and inside Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Our lending
activities involve some 2,000 women whose daughters
and sons have never known peace and stability
.
I
Georgia's Displaced
Mothers Look to Loans
From Constanta
H
ow far can $175 go? Nino Gagnidze, a 30-year-old
displaced mother in the Republic of Georgia, will tell
you. With two loans of $
75
and and $100 from
Constanta, a microfinance institution founded by Save
the Children, Nino has expanded her small blanket-
making business, created jobs for three more workers, and is
investing the profits in her daughter's education, food for the
family, and the business. She is also planning to do even more.
of bulk discounts on
materials and products,
which they re-sell at a profit.
Constanta charges sufficient
interest to ensure that its
operational costs are covered
so it can become truly
sustainable.
A recent survey of 800
Constanta clients found that
investing in their children's
education, reinvesting
in their businesses, and
purchasing medicine and
household needs were the
most frequent uses of their
profits. The on-time loan
repayment rate is consistently
above 98 percent, and many
women have received several
loans. Save the Children
continues to train Constanta's
staff and board of directors
to oversee the program.
Nino's dreams are to start
other small blanket-making
activities in Georgia and save
enough money for her daugh-
ter to continue her education
at the university level.
I
overcome the harsh realities
of too little income, too
few opportunities, and too
much uncertainty following
their country's break from
the Soviet Union and
years of turmoil, inflation,
and the uprooting of some
200,000 people.
The result was the found-
ing of the country's first
microfinance institution,
Constanta. Today, Constanta
is the third-largest institution
of its kind in Eastern Europe.
The result of this extraordi-
nary accomplishment is
evident in the cities of Batumi
and Tblisi, where 9,500 poor
women are receiving loans
that enable them to increase
their income and improve
conditions for some 19,000
of their children.
Constanta is a break-
through for these women,
whose entrepreneurial activities
are the sole income for
their families. They typically
use loans to take advantage
In 1997, Save the Children
took a bold step to help
children in the Newly
Independent States survive.
We reached out to Nino and
other displaced mothers
in the Republic of Georgia
who had been unable to
BILL FOLEY
4/ Save the Children Insights
I N
JORDAN
,
K H A D D I J I H U S S E I N R A I S E S G O AT S
WITH HELP FROM A SAVE THE CHILDREN MICROFINANCE PROGRAM.
Page 3
Mark Eldon-Edington has been
Director of Economic Opportunities
since 1997. He also has served as Field
Officer Director of our programs in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Jordan, and
was our Area Director for the Middle
East. He holds an honors degree from
Westfield College, University of London.
Q: Why are so many poor women in developing
nations denied access to credit?
A: They face laws, policies, traditions,
and a lack of lending institutions will-
ing to lend without collateral or a
guarantee from a male relative. Where
women have access to moneylenders,
they are frequently charged interest
rates of 200 percent or more.
Q: How does Save the Children help?
A:We give poor women access to the
credit and financial services they need
to increase their incomes by bringing
together groups of women who
guarantee each other's loans and by
organizing a sustainable local
microfinance institution. This Group
Guaranteed Lending and Savings
(
GGLS
) strategy is the most widely
recognized of our poverty
alleviation work. We also have offered
non-financial assistance such as mar-
keting and networking to poor women
already working in one industry. In
the Philippines, we've helped organize
women in the ragmaking industry
and have worked with poor women in
rural Haiti who dry and sell fruit.
"As a member of the global staff,
I visited more than half of Save the
Children's programs. I often found that
my previous training as a Chartered
Accountant and Management
Consultant greatly influenced my reac-
tions to what I saw. I was always left
with the impression that while health
and education programs are critical
to the well being of children and their
families, the benefits of our work
could be enriched for the long term
if we were able to add a sustainable
economic development component.
In this way, families would have
the resources to continue to practice
healthy behaviors and purchase
medicine when required. They would
also be in a better position to meet
the costs of sending their children
to school. I wanted to put my finance
expertise to work to help underpin
the other work that Save the Children
was doing, and to help poor families
have a long-term, sustainable income.
"While I was Middle East Area Director,
we started Save the Children's first
sustainable microfinance programs to
address a gaping hole in poor women's
ability to provide for their children-
they did not have the right to credit.
