http://viewchange.org Videos from ViewChange.org (Filtered by topics: Microfinance) en-us Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:41:00 +0000 Copyright 2011 Link Media, Inc. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-entrepreneurs Florence, Esnart, Ng'andwe and Precious all come from backgrounds of extreme poverty in rural Zambia. They've embarked on five months of intensive training in leadership and enterprise. With courage and determination, these young women defy the odds and establish their own successful businesses, proving that anything is possible. Fri, 12 Aug 2011 09:41:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-entrepreneurs Zambia, Social entrepreneurship, Gender, Sub-Saharan Africa, Microfinance, Education, Social change, 10,000 Women, Mpika, Entrepreneurship >> TITLE: Camfed presents: A See Change Films Production, in collaboration with Goldman Sachs, 10,000 Women Initiative, and The University of Cambridge.>> TITLE: 150 young women from rural Zambia, from backgrounds of extreme rural poverty, are coming together to undertake an intensive training course. Over the next five months they will be taught leadership skills, social entrepreneurship, and how to become successful businesswomen. >> SIGN: Lubwe High School Educaiton Board>> TITLE: The Entrepreneurs>> BENJAMIN CHAMA [Camfed Zambia]: Lubwe is a rural community with no source of employment except for the fishing and maybe peasant farming. So I think that there isn't any money to go around. We would like to empower rural people through education, because I believe with all my heart that it is only through the giving of education that we can change the poverty cycle in our country.>> BARBARA CHILANGWA [Camfed Zambia]: Welcome all of you again, I know I welcomed you yesterday but I would also like to welcome you in a special way this morning because this now marks the beginning of this very precious course to all of us, because it is the first of its kind in Zambia. >> WOMAN 1: As you've heard already, they've introduced the Camfed program and our learning objective is to empower the young rural girls just like yourselves so that you don't have to struggle. Everyone, you are expected to write one expectation that you hope to achieve at the end of the three weeks. I want to learn how to start a business and to be a leader of different people. >> WOMAN 2: With the expectations you've given me I can predict you are ready to learn, isn't it? >> CATHERINE BOYCE [Course Leader]: The overarching theme of the course is leadership. People have to believe in themselves and their ability to affect change, to have the skills, to have the confidence, to have the vision to look around them and see opportunities where previously they had seen none. >> WOMAN 3: When choosing a leader, we have to see that this person has the qualities of a leader in them. >> WOMAN 4: Am I going to be a director? That is a leader who has a vision ahead of them. >> WOMAN 5: A leader must be honest, a leader must be with good behavior, and communicate. That's all. >> WOMAN 4: Why did you draw a picture of a man instead of a picture of a woman? Because we have taught you that we are leaders, I am also a leader, you are also leaders.>> BARBARA CHILANGWA: These young women will draw men as leaders because that is what they have known all their lives. At the family level, it is the father who is the leader. At school, it's mostly male teachers that are leaders and head teachers. So what this course will do is that it will break that perception. The communities will see for themselves that women can do the job and can do it well. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI [Trainer]: Good morning ladies. >> WOMEN: Good morning. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: How are you? >> WOMEN: Fine. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: So, today we are going to talk about our rivers of life. Each one of you should be able to write your rivers of life, should indicate on your river of life the worst things that have happened in your lives, and also the good things that happened in your life. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: In one of the sessions that we had with the young women, we were talking about the river of life so that people can come out of their situations. They can be very free to express themselves and also to share with others what they are going through. >> WOMAN 1: My life was going very good and fantastic. My father was working, my mother was not working. In 1996, my father died and my river started going down. >> WOMAN 2: And he has no money to pay for my school fees and buy my school uniform and he was telling me, "It's better you get married than to go to grade 8, me I don't have money." >> WOMAN 3: And I passed but I couldn't manage to go to grade 8 because my parents, they only cultivate. >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: The women in our program, the 150 of them, come from very difficult backgrounds. Most of them, I can say almost 80 percent of these girls will have lost either one parent or both parents.>> FLORENCE [Student]: My name is Florence and this is the river of my life. I was born in 1990. And in 1997 my dad passed away. He died. In 1998, I started staying with my mom. We only survived by using the money that dad left. And in 2001, my mom died also.>> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: They think that when they are coming from poor families, that's the end of their lives. So my role here is just to empower girls to be able to believe in themselves and also to feel like they can do something about it. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: Then my river started going down in 2001. That's when my father passed away. And when he died -->> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: When my dad died life was so difficult for us because my mother couldn't support us. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: I'll always remember this year, when my river went down and the water was even too cold for me. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: When I was working with Camfed, I was able to go back to school again because education is the only key to success. My dream was to bring back the life we used to enjoy with my father. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: And then I managed to build by mother a very big house that she's so proud of. And I'm also happy. I managed to build my mother that house when I was 22 years old. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: Now I know that there are a lot of challenges that the young women are facing, that the rural people are facing, so I want to become a Member of Parliament one day, and I know I'm going to become one. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: You can also do it. Despite where you are coming from, the sky is not the limit. If you just believe in yourself that you can do it, you can do it. If you've got that zeal and the self-determination to believe in yourself, and you know that one day you are going to achieve whatever your dreams will be, you are going to excel, and you are going to achieve that, okay?>> WINNIE FARAO [Social Entrepreneur]: The poverty that was haunting our families would just not allow us to go to school. We were not supposed to be educated and we were not supposed to look at ourselves as leaders, but as subordinate. The fact that we were not supposed to get any opportunities to go to school, but we got it, then we have to use it and use it to the maximum. >> WINNIE FARAO: As a social entrepreneur, this is what I think I can go and do in my community. This is how I think I can go and make an impact. >> WOMAN: For me, what I can do as a leader, I should first join the group like Cama (Camfed alumni group) and then support those people who are in need. >> WINNIE FARAO: I feel that it is very, very important for the young women to understand social entrepreneurship and to understand business entrepreneurship, because the world that we are living in today, the young women and the communities that they come from, they are the best persons to deal with the challenges that they are facing everyday. For a long time, communities were not able to deal with their own challenges because there were no energetic young people to lead that process. >> TITLE: To help students find solutions to challenges in the community, a group of international social entrepreneurs are assisting on a number of issues. One of these issues is overfishing. >> ANNA OURSLER [Global Footprint Network]: The numbers of fish in the lake are reducing because so many people are taking them. We are going to learn how to be a scientist, and really look through our own eyes at what is happening in the waters and with the fish at Lake Bangweulu. We're going to take three data points and measure all of these things because we are doing a study to see if we can put a fish cage, an aquaculture fish cage, in the middle of the lake where we can grow and harvest fish. They've gone through about ten different scientific experiments to measure the qualities of water, which is something that all of them learned and can now do perfectly. The results will actually be submitted to the government, to the Ministry of Natural Resources, as part of an environmental assessment. So I think in their confidence there has been a real change, but also their skills, their technical skills about how to be a scientist, how to take scientific measurements. >> PRECIOUS [Student]: I'm Precious. We used to live in Kitwe. In 2001, mom died, then after a few years dad also died. Then we started living with dad's older brother. After living there for about a year, he started treating us badly. We couldn't touch our books, we weren't allowed to. Instead we were told to start doing housework. We had to do all the housework while his children were in the bedroom reading. So that was a very big problem. I found that that problem just got bigger, so that's how we came here to live with grandma, dad's mom. My grandma is very old. Sometimes she is not able to work for very long. She can't go to the field and work for a long time. But we help her cultivate, when we go to the field we cultivate. Apparently, someone explained my problem to my headmaster. That's when I came under Camfed's support. After this, the teacher who was our mentor told me, "Precious, you should remain behind and attend this course that will teach you about social entrepreneurship." I couldn't believe it. I just started crying because I didn't expect that I could have such luck. >> ALAN JACKSON [Aptivate ICT Trainer]: What we'd like to talk about now is just to find out what experience you all have with IT. >> WOMAN: I don't know anything about computers. >> ALAN JACKSON: So the four of you have never used a computer before?>> ALAN JACKSON: We have to start sort of at the beginning. Here are some computers, here's how you put them together. Here's how they work, here's how you make your network of computers work, here's how you connect to the Internet, here's how you find out if something's wrong. There are a lot of cultural adjustments, a lot of things we take for granted that of course they will have had no experience of. >> PENELOPE [IT Teacher Trainee]: Before the beginning of this course I didn't have any experience with computers. We were just learning about computers, that they exist. But this is the first time I came across a computer, using it on my own. >> ALAN JACKSON: We're working with a small group, a group of four young women who will be running the resource center after this training course. >> PENELOPE: It is connected to the Internet. And that thing that you are seeing there, that's where the position of the satellite is. >> ALAN JACKSON: I think that they're getting the right flavor, or spirit, of IT, that they're going to be able to fix things themselves, they are going to be able to find out things for themselves. They are going to be quite empowered by this technology, and hopefully then empower a community with that same spirit. >> FLORENCE: I'm excited. Before, I never knew how to type anything on the computer, but today I've learned something I think. >> MATILDA [Student, 20 years old]:: You can also sell your goods through the computer. Me, I would love to know how they buy, like when they say, "I bought this through a computer." I would like to know how they buy things through a computer. >> NG'ANDWE [Student, Age 18]: Because my item is sugar, how can someone get their sugar from the computer? When we started learning, I'm telling you, it was interesting. And the studies were very different from what I was thinking so it was very interesting, and I even learned many things: how to be a social entrepreneur, how to help people, even this time I'm a role model in our community. I think I'll be teaching my fellow youths and the young ones and those who are in school. When I was in grade 2, in 1998, my father passed away. The way of living started changing, it was very difficult. When my dad passed away, it was very difficult for us to find books, pens, even the money to pay for our school fees. But my mom was a hardworking mother, so she was fighting for us. When the results come out and if I do well, I'm thinking of studying law. I'm thinking of studying law because a lot of people who have done law are men, so I want to be one of the few women lawyers so that I can fight for people's rights and women's rights. At least in law I will not be the way I am in this time, I think I'll be someone. >> LUNGOWE CHISHINGA [Human Rights Lawyer]: Why am I telling you these technical things? Because I want you to that if you are going to claim your rights, you need to know two things. One: where is that right guaranteed? Walia and Stephen have been married for three years, and they have two sons. So she's a 17-year-old girl who is a child and is a mother of two children. Is this strange? Do we find 17-year-olds in our communities that are mothers? >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: Most Zambian women grow up not knowing that they actually have rights. Most parents, especially when girls become of age at about the age of 15 for example, they already begin to consider them ready for marriage. >> LUNGOWE CHISHINGA: So you tell me, are any of Walia's rights violated? My lawyers, what rights are violated? >> FLORENCE: Choosing, a right of choice. >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: So we believe that ensuring that focus on a program that brings to their attention that they actually have rights about their own sexuality and their lives will change the way, first of all, that they now relate to members of the community, to their husbands, the members of their family, in the sense that they will go out there believing that they have rights and that no one should trample on their rights. >> WOMAN: My question is, for example, I'm a married woman and then my husband is committing adultery. I decide to consult the elders, and then the elders say, "A man's adultery does not ruin the home." Yet it is contributing to the risk of being exposed to many diseases. What step can I take? >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: There are a lot of myths surrounding women having sex, so I thought maybe I should speak about sexuality to the 150 women so they understand that they have the right to make choices about when they should have sex and who they should have sex with. