Village Bank sponsorship - FINCA International

Village Bank sponsorship

Sponsoring a Village Bank is one of the most powerful contributions you can make toward alleviating poverty. While new Village Bank groups are started across the network every day, some countries are more in need of donor support than others. That's why we launched the Village Bank Sponsorship Program - so donors who want to support a Village Banking group can choose from four country programs most in need of loan capital, and direct their contributions there.

Once you've selected a program to support, you’ll receive an informational packet which includes the location and name of the village bank created through your generosity, a group photo of the clients that your donation is helping and a list of the businesses created with the amount of each borrowers’ loan, and a profile of one Village Banker from your sponsored group. One year later, FINCA will follow up with a report to you about the progress of the country program.

With a $5,000 contribution, individuals, families, businesses, church groups and communities can support a Village Bank, providing access to small business loans for as many as 30 families in a community in need. All across the world, Village Banks provide families with a hand up, not a hand out, allowing them to start, or expand, their own businesses, resulting in the creation of a sustainable means of income that can be used to better educate, feed and clothe their families, while creating jobs in their communities that foster stability and economic development.

Use FINCA's Friends Asking Friends program to sponsor a Village Bank on-line, track your progress, and support families in need. Friends Asking Friends makes it easy for individuals, families and communities to build their own anti-poverty campaigns.

This year, four programs have been designated to be most in need of loan capital. We encourage you to sponsor a Village Bank in one of the following countries:

Haiti: Considered the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, FINCA has remained a constant presence since 1989. Village Banks have been providing small loans to thousands of desperately poor women and their children for nearly two decades, providing not only hope, but opportunity.

Jordan: This small Arab country is plagued by rampant unemployment and poverty, states exacerbated by a quickly swelling population-more than 1.8 million Palestinian refugees, as well as tens of thousands of Iraqis who have fled their war-torn country, live in Jordan-and lack of key natural resources such as water and oil. FINCA's small loans provide opportunities for this hard-working population to provide the basics for their families.

In Zambia, one of the poorest and least developed countries on earth, where the life expectancy is less than 39 years, 15 percent of the population is infected with HIV/AIDS, and the infant mortality rate is over 10 percent, FINCA's Village Banks provide life-changing loans and hope for a better future to thousands of clients and their families. In 2008, these clients accessed an average of $279 in working capital in a country where 65 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line.

Tajikistan: Ranked the poorest of the former Soviet republics with 60 percent of Tajikistan's population living in abject poverty and a full 50 percent of the population unemployed, Village Banks are providing the only avenue for many Tajiks to support their families.

*Please contact Leigh Bryant or call her at (202) 682.1510 for more information on Village Bank Sponsorship.