Our Jordanian partner, Microfund for
Women, is now the country's leading
institution of its kind, serving 5,100
women. As with every program we've
started, we have every expectation it
will be serving poor women for
decades to come."
Q: How do your programs differ from others?
A:We focus on the financial needs of
poor women microentrepreneurs first
and foremost. We are widely recog-
nized for singular expertise in microfi-
nance for women in the Middle East
and in difficult situations. And, as an
organization that addresses the needs
of the whole child, Save the Children
also can implement other vital health
and education programs reaching
these same women and children.
Q: How do you know that poor women will use
extra income to improve their children's lives?
A: Independent studies of our programs
and others have documented that
women spend this money on their
children's basic needs of food,
clothing, medicine, and schooling.
Evidence shows that increasing
a woman's income has direct and
positive benefits for her children.
Q: What is Save the Children's strategic vision?
A: We want to reduce significantly the
number of women supporting their
families on $1 a day or less. We plan
to expand where we are already placed,
apply our model of Middle East lead-
ership to work in more countries in
poorer regions such as Africa and Asia,
and introduce our expertise into
more post-conflict situations and into
our programs for communities
affected by
HIV/AIDS
. Our five-year
goal is to provide 400,000 women
with access to financial services
and improve the economic security of
some 1.6 million children.
I
M E E T T H E E X P E R T S
M
ark Eldon-Edington
D I R E C T O R O F E C O N O M I C O P P O R T U N I T I E S
2/ Save the Children Insights
Each issue of
Insights
will profile one of Save the Children's expert staff.
Ensuring that women throughout the developing world have the tools they
need to increase their incomes and improve their children's lives is the cornerstone
of Save the Children's economic opportunities strategy. By organizing small
groups of poor women who have the desire to see their children healthy, nourished, and educated, accepting
the group's repayment guarantee as collateral for small loans, and founding a sustainable microfinance
lending institution, we empower more poor women to do for their children what every mother dreams of.
Investing in these mothers pays off at every level:
(continued from page 1)
Save the Children ensures
that its local partners will have the financial, management,
and marketing skills to sustain lending services for
poor women over the long term.
In the Middle East, microfinance and Save the
Children are synonymous, particularly in Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
whose fragile economies must weather the pressures
of unrest, unemployment, poverty, national debt, and
unequal distribution of wealth. Local institutions we
have founded serve more than 15,000 poor women
and have a loan portfolio exceeding $3.2 million. Our
Empowering
Women for Positive Change
I
They gain the power and confidence to take a
more active role in family decisions, including how
income is spent and their children's education.
Families in microcredit programs have been found to
spend 20 percent more on children's education
and enroll more children in school than other families.
I
Studies of Save the Children-founded programs
showed women also using their profits for food,
health care, and clothing for families. They can re-invest
profits back into their businesses, rather than paying
back usurious moneylenders.
I
Women who expand their businesses bring
more goods and services into the community and
contribute to local economic growth.
I
Women hire other women and men to help run
their businesses, giving others an opportunity to
increase incomes, too. This creates a tremendous ripple
effect and can impact even more children's lives.
I
Women earn greater trust from husbands and other
men and have greater status in the community.
As women grow their tiny enterprises, Save the
Children strengthens its local partner institutions
through training in group lending, accounting,
financial analysis, information systems, business plan-
ning, management, governance, and marketing.
Independence and sustainability within five to seven
years are the goals for our partners-goals we are well
on the way to meeting in Armenia, Georgia, Jordan,
Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
I
EVERY MOTHER, EVERY CHILD
Involvement in our
economic opportunities
program in the Nasirnaga
sub-district of Bangladesh
has helped Samola Begum
improve conditions for her
family, including son Dulal.
The family also has re-
ceived seeds and medicine
from Save the Children.
MICHAEL BISCEGLIE
3/ Save the Children Insights
experience and ability to train local staff to sustain their
institution give us a tremendous advantage in reaching
women who do not otherwise have access to credit.