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: Especially for us parents, it's very difficult to talk about sexuality to you at your age. I want to tell you, I come from a very big family. There were 11: five girls in my family and six boys. Today, I don't have any sisters; they are all dead from the HIV/AIDS virus. Only three of my brothers are alive. Perhaps if there had been condoms, they would have used condoms and today I would be seeing them. >> ESNART [Student, 19 years old]: I was just shocked by what he said, it brought a shiver down my spine and I thought like, maybe if there was someone, someone like us today, young leaders who would have talked to those people, maybe if they knew them, it would have been possible for them to be alive this day. I think now that we are not vulnerable because we've got more information about HIV and AIDS, and we know our rights also. I have to tell the other people, letting them know how dangerous this disease is. I was born in 1990, I used to stay with my biological mom and when she died I came to stay with my mom's older sister. She's my mom now. Her husband died when I was still at school. I've got three brothers and four sisters. I love them so much. Such that when I complete I just want them to have a good future. Before my mom died, she took my real father to victim support, but he didn't respond still. He just stays in Mansa there, but he works, yes. But I don't know why he doesn't support me. I don't know why he just doesn't care for me. Sometimes when I'm sitting I just dream that I wish I could have a big house where we could all live together, just give my family the life that they've always wanted. >> WOMAN: How are we going to get the overall risk? We can get the overall risk by multiplying the likelihood of the event by the size of the effect of the event. >> MAN: You are managing your projects, and you need to understand the project lifecycle and the project chart, which is a tool that will help guide you through whether you are progressing in a particular project or not. >> CATHERINE BOYCE: Training in financial management is a key part of the program. Judge Business School at the University of Cambridge is one of our partners for designing and actually delivering this program. The MBAT actually drew on resources, on tools, and on models for learning that are actually used by MBA students all around the world. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: We are all business ladies here, isn't it? And we are fully empowered with the skills and knowledge to be able to run our businesses successfully. We've learnt a lot of things: advertising, we've learnt about marketing, we've learnt about record keeping and everything. So we are fully empowered as young women in Mpika district to be able to deliver and run our successful businesses. Okay, between now and next week we should be able to plan on which business we want to engage ourselves in as we go back to our communities. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: Today we are going to do market research in Mansa district. In my group they have identified to do communication business, which they are very excited about. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: On average, how many cards are you able to sell in a day? >> WOMAN 1: I make 2 million K (USD$400).>> WOMAN 2: You make a lot of profit, oh my goodness!>> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: She's the only woman we have interviewed so far out of 11 men, just one woman. One of the things that she said was that this business was being run by men mostly, so she's very much excited to see the girls actually coming up with this brilliant idea for them to be able to set up their own businesses. So she's actually very much inspired by the girls.>> TITLE: After carrying out market research, all 19 groups found gaps in the market for social and business enterprises. >> NG'ANDWE: This is our business plan. The total cash inflow will be 1,100,000 in month one. >> CATHERINE BOYCE: We're introducing them to the business planning side: how to do a cash flow, how to financially plan expenditure and income over the time period. And they're actually preparing those plans right now and presenting them tomorrow morning in a competition. >> MATILDA: Our mission statement is as follows: to make communication accessible to all -->> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: We're doing very fine. So far the girls are practicing their presentation for tomorrow and they are very, very excited with all the brilliant ideas they've come up with. I think they are going to be winners because they worked very hard for this and they are very excited. We can't wait, we are so excited!>> MATILDA: I know that the competition will be quite tough, but I think at least we will manage to do something, I'm thinking we'll be the first ones. >> FLORENCE: How are you feeling? >> WOMAN 2: I'm feeling a bit nervous because I'll be presenting the market research plan to a lot of people in the plenary. >> FLORENCE: I'm also feeling nervous. The reason why I'm feeling nervous is because there will be judges and there will be a lot of people that side. Tonight we are going to write the mission statement. >> TITLE: Competition Day. If successful, each group will receive funding to start their own business or social enterprise.>> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: Hi ladies! Are you ready for today? I just want to encourage you to feel confidence and believe in yourselves, and just know that you can do it, because all of us have different projects, and I believe your project is the best! So just show them that. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: Okay, thank you very much everybody. This is a very special day. We have got our judges table there, and we are going to start immediately with group 12. >> WOMAN 1: And the name of our communication business is "Beyond Vision Communication" (BVC). >> MATILDA: This is our mission statement. We will be making sure that everyone access communication.>> ESNART: The current situation in Mpika is very worrying in the sense that there is an increase in child abuse, child labor, and street children. Our mission statement will be to provide vulnerable children age two to six years with basic education and good nutrition. >> WOMAN 2: We are going to open a restaurant by the name "Big Sisters." The restaurant will offer nshima, rice, chicken, beef, sausages, vegetables, kapenta, chips and bread with eggs. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: Let's give them a big hand. >> WOMAN 3: Our goal is to raise awareness in young women against sexual exploitation. >> NG'ANDWE: Us, "Future Fighters," have decided to undertake two projects respectively. One group will take hardware as a business project and the other group will take advocacy for persons with disabilities. >> FLORENCE: This is our budget; this is the description, number of days, quantity, unit cost and amount. >> MWANGALA MUKELABAI: What inspired you to go into advocacy? >> WOMAN 5: It's through education that people will know about the dangers of HIV/AIDS. We will be able to eradicate ignorance in Zambia. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: You've all done tremendously well, I think, in the various presentations. So we deserve a pat on the back ourselves, so we shall give ourselves a good hand for what we have done. >> NG'ANDWE: Before I presented I was feeling -- I even started shivering. But when I went to the stage I came up with that courage, I felt something. Then, it went just okay. >> TITLE: All 19 groups were successful in receiving funding to start their new enterprises. The 150 entrepreneurs will now return to their communities for four months. >> FLORENCE: I never imagined that I would be a business entrepreneur in my life at this tender age. When I start having my own money, first of all I'll start helping my family, I'll be buying food for my family, then clothes. I'll be helping other children in the community, I'll be a role model to them and people will be happy about it because maybe other people never used to think that I can do it but now I can.>> TITLE: Four months later. The entrepreneurs are returning to Lubwe for the final stage of their training. >> CATHERINE BOYCE: We weren't quite sure how far the young women would get with their projects, and what we found was that every single project team created a brilliant business plan, they set up a bank account, they managed their funds, and they all achieved impact, which was going to be one of the themes of the course, the impact that they achieved. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: This is a very beautiful morning and a very important day, just like any other day. Now, today we are going to display what we were doing in Phase Two. We are going to set up stalls, all those skills that we learned to persuade. The first half of the team will be going around and will be sticking stars to what they think is the value. >> FLORENCE: As you can see, this is our group name and number on that side. That?s the Kakabalika group 13, and the profit that we made was K200 thousand (USD$40). This is our financial records book. We are planning to continue this project because we've actually made profit. >> ESNART: I think everyone is doing a great job and everyone is putting in effort because it takes a lot of guts for someone to come up with something like this. I'm really impressed with everyone, I think they are all doing great. >> CATHERINE BOYCE: We actually have 19 separate enterprises: we have a preschool for vulnerable children, a loan scheme, we have three different groups communicating about the importance of education to young girls. We have several retail enterprises selling secondhand clothes, selling groceries, and selling mobile phone talk time. Huge diversity of enterprises. >> WOMAN 1: What are some of the impacts?>> WOMAN 2: You are going a long distance to buy talk time. For instance, here we have brought talk time very near, you are buying talk-time within the school. >> WOMAN 3: I think the group is so good and they've got pride and confidence. I think they are making a lot of profit since they are girls selling talk time. >> WOMAN 4: What we wish to achieve, especially in the rural community in Mpika, we want people to have big businesses. We want them to have big businesses, we want their businesses to grow, we don't want people to be staying home, and we want them to take their children to school. >> BENJAMIN CHAMA: I've been going around to look at their projects, and I feel great about the achievement that they've made. I'm simply bowled over. I don't even have words to describe what I have seen, the amazing things that they were able to do: the financial records they were able to keep, and also the products, the impact that it has had on this society I think is indelible. I think it's fantastic. >> TITLE: One month earlier, back in their communities. Mpika Microfinance Scheme. >> PETRONELLA [Managing Director]: Our business is a business where we give loans on low rates so that everyone is able to afford to pay back. We decided to embark on this venture because we saw that most women were really vulnerable in Mpika, they couldn't manage. So we wanted to upgrade their standards of living. Some of them wanted to upgrade their businesses because we saw that some people had the passion for business. At the moment we are supporting eight women. We have eight clients. Each woman had a K200 thousand (USD$40) loan. >> PETRONELLA: Hello, how is work going? >> WOMAN 2: It's all right. >> WOMAN 1: How are you? >> WOMAN 2: I'm fine. >> PETRONELLA: We've come to see how your business is going, what you are doing, how far you've come, and how you've used the money we gave you towards your business? >> WOMAN 2: I feel very good about the loan you gave me. There is a difference in that in the past I didn't have a business, I wasn't selling anything. Now I am selling goods and I am making money. I am able to solve a lot of my problems on my own. >> PETRONELLA: Would you like to receive another loan? If so, how much more would you like to receive? >> WOMAN 2: I would like much more. Make it big; make it K1.5 million (USD$300). >> PETRONELLA: K1.5 million (USD$300)!>> WOMAN 2: Yes. >> WOMAN 1: Will you manage to pay us back quickly, with interest? >> WOMAN 2: I will do so very well! Very quickly! Easily with interest on top!