Small loans give villagers a big leg-up

Mon, Nov 02, 2009
By Kimberly Spykerman
The Straits Times

CAMBODIAN villager Reun Rim was selling noodles on the street and earning 75 cents a day, until she heard she could get a loan of US$100 (S$139) to start a farm.

The money is a loan from VisionFund, a World Vision initiative which offers the poor in developing countries a leg-up, not a handout.

With the sum of money, the 29-year-old and her husband began rearing pigs in Samrith village, located 30km from the provincial town of Kampong Thom, north-east of Phnom Penh.

Within a month, they were making between US$2.50 and US$5 a day, which covers their loan repayments, food for the family and, most importantly, their two children's school fees.

'Now they can go to school, and I'm determined to encourage them to complete their education,' she said.

VisionFund aims to help many more like Reun Rim become self-sufficient.

It extends loans to those who lack the collateral and credit history needed to borrow from big banks, finding great success among villagers who want to start their own businesses.

It boasts a repayment rate of 98.2 per cent in Cambodia - an almost flawless track record - where monthly interest rates range from 1.6 per cent to 3.5 per cent, about a third of the 5 per cent to 10 per cent that local moneylenders charge.

Since its launch in 1993, it has helped more than 600,000 people in Africa, Latin America, the Middle East and Asia.

The fund's parent organisation, World Vision, is a Christian humanitarian body which tackles problems of poverty in 98 countries. It charges interest on VisionFund microloans - to teach villagers to become financially independent, under the usual competitive market conditions.

World Vision in Singapore joined in last year, taking villages in Cambodia, Mongolia and Sri Lanka under its wing.

In rural Cambodia alone, about 800,000 families have benefited from VisionFund loans. Nearly seven in 10 borrowers in the 47 participating countries are women.

It works like this: VisionFund sets up community banks in rural villages. Each bank needs about $9,000 to support the villagers, money that comes from donors.

Then, its loan officers teach residents about cash flow and credit discipline - by using colourful flip charts - and subsequently disburse money to successful applicants, usually between 20 and 60 villagers with potentially good business plans.

Loans range from US$20 to US$120, with most people borrowing about US$90. They continue to receive regular training and mentoring sessions from loan officers after getting the money.

In time, they can move on to borrowing bigger sums to grow their businesses - up to US$5,000.

To encourage prompt repayment, VisionFund's community banks get neighbours to act as mutual guarantors.

Doing so, explained World Vision Singapore executive director James Quek, makes the loan a community responsibility with a higher chance of repayment: 'Because of the cohesiveness of the community, they don't want to burden their neighbours.'

Public relations and branding adviser Christine Kwee, with her church friends, recently donated almost $10,000 to start another community bank in rural Cambodia. She said: 'I didn't know $2.50 was enough to feed a family for a day. I guess it's about teaching someone to fish. It's really worth supporting.'