Our leadership in the region is widely recognized: In
Morocco, Save the Children was the United Nations
Development Program's first Microstart technical service
provider. Under the program, the number of microfinance
clients in participating institutions in Morocco increased
from some 2,000 to 27,000 in just three years.
In transitional nations such as in the Newly Independent
States, Save the Children's microfinance activities are a
lifeline to displaced women who are their children's primary
caregivers and providers. For those with tiny businesses,
the lack of collateral and therefore access to credit
are barriers seldom breached without our help. Their
special needs and the ground-up development of a
lending institution demand our expertise. In Azerbaijan,
Armenia, and Georgia, Save the Children-founded
programs serve over 14,700 clients and have a loan portfolio
of over $1.1 million.
This niche is also evident in northern Afghanistan
and inside Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Our lending
activities involve some 2,000 women whose daughters
and sons have never known peace and stability
.
I
Georgia's Displaced
Mothers Look to Loans
From Constanta
H
ow far can $175 go? Nino Gagnidze, a 30-year-old
displaced mother in the Republic of Georgia, will tell
you. With two loans of $
75
and and $100 from
Constanta, a microfinance institution founded by Save
the Children, Nino has expanded her small blanket-
making business, created jobs for three more workers, and is
investing the profits in her daughter's education, food for the
family, and the business. She is also planning to do even more.
of bulk discounts on
materials and products,
which they re-sell at a profit.
Constanta charges sufficient
interest to ensure that its
operational costs are covered
so it can become truly
sustainable.
A recent survey of 800
Constanta clients found that
investing in their children's
education, reinvesting
in their businesses, and
purchasing medicine and
household needs were the
most frequent uses of their
profits. The on-time loan
repayment rate is consistently
above 98 percent, and many
women have received several
loans. Save the Children
continues to train Constanta's
staff and board of directors
to oversee the program.
Nino's dreams are to start
other small blanket-making
activities in Georgia and save
enough money for her daugh-
ter to continue her education
at the university level.
I
overcome the harsh realities
of too little income, too
few opportunities, and too
much uncertainty following
their country's break from
the Soviet Union and
years of turmoil, inflation,
and the uprooting of some
200,000 people.
The result was the found-
ing of the country's first
microfinance institution,
Constanta. Today, Constanta
is the third-largest institution
of its kind in Eastern Europe.
The result of this extraordi-
nary accomplishment is
evident in the cities of Batumi
and Tblisi, where 9,500 poor
women are receiving loans
that enable them to increase
their income and improve
conditions for some 19,000
of their children.
Constanta is a break-
through for these women,
whose entrepreneurial activities
are the sole income for
their families. They typically
use loans to take advantage
In 1997, Save the Children
took a bold step to help
children in the Newly
Independent States survive.
We reached out to Nino and
other displaced mothers
in the Republic of Georgia
who had been unable to
BILL FOLEY
4/ Save the Children Insights
I N
JORDAN
,
K H A D D I J I H U S S E I N R A I S E S G O AT S
WITH HELP FROM A SAVE THE CHILDREN MICROFINANCE PROGRAM.
Page 4
Mark Eldon-Edington has been
Director of Economic Opportunities
since 1997. He also has served as Field
Officer Director of our programs in
Afghanistan, Pakistan, and Jordan, and
was our Area Director for the Middle
East. He holds an honors degree from
Westfield College, University of London.
Q: Why are so many poor women in developing
nations denied access to credit?
A: They face laws, policies, traditions,
and a lack of lending institutions will-
ing to lend without collateral or a
guarantee from a male relative. Where
women have access to moneylenders,
they are frequently charged interest
rates of 200 percent or more.
Q: How does Save the Children help?
A:We give poor women access to the
credit and financial services they need
to increase their incomes by bringing
together groups of women who
guarantee each other's loans and by
organizing a sustainable local
microfinance institution. This Group
Guaranteed Lending and Savings
(
GGLS
) strategy is the most widely
recognized of our poverty
alleviation work. We also have offered
non-financial assistance such as mar-
keting and networking to poor women
already working in one industry. In
the Philippines, we've helped organize
women in the ragmaking industry
and have worked with poor women in
rural Haiti who dry and sell fruit.