>> PETRONELLA: And if you fail to pay back, what should we do to you? >> WOMAN 2: We will agree on what should be done. >> PETRONELLA: All right. >> WOMAN 2: I wouldn't fail to pay you back. >> PETRONELLA: How do you feel about all this? >> WOMAN 2: I feel joyful. >> WOMAN 1: Thank you. >> WOMAN 2: I thank you too. >> PETRONELLA: Our plan is that we'll get a loan from Microbankers Trust. We are planning to get a loan of maybe K5 million (USD$1,000) so we support fifteen women. And from that I think our business will keep on growing and the profits that we'll be making, we'll be giving to more women. >> WOMAN: I decided to use the loan you gave me together with my profit to buy my own sewing machine. So I bought a sewing machine. Also, that profit is helping me because I'm now able to pay my children's school fees. >> PETRONELLA: I feel very proud and I'm very happy that I'm able to solve big people's problems, women's problems. >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: They have had hands on practice, I think, by designing their projects, which they did. They have tried them out; they went and launched them themselves in the communities, in communities, where, before this program, they were looked down upon. >> PRECIOUS [Company Secretary, BVC]: As of now, I am in a position to take care of my grandmother because of our business we are doing, I'm not even nervous about my future, I'm just looking forward to it so that I can have my own bright future now. >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: They'll be received very well; they'll be accepted back in their communities because they will have proved the point that women are capable of leading programs, they're capable of solving problems, and they're capable of playing a role in the development of their communities. >> TITLE: The Great Ones Preschool>> ESNART: Our social enterprise is opening up a preschool for vulnerable children and our objectives are to teach 30 to 60 children in the first term. And when we teach them we aim at letting them know why basic education is important. >> ESNART: What's a preschool? >> CHILD: A preschool is a place where children are taken to be taught how to read, how to write, and how to count numbers, how to be disciplined. >> CHILDREN: Well done, well done, such a good girl. >> ESNART: It's also very good for a child to go to a preschool because it builds up a foundation. When that child goes to grade 1, that child will be able to count, write numbers, and that child will be very active. It's very interesting to explore a child's mind, just how they develop, how they learn, you just start remembering your childhood and it was very interesting and so inspiring and it made be proud. The children that we've enrolled here mainly are from vulnerable backgrounds, backgrounds where we find that their parents are dead; we find that they don't have all that much to sustain themselves. That's why if this preschool didn't exist these children would just be roaming around. >> WOMAN: Preschools that are here are private, but us here, we provide them with books, pencils, crayons and uniforms. Then they should just pay a certain amount, maybe if that parent can't afford to bring money and then that parent is a farmer or something like that, they can bring anything in terms of crops like maize, millet, cassava, or groundnuts. >> ESNART: And it's not always that all the children pay, it's not everyone who pays, and we don't chase those children away who don't pay. We allow them to learn because we are giving them an opportunity to shape up their future. >> WOMAN: I didn't know I could run a preschool for vulnerable children, helping vulnerable children and maybe in the future I could do more than we are doing to develop my country and maybe develop my community. A lot of people say that, "If you are poor, there is nothing you can do in the future." What I have learned is that even if you are poor, you can do something in your life. At least in the future, you can learn and you can become somebody one day. >> TITLE: Graduation>> BENJAMIN CHAMA: My prayer is that these 150 women will continue with the social enterprise, with the business skills that they have acquired. I know that we cannot just leave them like this. They will need support from all of us because this is a big thing that we have built, we have given them hope and the belief that they are able to do something on their own. >> BARBARA CHILANGWA: Good afternoon leaders. I overheard one of you talking, I don't think they knew that I was listening: "Now that this thing is finishing, what am I going to do?" There is no reason for any of you to despair. Camfed is committed to assisting you to get into that college of your choice.>> BARBARA CHILANGWA: We will support them if they decide to carry on with the projects that they have established, we will support them if they decide to go to college, we will support them in many ways to ensure that they have the independence that we want for all of them. >> ESNART: Yes, I feel that I'm a leader and I'm an entrepreneur. Firstly, I'll start by saying that I'm a leader because I know that leadership is not about leading everybody, like maybe in front, telling them, giving them orders, no. Leadership is about being who you are, being passionate about what you do, and also making others feel important, also knowing that you depend on other people for your success. And leadership is about working hard with others, being committed, and teamwork. I also believe that I'm an entrepreneur because I'm able to start up my own business, I'm able to run it smoothly, know whether I'm succeeding or I'm failing in my business. I think my future really holds so many things for me. I just feel that I will really achieve so many things. >> TITLE: Ng'andwe is working as an assistant IT trainer in the new IT Resource Center in Samfy. Next year she plans to study Social Work. Precious continues to grow Beyond Vision Communications. She uses the money she earns from her business to help support her family. Florence is studying Gender and Development Studies at the Evelyn Hone College of Applied Arts. She is proud to be one of the youngest female Managing Directors in her community. Esnart is now studying to become an accountant at the Zambian Institute of Management, Lusaka. "The Great Ones Preschool" is currently educating 68 vulnerable children. Since graduation, Camfed has supported the entrepreneurs with business mentoring and bursaries for Higher Education. In December, another 150 young women from rural Zambia will embark on the next Leadership and Enterprise course. Camfed International and the University of Cambridge - particularly the Cambridge Assessment Group and Judge Business School - collaborated to design this Leadership and Enterprise Training Program, which is implemented in Zambia by Camfed. The Goldman Sachs Charitable Fund and The Goldman Sachs 10,000 Women Initiative made this program possible through their generous sponsorship. Camfed supports the education of girls and young women's empowerment in Africa. For more information about Camfed please visit www.camfed.org. >> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-challenging-hunger Chronic hunger affects one billion people around the world on a daily basis. How are aid groups, rural farmers, and other innovators working together to feed the planet? Find out in this special from Bread for the World and ViewChange.org. Tue, 09 Aug 2011 13:00:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-challenging-hunger Agriculture & Food, Bread for the World, Mexico, Ethiopia, Bangladesh, Microfinance, Water & Sanitation, Drought, Muhammad Yunus, Grameen Bank >> VOICEOVER: Next up: two migrant farmers get a new chance to grow their own food, to make a living wage, and to return to Mexico and their families. From Ethiopia to Bangladesh, see how aid groups and entrepreneurs are working to put hunger out of business in this special report from Bread for the World and ViewChange.org.>> VOICEOVER: Having enough to eat is a basic human right, one that almost a billion people don?t have. That?s a billion people who go for days and weeks without enough food to feed themselves and their families. In the poorest regions of the world, chronic hunger is a steady drumbeat of life. >> TITLE: Hunger around the world: Asia/Pacific: 578 million, Sub-Saharan Africa: 239 million, Latin America/Caribbean: 53 million, Near East/North Africa: 37 million, Developed Countries: 19 million. >> VOICEOVER: And it?s a situation that becomes even direr in emergencies. Right now, across the horn of Africa, droughts have triggered a food emergency so desperate that more than ten million people are relying on food aid. But chronic hunger doesn?t have to be the status quo. Smart investments from governments and aid groups are helping the hungry to weather the worst emergencies and become resilient against future crises. And the ripple effects of hunger are huge. Take Mexico, for example. Every year, thousands of migrants see the US as the last option for finding work to feed their families. But in this story from Bread for the World, two men are given a new choice: to stay in their country.>> TITLE: Stay, Bread for the World, Mexico>> TITLE: Chiapas, Mexico>> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS [Comitan, Chiapas, Mexico]: I was happy yesterday. You know why? I was waiting in the street outside the hospital, and a group of students said, "Come! Have a little bit of coffee and some bread." If society had the same attitude, the world would be better.>> TITLE: Oaxaca, Mexico>> SANTIAGO CRUZ [San Miguel Huautla, Oaxaca, Mexico]: Unfortunately, the government has abandoned the Mexican countryside. The results are never good. I decided to migrate [to North America] because I have a large family and there isn't any money in this community, there are no sources of income, nothing. >> TITLE: Sixty percent of unauthorized immigration to the US comes from Mexico. They come to escape poverty. In 2009, 96 percent of US foreign assistance to Mexico went toward military and drug enforcement. Investing in rural areas of Mexico instead can help reduce the pressure to migrate.>> TITLE: Stay: Migration and poverty in rural Mexico>> TITLE: Permanecer: Migración y pobreza en el México rural >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: The reason I went to the US was because I wanted to progress. Not that I didn?t have work here, but peoples? stories made it sound so much easier to earn money in the United States. That was the reason my family agreed it would be better to try my luck there. And I went there for the first time in 1998. My wife Victoria stayed here with the kids. I made it across the border, but it was a really bad experience. For example, when I was at the border, when I was crossing, I was robbed by bandits, "cholos." It was a bitter experience. I had different jobs. I picked tomatoes. I picked chilies. And in six months, I was able to save 8,000 pesos [USD$675]. Eight thousand pesos, here in Mexico, I couldn?t make that in six months.>> TITLE: After returning to Mexico due to health issues, Marvin and his wife bought land in Chiapas with the help of a US nonprofit called AGROS. Today, Marvin and his wife grow the crops that support their family. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: We found land that we can work on. Victoria and I were excited about this from the very beginning. It was a project to help people help themselves. It hasn?t been easy. We need more resources.>> TITLE: Marvin?s wife, Victoria, is a community activist who sometimes works out of town for many days. Which means Marvin is often the family?s primary caretaker. >> MARVIN GARCIA SALAS: She has had responsibilities that have been difficult for me. Now that my children are older, it?s easier. But when they were smaller I had to take care of them. I had to cook or change their diapers. There were moments when they were little that I had to carry them because they were crying or feeling bad. Sometimes people were saying, ?Why are you doing domestic work, women?s work?? And I said: ?I feel good. Both of us are parents to these children. We both have to take care of them.? I want to do a lot of things. But unfortunately, there are some barriers that don?t let us develop.>> SUSAN BIRD [Program Officer, Ford Foundation, Mexico]: What we see more and more is this - the rite of passage, this idea that young people, specifically, can no longer make it in their communities and it's no longer interesting to them. My name is Susan Bird. I'm a program officer with the Ford Foundation in Mexico. And so they kind of wait for the day that they can leave. That's the saddest thing I think, is the cultural loss. You know, you see communities, entire communities made up of children and grandparents and there's a whole generation that is missing. >> SANTIAGO CRUZ: I hope most of my children don?t migrate. Most of them would live here in my town. In our grandparents' time, our land was more productive. They harvested more. Now the land is deteriorating, depleted. We need more ideas, more techniques, and more innovation to be more productive. It?s difficult, you know? This is a very poor, rural area of Mexico. That?s why I decided to migrate. I looked for the possibility of migrating legally. And I made it to Canada. >> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ [Santiago's Wife]: So, he had the opportunity to go. And he left, but I was left behind alone with my children. Among all of us, we divided his chores. That was very hard.>> SANTIAGO CRUZ: The first season was very difficult. I was very lonely. It was very difficult to get used to another country, another culture, you know, the customs. It was difficult.>> VICTORIA MARTINEZ LOPEZ: We were not accustomed to being without him. It felt like he was gone a very long time.>> TITLE: When Santiago returned from Canada in 2008, he and Victoria got involved with CEDICAM http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-one-good-idea <strong>"ViewChange: One Good Idea"</strong> presents four stories about individuals and organizations who are taking on the biggest global challenges:<br /><br /><strong>India's Free Lunch</strong>&nbsp; Since 2001, all Indian primary schools have provided pupils with a free midday meal. Since then, truancy rates have dropped and child health is soaring. <br /><br /><strong>Project Peanut Butter</strong>&nbsp; In Malawi, children with malnutrition are being given a radical new treatment that is cheap and very effective: fortified peanut butter. Best of all, mothers can administer the ready-to-use food at home, eliminating the need for hospital stays.<br /><br /><strong>Banking on Change</strong>&nbsp; J.S. Parthibhan is a bank manager with a difference: he's interested in people, not numbers. Through micro loans, he's helping villagers in rural areas of India develop a sense of entrepreneurship and self-respect. <br /><br /><strong>Vidiyal</strong>&nbsp; Village women in Tamil Nadu are using mobile phones and computer technology in innovative ways to benefit their agriculture-based businesses. <br /><br />Watch on NDTV Profit or profit.ndtv.com Saturday 10pm / Sunday 5pm IST.<br /> Thu, 04 Aug 2011 08:26:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/viewchange-one-good-idea India, Agriculture & Food, Microfinance, Technology, Change Makers, Malnutrition, Malawi, Link TV Presents the World, NDTV Profit, Poverty Big problems versus a little inspiration...a surprisingly fair fight. See what happens in India, Malawi, or anywhere else, when you take one good idea, big or small, and run with it. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women In the rural, cane-growing region of Fiji, a new enterprise is revolutionizing the lives of the local community by providing an income for women who previously relied on their husbands, helping them scale up production and save money, and financing the country's only senior citizens center. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 14:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-fiji-determined-women Fiji, Microfinance, Gender, Agriculture & Food, Poverty, Poverty threshold, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count, Chutney >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Determined Women>> VOICEOVER: In the rural cane farming communities of Fiji, women have always been the homemakers and not the breadwinners. But the role is slowly reversing. Until a year ago, Anshu Mala took care of her home and two daughters while her husband farmed their cane land. When they started to struggle financially, Anshu used what knowledge she had of the traditional task of chutney-making to help to earn their living.>> ANSHU MALA: We weigh the mangoes and wash it. After washing it, we peel and grate it. And then we weigh the grated mangoes, put it in the pot, mix it with sugar and cook it for about one hour.>> VOICEOVER: She plays a leading role in the area's chutney production, an enterprise initiated by the NGO FRIEND.>> ANSHU MALA: Before we had land, we had a sugarcane field. But when our lease expired it was taken over by the native mataqali, so it was very hard for my husband to support the family. I have two daughters and my mother-in-law to look after. So it's very helpful when I work too. I support my husband.>> VOICEOVER: Vijay Latchmi's chutney recipes are used to fill these jars, now ready for sale at local stores and in the near future for export.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I made some pickles and sweet mango chutney. These were tested at the FRIEND office and then they asked me to work with them.>> VOICEOVER: While FRIEND provides the kitchen, Vijay employs staff and secures a mango supplier. And with the income she gets for each jar of chutney, she is able to pay her workers.>> VIJAY LATCHMI: I came here and got work so I could earn money. When I wasn't working I didn't have any money. Now I can save money and buy the things that I want. I don't have to ask anyone for money.>> VOICEOVER: Tamarind chutney sales have financed the country's only senior citizens center. In this cane-farming town, everyone in this kitchen and this center plays a role in the chutney-making process and reaps the rewards.>> SASHI KIRAN [Co-founder, FRIEND]: Older people are able to take out the tamarind, so the center is able to buy from them. These women are earning money out of that, at the first level. And the center employs women and they are making money. And eventually all the proceeds are then [put back into the center]. That money is used to provide services to the older persons, and it may be a whole range: community outreach, wheelchairs, to just a cup of tea for the seniors.>> VOICEOVER: But the challenges remain.>> SASHI KIRAN: If you you're not monitoring, the quality drops. If you're not monitoring or supporting them or encouraging them throughout then the production may not be there. Because our reality is that the people we are dealing with are extremely poor or have been battered most of their life, and to build their esteem and to get them to a stage will take time. It's a process.>> VOICEOVER: At home, but making a difference, the villagers of a cane farming community are learning to save what little they have for a rainy day.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU [Group Leader, Save Scheme]: The source of income is just catching crab in the mangroves. Some are cane farmers but majority don't have land, they are just cane cutters.>> SASHI KIRAN: In Fiji, we have a culture of borrowing, and for the first time we wanted to set them up to save on their own.>> VOICEOVER: These women don't do paid work; they are the homemakers. But they put aside a dollar or two each week from their husbands' earnings as savings for their future.>> KASANITA BOLOULUTU: I think they save only one or two dollars but for us that's something. We can save at least one dollar a week. >> SASHI KIRAN: We identify the skills needed when we help them get started and when they continuously keep coming back and telling us how they've used their money. They go through our budgeting lessons and then they start putting money away, and it's wonderful to see. We may not be reaching the entire country right now because of lack of resources, but we see hundreds of people every week where this has made an impact in terms of their income.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-latvia-born-to-be-in-business Vija Ancane runs her own bakery, shop, and bread museum in the rural village of Aglona, south of Latvia's capital Riga. It's one of 300 small and medium sized businesses to benefit from a new loan scheme started by Latvia's Land and Mortgage Bank to encourage more women to go into business. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 13:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-latvia-born-to-be-in-business Latvia, Microfinance, Gender, Aglona, Glass ceiling, Baltic states, Riga, Vaira Vīķe-Freiberga, LinkTV Picks, tve >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Born to be in Business>> VOICEOVER: The latest research in Latvia shows that in many walks of life, men and women are still not equal. The president of Latvia, Vaira-Vike Freiberga, tried to break the glass ceiling at an international level, when she stood for the post of UN secretary general in 2006. Forty-four percent of women here find it difficult to start up businesses. So, the Land and Mortgage Bank of Latvia had recently targeted support of businesses owned by women. This has been seen as a welcome opportunity.>> JURIS CEBULIS [Mortgage and Land Bank of Latvia]: The total amount of money we have given out in loans is around 40 million Euros. More than 15 million of it has gone to businesses run by women -- around 300 projects altogether. For example, we find this is very important in the rural areas, where people are no longer working in agriculture and there are no jobs. Therefore this support has a social aspect as it provides new jobs. But it is clear as well that a person who has a natural talent for business must be given the opportunity to be in business, and there are a lot of women who should be in business. And, as it is sometimes harder for women to start their own businesses, we are very pleased to be able to help them.>> VOICEOVER: People are leaving small towns and villages. They move to bigger cities or go abroad to earn more money. All this prevents rural development and harms the countryside. But with a loan from the Land and Mortgage bank, Vija Ancane has managed to start her own business in the quiet village of Aglona, 200 kilometers from the capital, Riga. She runs a bakery, a shop and a bread museum, which attracts a steady stream of tourists.>> VIJA ANCANE: Please, come in. Sit down, please! Sit down, please! The Aglona bakery, which had existed for 30 years, was closed in 2000. I lost my job too. At that time, I had two teenage children. My eldest son was finishing school, but the youngest had just started. I had separated from my husband and I had to find a way to earn money. Besides, I felt that I wanted to have a business of my own. And now, now we have got this big loan from the bank. We are developing. We'll be able to have a hotel upstairs for the tourists. It will be a very traditional one; the only luxuries will be a shower and a toilet. The rest will be a straw mattress and some bedding and pillows filled with aromatic herbs. We started with a bakery. Then we opened the shop as well. This is our Latvian black bread, made of rye, prepared in the way our ancestors did, without any chemical additives. When I started my business, I had a lot of questions. And I have to say that it's the governmental departments and bureaucracy that can kill anyone. If you approach them with a simple question, "Please, explain this to me," they act as though they are superior. "Who are you? How dare you ask us?" I have experienced this. I have been in tears. And now I keep repeating that women should come together and solve their problems together. This is why we also set up a women's club, "Forget-me-nots" in Aglona. >> VIJA ANCANE: When I have guests from abroad or from Riga they are never concerned by the price of my bread -- it costs 70 cents. But when the local people come, they say that they can afford to buy it only once a week, just after payday -- after they get their salary, the pension or their child benefit. We don't have large salaries. I know that my workers deserve much higher salaries, but life is tough. I have to count each and every cent now. My biggest dream is that one day I will become the real owner of this house. And I am sure that one day, this will happen. >> VOICEOVER: Vija's eldest son is at present working in Denmark. But next year he will be ready to come home to work with his mother. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-uganda-enterprising-women Grace Lwemamu is manager of the family business Mulya Maize in Uganda. Mary Kaddu runs her own supermarket business. But both felt their lack of management expertise was holding them back. Now they have taken part in a new national mentoring scheme, pairing experienced businesswomen with would-be entrepreneurs in Uganda, equipping them with new confidence and negotiating skills. Wed, 06 Jul 2011 11:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/why-women-count-uganda-enterprising-women Uganda, Gender, Technology, Education, Business, Microfinance, LinkTV Picks, tve, Why Women Count >> TITLE: Why Women Count>> TITLE: Enterprising Women>> VOICEOVER: In Uganda successful professional and businesswomen are often put on a pedestal, celebrated yet isolated from the women beneath them. This situation makes it difficult for younger women to see them as role models. Women make up 40 percent of university graduates, yet only half of them find formal employment within two years of graduating. And now with the formal job market shrinking, many women are turning to the enterprise economy, setting up small and medium-sized businesses on their own or with their families. Grace graduated in design, but she is now working in the family maize-milling business. She needs to learn some essential skills to help her succeed. >> GRACE LWEMAMU [Manager, Mulya Maize Millers and Traders]: The people I work with -- the workers, mainly -- didn't ever recognize me as their manager. I don't know whether it was because I'm a woman or because I was young at that time. I don't know exactly. You tell them to do something, they first hesitate then you have to contact the director to see that something gets done.>> VOICEOVER: Breaking into the business world has been hard for many women in Uganda because women have far fewer role models. Now a new scheme set up by the British Council is giving young women the opportunity to be matched with experienced business and professional women. >> BOB GARVEY [Trainer, Mentoring Program]: Women in particular are very good at this because they tend to have a lot of motivation, are very creative, innovative, tend to be very determined to make these things succeed. And also something that women are very good at is relating to other people, persuading other people and so on, which are all important business skills in today's economy.>> VOICEOVER: At the Mothers of Hope Mentoring Club for HIV positive women, older members share their experiences with new members. Through this process, Jennifer and her friend have been able to set up a shop selling handicrafts and second-hand clothing.>> JENNIFER NAMUGERWA [Mothers of Hope, African Mentoring Institute]: When we came here to learn they taught us how to save money. I never knew how to save money, but now I can save. They even taught us the tactics of how to persuade a customer to buy and to like your product, and to buy it even when they would not have bought it. >> VOICEOVER: Already the course is yielding results, helping both new and existing entrepreneurs. As Commissioner in the Prison Services, Mary Kaddu is used to giving orders, but in her private supermarket business she had to develop new ways of communicating. >> MARY KADDU [Commissioner, Uganda Prisons Services]: Before I went on the course, I used to use the parent to child approach whereby I was just commanding and giving orders to my workers, but now I am using the adult to adult approach. We sit together with my workers, we discuss, and we look at challenges. At the end of the day we come out with solutions to make the business better.>> VOICEOVER: During the four-day course, 30 experienced business and professional women are trained in business skills: to listen, to question, to spot and to negotiate business opportunities. These mentors are matched with three or four young women entrepreneurs. The perception the older and younger women have of one another has started to change. >> MARY KADDU: The problem is not only with the experienced ladies, but also with the young girls. Sometimes they are very arrogant and they don't want to take orders from the experienced ladies.>> VOICEOVER: Mary is now able to help former female prisoners set up their own business ventures.>> MARY KADDU: After my mentoring I went to the women who have passed out, who have some businesses, and I talked to them about negotiation skills and communication skills. Then we talk to them about how to make plans, how to decide which is the best program or the best business for them. At the end of the day when they are financially stable, then I know their men won't leave them.>> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/making-money-mobile Capturing the game-changing power of cellular telephones to deliver financial services to the poor in earthquake ravaged Haiti, teams are building on models developed in Kenya and elsewhere in Africa. This film highlights the potential of low-cost cellular technology to serve the poor. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 11:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/making-money-mobile Haiti, Technology, Mobile payment, Microfinance, Poverty reduction, USAID, Kenya, Earthquake, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sundance Institute >> TITLE: Produced by Highest Common Denominator Media Group. Produced in association with the Sundance Institute Documentary Film Program for the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation. >> TITLE: Making Money Mobile>> TITLE: Eighty percent of Haitians live in poverty, subject to natural and man-made disasters. The catastrophic earthquake of January 12, 2010 throws Haiti's fragile economy into chaos.>> MAN: The situation is very bad, it's very bad.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI [Economic Recovery Program Manager, Mercy Corps]: When the earthquake happened I made a personal decision to come to Haiti. I lost a very dear friend of mine in the earthquake and I'd made a promise to him that one day I would come, and I had no other choice than coming here now, to hold that promise. After the earthquake, a number of branches, bank branches were closed, or some of them even collapsed. People could not get access to their own cash, cash they needed to protect themselves against the disaster, to buy food, medicine, water. So cash-based interventions were relevant in the context of Haiti. With a purely cash-based economy, we know that people have a very short-term view.>> GEORGETTE JEAN-LOUIS [Chief Financial Officer, Fonkoze Microfinance Institution]: Our credit agents, sometimes they have to go by foot, and sometimes we are very high in the mountains, so we have to walk.>> CLAUDE CLODOMIR [Deputy Chief of Party for USAID/HIFIVE]: The number one issue is violence, it's crime. We know for a fact that these women who actually make the majority of street vendors get money taken away from them.>> GEORGETTE JEAN-LOUIS: These people, they can be robbed, they can be killed, they can be kidnapped.>> PRIYA JAISINGHANI [Senior Advisor to the Administrator for USAID]: One woman was paying a gang member USD$20 a day to keep her safe.>> MAN: I think life is not good at all for us, for almost all of us.>> TITLE: In the midst of this chaos, cellular service continued to function.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD [VP Product Development, Voila]: Cell phones save lives. A number of people who were recovered underneath the rubble were able to text their exact location in the house. >> TITLE: There are 6.8 billion people living on the planet. Nearly 5 billion of them use a cell phone.>> CLAUDE CLODOMIR: People have cell phone service and needed these financial transactions. The economy was moving, but they needed to be facilitated and mobile banking became evident as a result of the earthquake. >> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: Mobile phone penetration in Haiti is really significant, about 85 percent of Haitians own a phone.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD: Without cell phones in Haiti there is no communication. It's not a luxury; it's a basic need of survival.>> STEPHANE BRUNO [Senior Technology Advisor for USAID/HIFIVE]: Since this device is already in the hands of the majority of the population, it makes sense to use it also for financial services.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: You have a very strong platform for mobile banking to succeed: mobile payments, transfer from one person to the next, from one side of the country to the other, and international remittances. >> CLAUDE CLODOMIR: Mobile banking is basically allowing someone to do a banking transaction via telephone.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD: Clearly the technology exists to allow a country like Haiti to become a cashless country.>> CHARLES CASTEL [Governor, Central Bank of Haiti]: It is part of the initiative to enfranchise the disenfranchised.>> PRIYA JAISINGHANI: And we've seen that it can work, we've seen in Kenya where there's a service called Mpesa. There are more than 10 million clients now using their cell phone to save money and to transact with one another. It's the silver lining in a devastating situation.>> WOMAN: I need to add minutes to my phone.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: Mobile payments are important because, in a country like Haiti, there are only two bank branches for about 160,000 people.>> MAN: When I have to cash a check, you have to come to the bank, and the lines are so long and so slow.>> PRIYA JAISINGHANI: You might have a woman who has some extra money, and she wants to hide it -- hide it from her husband, hide it from herself -- by buying a goat. But, when she needs just a few dollars, you can't just sell half the goat, you have to sell the whole goat, so it can be an illiquid and expensive way of saving money.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD: If all my money is in cash and it's not in the bank, where is it? In my mattress? What happens if my house burns down?>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: So linking cash-based intervention and mobile banking is taking this relief effort one step further because as we do this we also educate people to make the most of financial services.>> TITLE: Mobile money training session>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: We are right in the middle of phone distribution, just about ready to begin the training on how to use the mobile phone to receive payment after a heavy cash-for-work day.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD: She's never had a phone before and I said, "You'll learn fast," and she said, "Yes, yes, yes.">> STEPHANE BRUNO: It's really a tool that the government can use to improve the quality of its services to the citizen.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: So by using the mobile technology we can actually bank outside the bank.>> CLAUDE CLODOMIR: The benefit to someone, a poor person having savings -- it reduces their economic vulnerability; they are able to plan out expenses and invest in their small businesses.>> WOMAN: For me, saving is great because I don't need to have the cash right away but it's there for me whenever I need it.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: People are amazing, they are really getting it. They are really using their phone to test out the power of mobile money.>> MAN: This is a tool that is going to be very good for us all.>> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: We are there, right at the beginning of it. You know, we're the first one doing it. I mean, this is the best idea we've ever had.>> PIERRE LIAUTAUD: I will bet that, one year from now, we will have seen the greatest success of mobile money in the world in Haiti. >> KOKOEVI SOUSSUVI: It's going to be great.>> TITLE: [end credits]>> TITLE: The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) in 2010 launched a USD$10 million incentive fund to jumpstart financial services by mobile phone in Haiti. This initiative is helping deliver cash assistance to earthquake victims and lays the foundations for advanced banking services that could help millions of Haitians lift themselves out of extreme poverty. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-change-big-idea In Bangladesh, the birthplace of the Grameen bank and the global microcredit movement, women and their families are saving for the future, with help from bank systems that serve the poor. Wed, 29 Jun 2011 09:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-change-big-idea Bangladesh, Microfinance, Grameen Bank, Muhammad Yunus, BRAC, Poverty reduction, Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, Sundance Institute, Poverty threshold, Poverty >> VOICEOVER: Two-fifths of the people on Earth earn less than USD$2 a day. In Bangladesh, where four-fifths of the people earn less than USD$2 daily, the poor are increasingly demanding one thing: a safe place to save. >> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED [Chairperson, BRAC]: I think the poor need savings more than anybody else.>> VOICEOVER: Fazle Abed heads BRAC, the largest non-governmental organization in the world, which works to empower the poor in nine countries and in 70,000 villages across Bangladesh. >> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED: Their earning is irregular, they need to save more. There are too many days where there is no food in the household, so if they don't save, they starve.>> SOKHINA BEGUM: We are farmers, so it is difficult to tell our income per month. >> VOICEOVER: Sokhina Begum lives on a "nomadic island," one of thousands of shifting silt bars in the vast Jamuna River. This is one of the poorest areas in Bangladesh. >> SOKHINA BEGUM: Some months there's work, so my husband earns good money, and some months are bad. In a good month, my husband brings home USD$28 to USD$35. >> VOICEOVER: In a scene played out in villages throughout Bangladesh, Sokhina takes her passbook to a savings meeting organized by a local NGO, where she makes a cash deposit.>> SOKHINA BEGUM: We save 15 cents each week. >> MUHAMMAD YUNUS [Founder, Grameen Bank]: The poor have all the uncertainties around them. All the risks around them. Savings is one strategy to protect from those uncertainties. Uncertainties come from any direction: from the family direction there may be uncertainties, that nobody's earning money, or it can come from the weather, just a disaster, a flood.>> SOKHINA BEGUM: Whatever we had was destroyed by the river. Everything we have is rented. In our family we have nothing to inherit. Savings gives me confidence, knowing I have it in case of emergency. I hope to have more in the future.>> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: Without that savings, the way you'll fall down from the present position, savings is protecting you, keep to that level where you are so that you don't slide back into the terrible situation that you were in. So gradually, step by step, you move your levels, and savings are the one which holds you at that position.>> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED: When people start savings, they're looking forward to something, and then gradually they can build up something to invest.>> VOICEOVER: Traditionally, banks have not catered to the poor. >> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: We're talking about the rural population. Commercial banks are not there. >> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED: You find that banks are not really interested in poor people's small sums of money. And that's the reason why some of the social development organizations such as BRAC have gone into providing this service for the poor.>> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: The basic principle of Grameen Bank is, people should not come to the bank, bank should go to the people. So we are going to all these 8 million plus borrowers in all the thousands of villages where they live.>> HELENA AKHTER: My name is Mrs. Helena Akhter and I'm 27 years old. I have one daughter. She is 12. I've been saving for the last eight years. I can make 10 mats a day and sell them for 25 cents each. I put 30-45 cents into savings each week, and any extra money I earn, I also save there. My hopes are to provide my daughter with a good education and to raise her to be a good human being, to manage my family, and to be a better person myself. >> VOICEOVER: Across Bangladesh, mobile technology is creating easy access to safe places to save. >> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED: BRAC Bank has now got a license from Bangladesh Central Bank to try and mobilize savings through cell phones.>> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: You can provide all kinds of banking services with a mobile phone. Health services. Educational services. You have no boundary where it stops.>> MAN [Cell phone salesman]: Demand [for mobile phones] has spread throughout the villages. Every family has four, five, ten phones, then they come back for more.>> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: It came and conquered the whole country. It's everywhere right now. We have over 58 million subscribers in a country of 150 million people.>> SIR FAZLE HASAN ABED: It will certainly change the vulnerability of the poor, being able to have access to savings.>> MUHAMMAD YUNUS: What happens the next ten years is up to us to decide. So whatever imagination we can bring in, whatever vision we can bring in, we can make it happen.>> SAMEDA BIBI: My name is Sameda Bibi, age 50. My home is in Narayanpur, Bogra district. I've been saving for the last four years; I use it for banana cultivation. The savings helps me face any problem in the family, maybe to get new land to cultivate; maybe to get goats or cows for dairy. My savings are helping us prepare for the future. To be able to eat, to provide, to grow -- that's real happiness for me. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/community-enterprise-in-india The Gram Mooligai Company Limited in India is owned entirely by rural villagers who gather and cultivate medicinal plants. Their work promotes sustainable harvesting and ensures community benefits. Fri, 15 Apr 2011 08:38:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/community-enterprise-in-india India, Agriculture & Food, Tamil Nadu, Herbalism, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations, Bangalore, Gender, Microfinance, South Asia >> VOICEOVER: In rural communities in India, gathering medicinal plants is a common way of making a living for village women who have no land or cattle. They worry about their future. But Kathammal is not worried. Six years ago, she invested USD$1 and bought 50 shares in a local company. Her investment has paid off. >> KATHAMMAL: In the first year, they gave us 1,000 shares. I'm hoping that the company will do well and I'll make more money.>> VOICEOVER: Founded in 2001, the Grama Mooligal Company Limited, or GMCL, procures medicinal plants from dozens of villages in the southern state of Tamil Nadu. Most of the goods go to Bangalore to big manufactures such as Himalaya Herbal Healthcare, one of India's leading companies in this field. R. Manjunatha is a representative of the company. >> R. MANJUNATHA: We prefer buying herbs from GMCL because of the quality of the herbs they supply us. Secondly, they have a sustainable harvest, and thirdly, for the rural empowerment of women.>> VOICEOVER: India has over 6,000 species of medicinal plants known to local communities. Grama Mooligal Company Limited was created as part of an effort to conserve these plants by promoting sustainable harvesting and ensuring community benefits. Villagers like Kathammal have learned to avoid picking young plants, and have come to understand the standard of quality required by the market. >> KATHAMMAL: Our customers want us to separate the roots, remove the sand and stones. We sift through them to make sure that all of it is clean. >> VOICEOVER: Kathammal is one of the 800 stockholders of GMCL. This village enterprise, entirely owned by gatherers and cultivators, is an initiative conceived by the Foundation for Revitalization of Local Health Traditions and is supported by the United Nations Development Program. The company offers villagers a guaranteed price and comes directly to them to pick up their goods, a great convenience that saves the villagers from exploitations by market agents. The company wants to do more, says one of the directors, Adichi. >> ADICHI: We want to provide good quality medicinal plants and medicines to the world. This is our dream.