"As a member of the global staff,
I visited more than half of Save the
Children's programs. I often found that
my previous training as a Chartered
Accountant and Management
Consultant greatly influenced my reac-
tions to what I saw. I was always left
with the impression that while health
and education programs are critical
to the well being of children and their
families, the benefits of our work
could be enriched for the long term
if we were able to add a sustainable
economic development component.
In this way, families would have
the resources to continue to practice
healthy behaviors and purchase
medicine when required. They would
also be in a better position to meet
the costs of sending their children
to school. I wanted to put my finance
expertise to work to help underpin
the other work that Save the Children
was doing, and to help poor families
have a long-term, sustainable income.
"While I was Middle East Area Director,
we started Save the Children's first
sustainable microfinance programs to
address a gaping hole in poor women's
ability to provide for their children-
they did not have the right to credit.
Our Jordanian partner, Microfund for
Women, is now the country's leading
institution of its kind, serving 5,100
women. As with every program we've
started, we have every expectation it
will be serving poor women for
decades to come."
Q: How do your programs differ from others?
A:We focus on the financial needs of
poor women microentrepreneurs first
and foremost. We are widely recog-
nized for singular expertise in microfi-
nance for women in the Middle East
and in difficult situations. And, as an
organization that addresses the needs
of the whole child, Save the Children
also can implement other vital health
and education programs reaching
these same women and children.
Q: How do you know that poor women will use
extra income to improve their children's lives?
A: Independent studies of our programs
and others have documented that
women spend this money on their
children's basic needs of food,
clothing, medicine, and schooling.
Evidence shows that increasing
a woman's income has direct and
positive benefits for her children.
Q: What is Save the Children's strategic vision?
A: We want to reduce significantly the
number of women supporting their
families on $1 a day or less. We plan
to expand where we are already placed,
apply our model of Middle East lead-
ership to work in more countries in
poorer regions such as Africa and Asia,
and introduce our expertise into
more post-conflict situations and into
our programs for communities
affected by
HIV/AIDS
. Our five-year
goal is to provide 400,000 women
with access to financial services
and improve the economic security of
some 1.6 million children.
I
M E E T T H E E X P E R T S
M
ark Eldon-Edington
D I R E C T O R O F E C O N O M I C O P P O R T U N I T I E S
2/ Save the Children Insights
Each issue of
Insights
will profile one of Save the Children's expert staff.
Ensuring that women throughout the developing world have the tools they
need to increase their incomes and improve their children's lives is the cornerstone
of Save the Children's economic opportunities strategy. By organizing small
groups of poor women who have the desire to see their children healthy, nourished, and educated, accepting
the group's repayment guarantee as collateral for small loans, and founding a sustainable microfinance
lending institution, we empower more poor women to do for their children what every mother dreams of.
Investing in these mothers pays off at every level:
(continued from page 1)
Save the Children ensures
that its local partners will have the financial, management,
and marketing skills to sustain lending services for
poor women over the long term.
In the Middle East, microfinance and Save the
Children are synonymous, particularly in Egypt,
Jordan, Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip,
whose fragile economies must weather the pressures
of unrest, unemployment, poverty, national debt, and
unequal distribution of wealth. Local institutions we
have founded serve more than 15,000 poor women
and have a loan portfolio exceeding $3.2 million. Our
Empowering
Women for Positive Change
I
They gain the power and confidence to take a
more active role in family decisions, including how
income is spent and their children's education.
Families in microcredit programs have been found to
spend 20 percent more on children's education
and enroll more children in school than other families.
I
Studies of Save the Children-founded programs
showed women also using their profits for food,
health care, and clothing for families. They can re-invest
profits back into their businesses, rather than paying
back usurious moneylenders.
I
Women who expand their businesses bring
more goods and services into the community and
contribute to local economic growth.
I
Women hire other women and men to help run
their businesses, giving others an opportunity to
increase incomes, too. This creates a tremendous ripple
effect and can impact even more children's lives.
I
Women earn greater trust from husbands and other
men and have greater status in the community.
As women grow their tiny enterprises, Save the
Children strengthens its local partner institutions
through training in group lending, accounting,
financial analysis, information systems, business plan-
ning, management, governance, and marketing.
Independence and sustainability within five to seven
years are the goals for our partners-goals we are well
on the way to meeting in Armenia, Georgia, Jordan,
Lebanon, and the West Bank and Gaza Strip.
I
EVERY MOTHER, EVERY CHILD
Involvement in our
economic opportunities
program in the Nasirnaga
sub-district of Bangladesh
has helped Samola Begum
improve conditions for her
family, including son Dulal.
The family also has re-
ceived seeds and medicine
from Save the Children.
MICHAEL BISCEGLIE
3/ Save the Children Insights
experience and ability to train local staff to sustain their
institution give us a tremendous advantage in reaching
women who do not otherwise have access to credit.
Our leadership in the region is widely recognized: In
Morocco, Save the Children was the United Nations
Development Program's first Microstart technical service
provider. Under the program, the number of microfinance
clients in participating institutions in Morocco increased
from some 2,000 to 27,000 in just three years.
In transitional nations such as in the Newly Independent
States, Save the Children's microfinance activities are a
lifeline to displaced women who are their children's primary
caregivers and providers. For those with tiny businesses,
the lack of collateral and therefore access to credit
are barriers seldom breached without our help. Their
special needs and the ground-up development of a
lending institution demand our expertise. In Azerbaijan,
Armenia, and Georgia, Save the Children-founded
programs serve over 14,700 clients and have a loan portfolio
of over $1.1 million.
This niche is also evident in northern Afghanistan
and inside Afghan refugee camps in Pakistan. Our lending
activities involve some 2,000 women whose daughters
and sons have never known peace and stability
.
I
Georgia's Displaced
Mothers Look to Loans
From Constanta
H
ow far can $175 go? Nino Gagnidze, a 30-year-old
displaced mother in the Republic of Georgia, will tell
you. With two loans of $
75
and and $100 from
Constanta, a microfinance institution founded by Save
the Children, Nino has expanded her small blanket-
making business, created jobs for three more workers, and is
investing the profits in her daughter's education, food for the
family, and the business. She is also planning to do even more.
of bulk discounts on
materials and products,
which they re-sell at a profit.
Constanta charges sufficient
interest to ensure that its
operational costs are covered
so it can become truly
sustainable.
A recent survey of 800
Constanta clients found that
investing in their children's
education, reinvesting
in their businesses, and
purchasing medicine and
household needs were the
most frequent uses of their
profits. The on-time loan
repayment rate is consistently
above 98 percent, and many
women have received several
loans. Save the Children
continues to train Constanta's
staff and board of directors
to oversee the program.
Nino's dreams are to start
other small blanket-making
activities in Georgia and save
enough money for her daugh-
ter to continue her education
at the university level.
I
overcome the harsh realities
of too little income, too
few opportunities, and too
much uncertainty following
their country's break from
the Soviet Union and
years of turmoil, inflation,
and the uprooting of some
200,000 people.
The result was the found-
ing of the country's first
microfinance institution,
Constanta. Today, Constanta
is the third-largest institution
of its kind in Eastern Europe.
The result of this extraordi-
nary accomplishment is
evident in the cities of Batumi
and Tblisi, where 9,500 poor
women are receiving loans
that enable them to increase
their income and improve
conditions for some 19,000
of their children.
Constanta is a break-
through for these women,
whose entrepreneurial activities
are the sole income for
their families. They typically
use loans to take advantage
In 1997, Save the Children
took a bold step to help
children in the Newly
Independent States survive.
We reached out to Nino and
other displaced mothers
in the Republic of Georgia
who had been unable to
BILL FOLEY
4/ Save the Children Insights
I N
JORDAN
,
K H A D D I J I H U S S E I N R A I S E S G O AT S
WITH HELP FROM A SAVE THE CHILDREN MICROFINANCE PROGRAM.
Page 5
SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION, INC.
54 Wilton Road,
P.O.
Box 980, Westport,
CT
06881
1-800-
SAVETHECHILDREN
www.savethechildren.org
Save the Children is an international nonprofit child-assistance
organization working in nearly 50 countries worldwide,
including the United States. Our mission is to make lasting,
positive change in the lives of children in need. Save the
Children is a member of the International Save the Children
Alliance, a partnership of 30 individual country members
working in more than 100 countries to ensure the well-being
and protect the rights of children.