>> VOICEOVER: The villagers have hired G. Raju, who is based in Bangalore, to manage their business. >> G. RAJU: We find that there is very little money in it. So we ventured into products.>> VOICEOVER: The company now produces seven kinds of medicine. >> G. RAJU: Our medicines are for cold and cough, for fever, for joint pains, which seem to be the set of health conditions that are affecting the poor.>> VOICEOVER: The company sold about USD$200,000 worth of herbal medicine last year, and hopes to sell half a million dollars worth this year. The medicinal products, ranging in price from less than five cents to a little over two dollars, are available in over 300 stores in Bangalore. Profits benefit villagers like Kathammal directly. >> KATHAMMAL: I have no worries about money or food today. If something bad happens, I can go to the company and get my money.>> VOICEOVER: This community-based enterprise has improved the lives of the villagers. Perhaps more importantly, they now have a sense of ownership and financial security with which to face the future. Patricia Chan prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/philippines-microloan-program More than five million people in the fishing villages and rural towns of the Philippines live in poverty. The government, in cooperation with the United Nations Development Program, is helping people lift themselves out of poverty through classes for aspiring entrepreneurs and microloans. Fri, 08 Apr 2011 12:08:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/philippines-microloan-program Philippines, Microfinance, Poverty, United Nations Development Programme, Poverty reduction, United Nations >> VOICEOVER: The Amatorio family, fishermen, never had it easy. Eight children to support and an income they could never count on. >> MRS. AMATORIO: If you're in the fishing business there are many variables. Sometimes we don't catch anything. >> VOICEOVER: They are far from alone. Five million people here in the Philippines live in poverty: millions in small fishing villages and rural towns, millions more in crowded slums in the cities. One way to help the poor break from poverty is to provide them with small loans, from 50 to 100 dollars, to start their own businesses. And that's exactly what's happening. Whether a loan to help a couple buy a sewing machine to open a tailoring business, or two friends to open a nursery selling bougainvilleas, local banks, with financial support from the United Nations Development Program, UNDP, makes hundreds of thousands of dollars a year available to those who could otherwise never meet loan requirements. >> ARIS ALIP: It's a very powerful tool for poverty alleviation.>> VOICEOVER: And its one tool that loan recipients are taking very seriously, says Aris Alip, manager of a UNDP supported bank. >> ARIS ALIP: They are very disciplined, because this is the first time they are given trust and they don't want to destroy the trust.>> VOICEOVER: Groups make a point to meet weekly, like this one in the northern Philippines, to create financial plans, make loan payments and offer each other advice and encouragement. While participants on average see their per capita income more than double, the benefit of the program is more than just financial. >> ARIS ALIP: You bring back the dignity that was once in them that they have lost and with this, they are able to gain confidence and are able to improve their quality of life. >> VOICEOVER: Which is the case for the Amatorio's. After receiving a loan, they now not only have a steady income, they own six businesses, including a furniture shop and a fishery. Today more than one million people (more than 20 percent of the nation's poor) have access to credit loans, and the number keeps growing. United Nations Television prepared this report. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-loans-in-egypt In Egypt, more and more women are heads of household and are seeking new ways to improve their standard of living. The United Nations Development Program, UNDP, has introduced a microcredit project called Microstart for women who are interested in turning unique ideas into business opportunities. Miscrostart is playing a major role in breaking the cycle of poverty and empowering women in Egypt. Wed, 06 Apr 2011 08:25:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/small-loans-in-egypt Egypt, Gender, Microfinance, United Nations Development Programme, United Nations, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality >> VOICEOVER: Women in Egypt are searching for new ways to improve their standard of living. Many of them depended on their husbands who were once the sole breadwinners. Seven years ago, Umtouba lost her husband. As a young girl, Umtouba helped her family to produce rope made from palm leaves. This was a family tradition. She continued the craft of rope making after she got married. Now, with the death of her husband, she finds herself working alone to raise her three daughters and three sons. This is not an easy task because her husband did everything for her. >> UMTOUBA: I would never go outside to buy these leaves. He would go to the market and bring everything here. He would bring things in the car. I would sit here and work. He would bring things to me as I sat here.>> VOICEOVER: Women who are the heads of households find themselves in vulnerable situations. Umtouba's neighbor, Sahar, says that there is need for caution when women negotiate with customers. >> SAHAR: She used to sell to the merchants. He might or might not pay her. He could cheat her.>> VOICEOVER: Sahar works for Microstart, a scheme developed by the United Nations Development Program, UNDP. Microstart's main focus is to break the cycle of poverty. It targets female-headed households. Many women have received loans ranging from 80 dollars to 300 dollars. Sahar's job is to build a trusting relationship with the women before their loans are approved. >> SAHAR: If she needs anything, she asks me. I answer her questions. I try to be a friend to her before she receives the loan. I get to know her. I get to know where she's from, everything about her home.>> VOICEOVER: Umtouba finally received a loan of 80 dollars with Sahar's help. She fixed up her house and sent one child to school with the money. The Microstart project has helped over 6,000 people find jobs in Fayoum by approving five thousand loans. The project is tackling two of the Millennium Development Goals established at the United Nations Summit in 2000: empowering women and reducing poverty. Beshir Shousa and Mary Ferreira prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unrwa-helps-palestinian-women-entrepreneurs The United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, UNRWA, provides food rations and basic services for some 27,000 Palestinians in Gaza refugee camp in Jordan. A new microcredit project, sponsored by UNRWA, seeks to create financial independence for women and break the cycle of poverty. Fri, 01 Apr 2011 08:17:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unrwa-helps-palestinian-women-entrepreneurs Palestine, Refugee, Palestinian refugee, United Nations, United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East, Microfinance, Refugee camp, Palestinian people, Jordan, Gender >> VOICEOVER: More than 27,000 Palestinians live here, crowded together in the Gaza refugee camp in Jordan. Life here is not easy. Most refugees are unemployed or work sporadically in low-paying menial jobs. With most of whatever jobs that do exist going to men, women are left with few options to earn a living. Among them, 42-year-old Fatima Abdallah Abu Knar, her sick husband, Jabber and their ten children. To try and support her family, Fatima worked manual labor in nurseries and olive groves, but the work was difficult and inconsistent. She tried peddling nik-naks out of a suitcase but the money was always inadequate. >> FATIMA ABDALLAH ABU KNAR: I needed school expenses, clothes for my daughters and groceries for the house.>> VOICEOVER: Fatima and her family did receive food rations and other basic services provided by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees, or UNRWA. Today more than four million Palestinian refugees are registered with UNRWA. More than one million of them are women. In an effort to help Fatima and thousands of others break out of the cycle of poverty, UNRWA established a small loan or microcredit program. It's an opportunity for people who could otherwise never meet the requirements for a loan to get one and start their own business. And while the program is available to men as well, its primary mission is to help women become financially independent. Fouad Shawa is director of the program. >> FOUAD SHAWA: The small loans given to women helped in the establishment of successful projects which increased the family's income and improved the economic and social conditions of the family.>> VOICEOVER: With a three thousand dollar loan, Fatima opened a small clothing store in the refugee camp. Within a few months, she was turning a profit. Now, she makes enough money to support her family, pay off the loan's monthly one hundred dollar installment and, for the first time in her life, save for the future. Another part of the program is skills training for young refugees. Computer and sewing classes are popular among the women. >> FATIMA ABDALLAH ABU KNAR: My message to them is that poverty is not something shameful and women must be productive.>> VOICEOVER: Encouraged by success stories like Fatima's, others are following in her footsteps, receiving job training and microcredit loans from UNRWA. Until a solution to the Palestinian question is found, many of them will continue to rely on UNRWA one way or the other. Kamil Taha prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/breaking-down-borders Nine entrepreneurs from Latin America attended Milan's international trade fair, where they marketed their goods and built relationships for future trading opportunities. The International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, was instrumental in organizing the group. Wed, 30 Mar 2011 09:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/breaking-down-borders South America, Microfinance, Entrepreneur, International Fund for Agricultural Development, United Nations, Latin America, Agriculture & Food, Change Makers, Textile >> VOICEOVER: Crowds have already begun to fill Milan's historic Victorio Emanuelle II shopping arcade. People come here from every part of the world to shop. But not this group of entrepreneurs from Latin America. They've come to get a first hand look at the competition and to sell their products. All nine have come with the hope of breaking into this lucrative European market for clothes and textiles. It would be a major breakthrough and could mean success for the poor rural artisans like Dely Surco Coyla. >> DELY SURCO COYLA: We produce the same as these but with even more complicated designs, like flowers and other designs typical of our culture.>> VOICEOVER: With assistance from an innovative program called PROMER, supported by the International Fund for Agricultural Development, IFAD, each of these entrepreneurs has been given an opportunity to bring the best of what their groups produce to Milan's International Fair. This event draws more than two million people from across northern Italy. Waldo Bustamante Pena, coordinator for PROMER, says these people face greater challenges than most. >> WALDO BUSTAMENTE PENA: Obviously, they face bigger challenges than other entrepreneur would. The first challenge is that they are very dispersed and isolated in the countryside, which makes it difficult for them to work together to access markets.>> VOICEOVER: The biggest challenge is getting to this level -- outside their communities and countries, selling their goods in lucrative western markets and establishing contacts for the future. >> WALDO BUSTAMENTE PENA: At events like these they learn a lot about the real world of business.>> VOICEOVER: So how did members of the group do at the end of the fair? Amazingly well, since Milan is the fashion center of the world. Adrianna from Brazil sold 80 percent of her embroideries, even though her greatest competition was in Milan. Jorge from Colombia sold 95 percent of his silks and made three contacts with Italian companies. Dely and Susana from Peru sold 60 percent of their products, about average for the rest of the group. The most successful participant was Macario from Guatemala. Although illiterate and unable to speak Italian, he demonstrated a special talent and sold all the fabrics he had brought with him. Over the next few years, the PROMER project will continue to help micro entrepreneurs in poor rural communities reach beyond their borders through a number of innovative methods, including an e-commerce web site and business centers that will assist in exporting goods. James Heer prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso With drought prevailing in areas bordering the Saharan desert, farmers in Burkina Faso are exploring alternative ways to generate income. The International Fund for Agricultural Development (IFAD) supports a program that provides training and support to people with ideas that could be transformed into successful business ventures. Wed, 30 Mar 2011 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/entrepreneurs-in-burkina-faso Africa, Microfinance, Agriculture & Food, International Fund for Agricultural Development, Burkina Faso, Entrepreneur, Sahara, Subsistence farming, United Nations >> VOICEOVER: Ninety-five percent of the people in Burkina Faso -- a small landlocked African country -- depend on agriculture to earn a living. Koudougou Lamoussa is the father of six children. He was a subsistence farmer, barely surviving on these drought-prone lands bordering the Saharan desert. He strongly believed that there was another way to make a living. He wanted to start his own business. In Burkina Faso, donkey carts had become an affordable and popular way of transporting goods and people. No one was manufacturing them in the village. Koudougou wanted to be the first. >> KOUDOUGOU LAMOUSSA: I could never earn enough as a farmer to pay for all my family's needs. I was certain with this kind of metal work, I could earn more money and buy everything we needed. >> VOICEOVER: Koudougou knew little about business. He had no money and no hope of getting a bank loan. Mamadou Sanou, an industrial technologist, helped him.