D
evaki Thapa of Routbesi, Nepal, may
only be 19, but her life has already
been dramatically improved by Save the
Children's work in education and
economic opportunities. Her mother's
death forced Devaki to end her schooling
and care for her younger brother. After completing
one of our nonformal education programs for women,
she joined a women's group and received a loan for
a goat from Nirdhan, a financial services institution
for which we provide training and support. Devaki
raised the goat and sold it at a profit, which she
used to pay back the loan and pay for her brother's
schooling. She also had money to resume her formal
education. She ultimately became the first young
woman from her community to pass Nepal's prestigious
School Leaving Certificate exam-an amazing
accomplishment. She is now working with a women's
cooperative and advocating for women's rights.
Supporting the onsite technical capacity building
Save the Children delivers to all its microfinance
partners is just one way that generous gifts of any
size underpin our global economic opportunities
work. Gifts are pooled with other public and private
resources to support every facet of this work, giving
us the ability to train and retain professional staff,
provide vital program support, work with our part-
ners, sustain and strengthen current programs
as well as develop and deliver new ones, and provide
seed capital for new projects.
Gifts of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, or more work
hard, exponentially increasing our ability to empower
women and improve children's lives.
I
Gifts That Work
for Women
and Children
Gifts to Save the Children
have made it possible for
Houriub Achmed (above)
to sell more used clothes
in Jordan and Jacinta
Jaime Jossias (right) to
sell more vegetables at
her stall in Mozambique.
Both mothers participate
in microfinance groups.
Throughout the developing
world, mothers such as Ameh
Ismail Hasam (left) can do
more for their children when
Save the Children empowers
them with programs to help
themselves.
BILL FOLEY
B I L L F O L E Y
M I C H A E L B I S C E G L I E
EDITOR: JOHN KAZZI
DESIGN: CYNTHIA GLACKEN ASSOCIA
TES, INC. 67453-M
6/ Save the Children Insights
®
This global program
has been an
indisputable success
for poor women
and children.
I
Small groups of women microentrepreneurs come together with Save the Children's helping
hand and agree to guarantee each other's loans. Groups usually range in size from 6 to 30.
I
Each group elects its own management committees, which draft bylaws, maintain
the accounting books, manage the funds, and supervise the use of women's loans.
I
Each woman receives a small loan, usually $30 to $250, to maintain or expand her
existing income-generating activity. The repayment period can be three to six months,
during which women in the group benefit from each other's personal support and advice.
I
When all members of the group successfully complete a loan cycle, they become
eligible for another, larger loan,
effectively opening up a long-term line of credit and a sustainable
income that benefits women and their children.
I
Save the Children partners with local organizations to develop their institutional and
technical capacity to provide credit and savings services.
SAVE THE CHILDREN'S
Economic
Opportunities
Program
The Making
of a
Microfinance
Program
GROWTH AND SUCCESS FOR SOME OF THE WORLD'S POOREST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Performance Indicator
1997
1998
1999
2000
Number of active clients
19,000
55,800
76,400
90,000
Number of children benefiting
76,000
223,000
305,000
360,000
Private program budget
$233,868
$338,700
$268,000
$278,000
Total program budget
$6,500,000
$7,600,000
$8,400,000
$8,400,000
Private cost to reach one child
$3.00
$1.50
$0.88
$0.77
R A N A M O G H N E I H O F E A S T T Y R E ,
LEBANON,
D I S P L AY S H E R S AV E T H E C H I L D R E N L O A N .
I
Four years ago, we served 19,000 women and 76,000 children. Today,
106,000 women and 424,000 of their children are benefiting.
I
Clients have a loan repayment rate in excess of 98 percent, ensuring that
loan capital funds continue to revolve.
I
Less than $400,000 annually from individuals and other private donors is
needed for our economic opportunities work-an investment that helps
to leverage an average of $5 million in annual public grants and helps drive
a loan portfolio of over $14 million.