>> MAMADOU SANOU: It's a vicious circle. We can't borrow money so we can't develop our business ideas. We go around in circles and stay eternally poor.>> VOICEOVER: With a USD$1,800 loan, Koudougou bought the materials to make donkey carts for his first batch of customers. After one year, he added four more workers and expanded his business. Now he manufactures desk frames for local schools. Entrepreneurship could spark economic growth by creating new job opportunities. Now, a number of new programs are unleashing the entrepreneurial spirit among the poorest segments of the population. This one in Burkina Faso is known as PAMER. Supported by IFAD, the International Fund for Agricultural Development, it provides farmers with training and support needed to turn ideas -- like this milling operation -- into profitable businesses. These women were encouraged by Koudougou's success. They began to bring the raw paddy to be husked at the new mill. They are now much better off because the rice fetches a higher price on the local market. The profits are small but it makes a huge difference for them. >> MAMADOU SANOU: What we do in this project is awaken the spirit of business. We give people the sense of what an entrepreneur is. After that they say, what I learned gives me the power to do something for myself.>> VOICEOVER: The PAMER project is now being duplicated in other parts of Burkina Faso, with the expectation of assisting more than 2,500 entrepreneurs within three years. James Heer prepared this report for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/womens-bank Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghathan is a "Women's Bank" NGO based in Kutch district in western India. This award-winning, locally-run microfinance project has not only helped village women achieve financial aptitude, but it has also boosted their confidence, helping them overcome social problems. Fri, 25 Feb 2011 21:24:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/womens-bank India, Microfinance, Gender, Gujarat, Kutch District, Millennium Development Goals, Gender equality, International Women's Day >> TITLE: Women's Bank>> MS. VEENA JOSHI [Project Coordinator, KMVS, Bhuj]: It was started in Mundra Taluka (Gujarat) in August 1994 while in Nakhatrana Taluka in May 1995. In Bangladesh, it was successful to reduce poverty, like that it also started in our country. ?Kutch Mahila Vikas Sanghthan? (Kutch Women's Development Organization, KMVS) was already working in these villages.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA [Vice President, Ujas proj.]: We learned a lot in this program since 1994. Our objective was to give relief from sahukars (moneylenders) debt and to give low interest loans.>> MS. VEENA JOSHI: If there are 20 individuals in a group, their savings capacity must be less, so a microcredit program would be useless. We thought, why don't we go into the concept of a Women's Bank.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: We didn't know what a "bank" was.>> MS. VEENA JOSHI: After one year, we all got together for a meeting. It would not work in small savings like 5 to 20 rupees with few villages. So we decided to include more villages, 10 to 20, and 20 to 30... and we created a chain of villages. We fixed 30 rupees for the poor, with a minimum of 30 rupees and a maximum as they wish. So we will have more savings.>> WOMAN 1: I have saved since it started.>> WOMAN 2: Without savings, the bank would not work.>> WOMAN 3: More savings is only good for us.>> MRS. JASMIN GOGARI [Loan beneficiary and cloth merchant]: Yes, I saved first and I got the loan. Now I am a loan borrower of more than 37000 rupees.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: If individuals and leaders take responsibility, then we would only approve loans. We are working for those who are not in reach of banks.>> MS. MALSHREE GADHAVI [Field coordinator]: They faced the dislike of men while they disclosed issues like alcoholism and domestic violence, and they tried to stop this union.>> MRS. JAVJIBA JADEJA: We never worked in pressure. >> MRS. JASMIN GOGARI: I took a loan only when I needed it, and I earned and paid them back. We all are ahead because of this bank. >> SIGN: This is to certify that "Ujas Mahila Sangathan, Gujarat" had participated in the Microfinance Process Excellence Awards, 2006>> TITLE: Concept & Created by Ankur Vora http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-dayak-meratus Indonesia's Dayak Meratus communities have created co-operatives and developed business institutions that protect their resources. However, the encroachment of private businesses on the local forest threaten their way of life and have forced them to respond in the best way they can: collectively. Wed, 15 Dec 2010 08:20:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/the-dayak-meratus Indonesia, Forest management, Dayak people, Kalimantan, South Kalimantan, Indigenous rights, Environmental protection, Environment, Microfinance, Microcredit >> TITLE: The Dayak Meratus, Kalimantan, Indonesia >> ANDY SYAHRUJI [Chairman of Permada Youth Group]: According to our ancestors, our life is dependent on nature. Like a son and his mother the land is our life and the forests are a part of that. We can't be separated from the forest of Meratus. It would end our way of life. The Dayak Meratus is part of nature and the sacred forest. >> JULAK [Farmer and Owner of Rubber Garden]: With the money I earn I buy sugar, fish, salt, and clothing or equipment for the house. This is all possible because of the rubber. The rest of the money I save in the CU [credit union]. This is my saving for when I cannot work anymore. >> YASIR ALFATAH [LPMA]: LPMA was established in 1998 and works on strengthening indigenous people, especially the Dayak Meratus in South Kalimantan. Without our economic program here we helped to establish two community institutions in Dayak Meratus. The first of these is the CU or Credit Union. >> SIGN: Credit Union Bintang Karnatika Meratus (CU BKM). Desa Hinas Kiri Kec. Batang Alai Timur Kab. HST Kalimantan Selatan >> JULIADE [Credit Union Manager]: The CU can be called a community movement. How are you? >> JULAK: Nothing but good. >> JULIADE: CU refuse applications from members who want to buy chainsaws for illegal logging activities. The CU is more interested in giving farmers loans for seeds, as this helps to develop their income. >> YASIR ALFATAH: The second institution is the KDA or Kesatuan Dayak Alai, an institution for rubber farmers in the Hulu Sungai Tengah District. >> MIDO [KDA]: Before we formed the KDA here, we lost a lot of money through middlemen buying our non-timber forest products like rubber. So this is proof that if we stay together, the community can resolve their problems. >> TITLE: This unity of the Dayak Meratus faces an increasingly difficult future. >> ZONSON MASRI [Chairman of Permada, South Kalimantan]: "Indigenous is nothing," they say. "It's the permit that exists." So there are no indigenous rights. >> ANDY SYAHRUJI: The people will lose their rights because the companies come and take over the land. Like the oil-palm companies where there is absolutely no positive impact for the people. >> TITLE: The government of Indonesia regularly ignores indigenous land claims. >> ZONSON MASRI: In the past, before Indonesian independence, the Dayak were already here. So it's clear when we talk about the earth or trees we talk about indigenous rights. >> TITLE: The Dayak depend on a variety of plant species to sustain their livelihoods. >> TITLE: But companies are converting their land into large, single species plantations. >> ZONSON MASRI: The Dayak, if not disturbed, will not disturb: that is our principle. We are disturbed right now so we must move forward and take the risk to fight for our people in the villages. >> TITLE: The Dayak are now developing a political voice to give their ancient culture a chance of surviving. >> TITLE: If their culture is destroyed it will mirror that of the forests they inhabit. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-new-silver In developing nations such as Bolivia, lack of capital and restrictions on access to credit affects everyone, from individuals trying to start tiny enterprises in order to support their families, all the way up to large, state-run companies. This film profiles three people who run very different businesses, but who share many of the same problems. Mon, 25 Oct 2010 09:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-dollar-a-day-the-new-silver Bolivia, Natural gas, El Alto, La Paz, Small business, Microcredit, Natural gas field, YPFB, Natural resource, A Dollar A Day, Microfinance >> TITLE: EMF Films and Global Visions & Associates present>> TITLE: A Dollar A Day>> TITLE: The New Silver>> TITLE: A film by Alexandra Jansse>> MARTIN OLMEDO [Ex miner]: Tio, please give us silver. Give us silver. Give us plenty, please.>> VOICEOVER: In 2003, Bolivia erupted over proposed policies regarding the ownership of its newly found gas reserves. >> TITLE: The Gas War. October 2003. El Alto, Bolivia>> PROTESTER 1: Civic war, brothers!>> PROTESTER 2: They killed my son.>> TOMAS BRAVO [Entrepreneur]: It's hard to explain what happened. There is a lot of inequality in our country. The ruling class has a lot of money. Others cannot even eat, and survive, working day by day. It started at that crossover. The military were all over. A demonstration came from the university. They provoked the military with molotov cocktails. >> VOICEOVER: During the demonstrations, police actions against the students caused a mass riot in which scores of innocent people were brutally murdered.>> TOMAS BRAVO: It was chaos. There were blockades made of bottles and stones. All of that as a consequence of the fact that the population reclaims the gas for the people.>> VOICEOVER: The people feared that President Sanchez de Lozada, called Goni, would export the gas and cause them to lose their fair share of profits.>> PROTESTERS: Goni, murderer! Goni, dictator! The people don't want you!>> VOICE: President Goni was forced to abandon his post like a thief. He disappeared. He fled to the United States. A new government was installed.>> TITLE: Carlos Mesa: New President>> CARLOS MESA [President of Bolivia, 2003-2005]: My first promise is a revision of the gas law. This was your demand. I agree that it is not fair when out of two partners one gets more than the other. In Bolivia the investors said: Let's start to divide. But the Bolivians said: What we receive is not enough. >> TOMAS BRAVO: The government should share our wealth with the people. Otherwise it goes like with the mines. They extracted all our resources and left us in poverty. Our hills are like plundered graveyards. That should not happen with the gas.>> TITLE: Potosi: mining area>> VOICEOVER: The once-bountiful silver mines were plundered by the Spaniards during the colonial era. Only the Bolivian elite profited. Now, miners chip out a bare existence in the dangerous old tunnels at the expense of their health. Maria Cabana Olmeda and her husband Martin are typical of the families who must survive on the dust of silver.>> CHILD: Daddy, here is your tea. >> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Andrea, shouldn't you get up? You stay in bed, mother. Go and get bread. No detours! Come right back. Hurry up!>> VOICEOVER: Living in poverty, Maria and Martin are trapped by their lack of recognizable assets and no access to capital.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: When my husband was working in the mining cooperative, he drank a lot. We were separated for two years. Now that he is ill, he doesn't drink anymore. He's unemployed and stays home. As a girl I wanted a good man. It was my dream to leave this place. But I'm stuck here for the rest of my life. I was 15 years old when my son Mario was born. Then we got a second and a third child. Summing up, I have eight children. Mario, Beimar, Dennis, Johnny, Roger, Vladimir, Jaime, Jesus. Those are their names.>> TITLE: La Paz>> VOICEOVER: Lack of access to capital is not only a problem for poor people, but also for poor nations like Bolivia. >> JAIME BARRENECHEA [President, Yacimientos Petroliferos Fiscales Bolivianos (YPFB), state oil and gas company]: Later, I will go to the club to swim.>> DAUGHTER: OK.>>VOICEOVER: As president of the state oil and gas company, Jaime Barrenechea is enmeshed in this problem. >> NEWS REPORTER: The gas is a springboard for the development of Bolivia.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: I will be busy out of the office most of the morning.>> VOICEOVER: The new administration is proposing a gas law to deal with the issue of imbalance of profits that caused the riots. But it's a dicey situation. >> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Everybody is talking about that gas law.>> VOICEOVER: Jaime is afraid that taking too much profit away from the multinational investors will scare them away.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: The government sent a new gas law to the parliament. The endorsement of a bad law could result in the opposite of what we want. First, the state will not collect enough money for the treasury. Secondly, the foreign investments will stop growing. So it is a delicate issue. We urgently need to define this law with acceptable conditions for the state and the multinationals. Otherwise the gas exploration will be postponed. I worked for 25 years in the private oil industry now it is my turn to work for the state oil and gas company. In October 2003, after the gas war, we had a change of government. President Mesa invited me to take the director's post in the state company. All the attention of the Bolivian population is focused on the gas. The Bolivian state company should regain control over its resources.>> TITLE: Head office, state oil and gas company>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: At what time is the meeting with the commercial people? >> WOMAN: Two-thirty.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Make sure Jorge Barraca knows. Thanks. We are now working on something very important. It is about finalizing a credit with a befriended country, China. China delivers the necessary capital to connect Bolivians to gas. Obtaining capital is extremely important in Bolivia. It is a very poor country and we need capital for these kinds of investments. We also need huge investments for the production and transport of gas. This cannot be a loan. It should come from multinationals that provide venture capital. >> TITLE: El Alto, satellite city of La Paz>> VOICEOVER: Caught in the tight financial constraints caused by the same social and political dilemmas, small business entrepreneurs like Tomas Bravo are also struggling to gain access to capital.