B I L L F O L E Y
5/ Save the Children Insights
Helping Every Mother
and Every Child
Through Sustainable
Microfinance
The improved health and well-being
of Awa's children, and so many
more of the developing world's
children, are inextricably linked to
improvements in their mothers'
health, education, and income. In
Kolondieba, Mali, and in 15 other
developing nations, Save the
Children's economic opportunities
programs are a catalyst for dramatic
change because they give Awa and
some 106,000 other poor women
microentrepreneurs access to credit
and financial services to break the
intergenerational cycle of poverty.
A
wa Koné, 35, of Mali, needed credit to expand her trading
activity in the Kolondieba market and earn the income to
help her better meet her children's basic needs. An economic
opportunities program from Save the Children was the answer.
Awa joined a women's group we organized and began receiving
small loans guaranteed by the group. She is now repaying her 10th loan and has
used earnings to help her two daughters and three sons survive and attend school-
a remarkable achievement in a nation with one of the world's worst child mortality
rates and where fewer than half of children go to school. Her oldest children are now
involved in income-generating activities of their own. "My condition in life has
improved. I am able to make a greater profit and take better care of my family."
On Economic
Opportunities
A Speci
al Report
for Partners
for Children and
Champ
ions
I N
HAITI,
Marie Therese Thebaun has participated
in economic opportunities programs
supported by Save the Children, giving her
the extra income she needs to help keep
her daughter, Shelove Bechina, in school.
Spring/Summer 2001
Insights
The loans that these women receive
from local microfinance institutions
Save the Children organizes and
supports-generally between $30
and $250-become a large part of
their lives. They buy livestock and
poultry, plant crops to sell, prepare
and sell food and handicrafts, and
engage in trade. These activities
do more than increase incomes: they
empower women to better their
children's lives, give them a voice in
family decisions, and increase local
access to goods and services. At
the same time,
(continues on page 3)
REBECCA JANES
®
Page 6
SAVE THE CHILDREN FEDERATION, INC.
54 Wilton Road,
P.O.
Box 980, Westport,
CT
06881
1-800-
SAVETHECHILDREN
www.savethechildren.org
Save the Children is an international nonprofit child-assistance
organization working in nearly 50 countries worldwide,
including the United States. Our mission is to make lasting,
positive change in the lives of children in need. Save the
Children is a member of the International Save the Children
Alliance, a partnership of 30 individual country members
working in more than 100 countries to ensure the well-being
and protect the rights of children.
D
evaki Thapa of Routbesi, Nepal, may
only be 19, but her life has already
been dramatically improved by Save the
Children's work in education and
economic opportunities. Her mother's
death forced Devaki to end her schooling
and care for her younger brother. After completing
one of our nonformal education programs for women,
she joined a women's group and received a loan for
a goat from Nirdhan, a financial services institution
for which we provide training and support. Devaki
raised the goat and sold it at a profit, which she
used to pay back the loan and pay for her brother's
schooling. She also had money to resume her formal
education. She ultimately became the first young
woman from her community to pass Nepal's prestigious
School Leaving Certificate exam-an amazing
accomplishment. She is now working with a women's
cooperative and advocating for women's rights.
Supporting the onsite technical capacity building
Save the Children delivers to all its microfinance
partners is just one way that generous gifts of any
size underpin our global economic opportunities
work. Gifts are pooled with other public and private
resources to support every facet of this work, giving
us the ability to train and retain professional staff,
provide vital program support, work with our part-
ners, sustain and strengthen current programs
as well as develop and deliver new ones, and provide
seed capital for new projects.
Gifts of $5,000, $10,000, $25,000, or more work
hard, exponentially increasing our ability to empower
women and improve children's lives.
I
Gifts That Work
for Women
and Children
Gifts to Save the Children
have made it possible for
Houriub Achmed (above)
to sell more used clothes
in Jordan and Jacinta
Jaime Jossias (right) to
sell more vegetables at
her stall in Mozambique.
Both mothers participate
in microfinance groups.
Throughout the developing
world, mothers such as Ameh
Ismail Hasam (left) can do
more for their children when
Save the Children empowers
them with programs to help
themselves.
BILL FOLEY
B I L L F O L E Y
M I C H A E L B I S C E G L I E
EDITOR: JOHN KAZZI
DESIGN: CYNTHIA GLACKEN ASSOCIA
TES, INC. 67453-M
6/ Save the Children Insights
®
This global program
has been an
indisputable success
for poor women
and children.
I
Small groups of women microentrepreneurs come together with Save the Children's helping
hand and agree to guarantee each other's loans. Groups usually range in size from 6 to 30.
I
Each group elects its own management committees, which draft bylaws, maintain
the accounting books, manage the funds, and supervise the use of women's loans.
I
Each woman receives a small loan, usually $30 to $250, to maintain or expand her
existing income-generating activity. The repayment period can be three to six months,
during which women in the group benefit from each other's personal support and advice.
I
When all members of the group successfully complete a loan cycle, they become
eligible for another, larger loan,
effectively opening up a long-term line of credit and a sustainable
income that benefits women and their children.
I
Save the Children partners with local organizations to develop their institutional and
technical capacity to provide credit and savings services.
SAVE THE CHILDREN'S
Economic
Opportunities
Program
The Making
of a
Microfinance
Program
GROWTH AND SUCCESS FOR SOME OF THE WORLD'S POOREST WOMEN AND CHILDREN
Performance Indicator
1997
1998
1999
2000
Number of active clients
19,000
55,800
76,400
90,000
Number of children benefiting
76,000
223,000
305,000
360,000
Private program budget
$233,868
$338,700
$268,000
$278,000
Total program budget
$6,500,000
$7,600,000
$8,400,000
$8,400,000
Private cost to reach one child
$3.00
$1.50
$0.88
$0.77
R A N A M O G H N E I H O F E A S T T Y R E ,
LEBANON,
D I S P L AY S H E R S AV E T H E C H I L D R E N L O A N .
I
Four years ago, we served 19,000 women and 76,000 children. Today,
106,000 women and 424,000 of their children are benefiting.
I
Clients have a loan repayment rate in excess of 98 percent, ensuring that
loan capital funds continue to revolve.
I
Less than $400,000 annually from individuals and other private donors is
needed for our economic opportunities work-an investment that helps
to leverage an average of $5 million in annual public grants and helps drive
a loan portfolio of over $14 million.
B I L L F O L E Y
5/ Save the Children Insights
Helping Every Mother
and Every Child
Through Sustainable
Microfinance
The improved health and well-being
of Awa's children, and so many
more of the developing world's
children, are inextricably linked to
improvements in their mothers'
health, education, and income. In
Kolondieba, Mali, and in 15 other
developing nations, Save the
Children's economic opportunities
programs are a catalyst for dramatic
change because they give Awa and
some 106,000 other poor women
microentrepreneurs access to credit
and financial services to break the
intergenerational cycle of poverty.
A
wa Koné, 35, of Mali, needed credit to expand her trading
activity in the Kolondieba market and earn the income to
help her better meet her children's basic needs. An economic
opportunities program from Save the Children was the answer.
Awa joined a women's group we organized and began receiving
small loans guaranteed by the group. She is now repaying her 10th loan and has
used earnings to help her two daughters and three sons survive and attend school-
a remarkable achievement in a nation with one of the world's worst child mortality
rates and where fewer than half of children go to school. Her oldest children are now
involved in income-generating activities of their own. "My condition in life has
improved. I am able to make a greater profit and take better care of my family."
On Economic
Opportunities
A Speci
al Report
for Partners
for Children and
Champ
ions
I N
HAITI,
Marie Therese Thebaun has participated
in economic opportunities programs
supported by Save the Children, giving her
the extra income she needs to help keep
her daughter, Shelove Bechina, in school.
Spring/Summer 2001
Insights
The loans that these women receive
from local microfinance institutions
Save the Children organizes and
supports-generally between $30
and $250-become a large part of
their lives. They buy livestock and
poultry, plant crops to sell, prepare
and sell food and handicrafts, and
engage in trade. These activities
do more than increase incomes: they
empower women to better their
children's lives, give them a voice in
family decisions, and increase local
access to goods and services. At
the same time,
(continues on page 3)
REBECCA JANES
®