>> SIGN: Pressure tubes for all purposes>> CUSTOMER: This one is good, they say.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Yes, and then you also need this one. Sure we need one like this, which brings this together. I started my business in El Alto since the economy is more dynamic here. There is much more money here than in the center of La Paz, or other departments. The people work harder. They sell sodas and oranges. They just try harder. As an independent I earn more. This is thanks to my brother. He brought me to La Paz. He also gave me a hand with my business, with materials, and he also helped me to pay my first bank loans. What I need is 4,000 dollars. I want to spend 1,500 dollars on a new machine. I need capital. Do you think I will get another loan?>> BROTHER: If you want a loan, you have to plan it well. You have to make a plan that convinces the bank. Secondly, the shop you started here this year does well. It is like a tree that bears fruit. And now you want to plant these fruits in Taquinia, and that seems interesting.>> VOICEOVER: Like Tomas, Maria has dreams. While she earns a small income from selling her pigs, she has hopes of starting new business ventures. And, like Tomas, she needs access to capital.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: I would like to put my kiosk right over there. Where the miners can come and buy from me. My battery charger will be right there, so my shops will be close to each other.>> VOICEOVER: Maria's need to fulfill her ambitions is made more urgent because of Martin's deteriorating health and inability to work.>> MAN 1: Tell me, Martin, how long have you been out of work now?>> MARTIN OLMEDO: I've been unemployed for three months, because I have some health problems. There were enough others, and they fired me.>> MAN 1: You don't have a pension either?>> MARTIN OLMEDO: No.>> MAN 1: Why aren't you getting a pension?>> MARTIN OLMEDO: I couldn't pay anymore.>> MAN 2: Does your wife work, does she help you a bit? >> MARTIN OLMEDO: Yes, she works.>> VOICEOVER: Maria also needs to cover the tuition expenses of her oldest son and daughter so they can move on to a better life. Her son Mario contributes to the family income by working at the television relay station at the top of the hill. He takes turns manning the station around the clock with other family members. Once a beautiful shrine, the station is a cold and isolated place to live and work.>> MARIO OLMEDA: Hello, yes. Channel 41 is okay.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: My son works up there at the relay station. He gets a salary every month. We have to pay everything from it. All shopping, vegetables, clothes. Tuition fees. It is not enough. Here is your food. Did anybody phone you?>> MARIO OLMEDA: No.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Nobody called you? Here is your food.>> MARIO OLMEDA: How is father?>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: He has an inflamed chest and is walking with difficulty. He could not sleep last night. The agitation makes it like that. He is coughing continuously. The baby was crying too. We could not do anything. The baby cried till 4 o'clock. Were you cold last night?>> CARLOS MESA: Looking back at the past, living now, and confronting our future. We have to be well informed about our gas, in order to take the best decision. Each time you see this symbol, beware! We talk about what is most important. Gas is important for all!>> TITLE: Province of Tarija>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Look! Millions of dollars have been invested in the oil and gas sector of Bolivia. Very necessary. This plant demanded an enormous investment. On top of that came the investment in the pipeline they are building. Because of the difficult topography, the costs have increased tremendously. We need to find a balance point so that the multinationals remain working here and continue to invest, and that the people in the country feel the benefits from those investments.>> VOICEOVER: While the natural resources that fuel this Santa Margarita plant are owned by Bolivia, the plant itself is owned by the Spanish multinational company, Repsol. >> WORKER: Welcome to Santa Margarita.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: How are you?>> VOICEOVER: The contract for this operation requires the state, represented by Jaime, to extract the natural gas, liquefy it, and pipe it to Brazil. But, in an attempt to create a more just balance of revenue to the state, the new gas law levies a greater tax on investors like Repsol.>> WORKER: The plant is now technically fully operational. We are only waiting to have the export line ready, to be able to start operations.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Great, because once this plant starts supplying gas to Brazil, it is a great new source of liquid gas. That will increase the collection of royalties for the National Treasury and for the Province of Tarija. We need the plant to be ready for production as soon as possible.>> VOICEOVER: In an attempt to settle their differences, Jaime hosts a meeting with Repsol managers. >>TITLE: National state oil and gas company, St. Cruz>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: We need to incorporate the production of the Margarita field in order to export gas to Brazil. Therefore, we would like to know when your plant will start its production.>> JULIO CAVITO [President, Repsol Bolivia]: It is very much affected by the new gas law. The current formulation of the law really holds back further investment to obtain liquid gas out of the natural gas.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: But the state company invests in this plant. I am not joining in order to lose money.>> JULIO CAVITO: Let's not lose faith. But, please use your influence to bring some order to the proposed law. Ironically, the way it is formulated now, such a law is not in the national interest. The way the law is now, it is better for us not to produce liquid gas at all.>> VOICEOVER: While Jaime knows he must respond to Repsol's demands and retain their investments, his first obligation is to the nation.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: If there is a tax framework that puts too much pressure on private capital there are many investments that will not take place in this country. It is possible to increase our income, but we need a balance. We have to be aware of what game we are playing with our gas reserves not only in South America, but on a global scale.>> VOICEOVER: To further complicate Jaime's dilemma, many feel that the state's first priority is to pipe gas directly to the millions of Bolivians homes that are without it.>> TOMAS BRAVO: When I married Patricia Ramos I was only 17. We have three fantastic kids now. Living in Villa Pavon, I am grateful for all the help offered by my father-in-law. My first shop is successful. That is why I am thinking of obtaining a new loan to open a second shop. >> VOICEOVER: Tomas has his own dilemma. While he needs a new loan to expand his business, he still owes money on his original loan. On the advice of his brother, he has worked hard to prepare his case and enters the bank with confidence. But, like Repsol, the bank holds the cards.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Herman, I have a project I want to show to you. Let me explain. I need your assistance to get money. As you can see, I need an amount of $4,000.>> HERMAN [BancoSol]: Is that on top of the loan that you already have? Because you already have a credit.>> TOMAS BRAVO: That's right.>> HERMAN: How much is your balance?>> TOMAS BRAVO: $1,200 in the minus.>> HERMAN: So that means that your new debt will be $5,200. That is with an interest rate of 26 percent per year. We see that this adds up to 40 percent in 36 months. What kind of guaranty can you offer?>>TOMAS BRAVO: At this moment this could be the machine that I am going to buy and the machine that I already have invested in.>> HERMAN: The guaranty is with collateral?>> TOMAS BRAVO: Yes, with collateral. Otherwise, with an additional guarantee like the land of my brother. Can we consider that?>> HERMAN: With the collateral of the machines alone it is difficult to obtain authorization for that amount. You need to make $412 of net profit to maintain this shop. You say that you make $262 a month. There is a difference of $140. So, it is very premature to say yes or no to this project. But I have an idea of what you've shown so I am going to call you tomorrow. >> TOMAS BRAVO: OK, in any case take my card.>> HERMAN: Perfect.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Please study my situation, here is my proposal.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Hello Teofilla, what's up?>> TEOFILLA JAVIER RAMOS: I am washing the miners' dishes.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Monday at two we have a microcredit meeting. Are you coming?>> TEOFILLA JAVIER RAMOS: Where is it?>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: At the same place. So, okay, at two. I'll see you there.>> TEOFILLA JAVIER RAMOS: Bye-bye.>> VOICEOVER: Microcredit is a small loan, often offered to start-up businesses by non-government organizations, or NGOs, rather than banks.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: I've lived here since I was eight years old, in this mine entrance called la Roxana. My father abandoned us when I was only three years old. We suffered a lot. We had to fetch water and wood all the way to Guachachi. It was a long way to get water. We supplied food and water to the miners to clean their hands to wash their mouths, and their lamps had to be charged. We cooked and slept in the same room. We did everything in the same room. The memory hurts. It makes me cry. It was Christmas. When I went down into town, everybody had toys, bikes, dolls, and I had nothing. And I had nothing. I suffer very much remembering this all. I don't want to remember it. It hurts too much. I had no father to ask why I didn't have at least some toys to play with. I just took the cooking kerosene and went back to the mountain. I cried a lot and asked my mother why she didn't buy anything for me. "Baby," she said, "we do not have the money to buy dolls." To celebrate Christmas we only had a paprika to prepare. I suffered so much here in the mine entrance. We had to walk down and up by foot again and again. It hurt a lot to constantly walk. This is why I cannot read nor write.>> VOICEOVER: In areas like Potosi, where banks will not give loans to poor people without recognizable collateral, their only option is to get microcredit from NGOs like Crecer. Maria has been able to form a group of women who have qualified for their microcredit loan from Crecer by guaranteeing that each will cover for the other in case of default.>> CRECER ORGANIZER: I give the money to the board of directors, to the treasurer. We start counting, together with the group. After counting we will discuss our plans. Count this, Maria: $4,000 is what we need to count. The communal association is obligated to pay an interest of 21 percent for a period of 24 weeks. This means a total amount of interest of $2,000. This is the amount that this group has to pay back. You have to pay back $2,000 to the institute.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: It is important that you show up in time for our meetings. It is a guideline of our bank that the board of directors manages the money. Together we are responsible. By doing business, this amount of money should increase.>> CRECER ORGANIZER: Teofilla Javier Ramos, what are you going to use the money for?>> TEOFILLA JAVIER RAMOS: I'm going to sell sandwiches.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Here is $200. Please count it yourself. >> TEOFILLA JAVIER RAMOS: That's right. Thanks.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: It's real money, you can trust it.>> CRECER ORGANIZER: Maria Cabana Llanos Olmedo, $200. What are you going to use the money for?>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: I am using the money to buy a kiosk. This way, I will make more money. I'll have electricity installed in my house and I will install my battery charger.>> CRECER ORGANIZER: Very good. Sign the paper here, Maria. Here. That's it.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Yes.>> CRECER ORGANIZER: Money so you can work.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Yes, thanks. Now I'm going to celebrate.>> WOMAN: You are not going to buy joints?>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: This very afternoon!>> VOICEOVER: Part of the reason that BancoSol is so tough on Tomas is that they themselves must justify the loans they grant to their own investors. >> INVESTOR: Hello.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Sorry. My hands are a bit dirty.>> JHONNY UGARTE [BancoSol]: These are the representatives of IFC, investors of BancoSol. They would like to know a bit more about the way you run your business.>> TOMAS BRAVO: I work with pressure tubes. This one for instance has to be replaced, because it is burned. Sorry, I almost hit you by swinging this tube.>> INVESTOR: What motivated you to open your own shop?>> TOMAS BRAVO: My employer was cutting the salaries due to the economic crisis. In 2003, I earned half of what I made in 2002. With a salary like that I could not support three children.>> INVESTOR: How did your life change?>> TOMAS BRAVO: Lots of things changed. Before, I was like a slave of my employer. The bank loan I got gave me the chance to improve and to grow. But you also need strength of character.>> INVESTOR: Some people do not even make it with credit.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Yes, I have seen those cases. But personally, I do manage.>> INVESTOR: What is your monthly turnover?>> TOMAS BRAVO: This month I officially billed for an amount of $220.>> JHONNY UGARTE: For many of our clients the only thing they could guarantee was to form a group of three, four, or five people and through this guarantee mechanism they could share a credit.>> INVESTOR: So what changed? What happened?>> JHONNY UGARTE: Since the guarantee was based on solidarity, a guarantee shared among the people, those that remained in the group had to pay the debts of their group members. This started to generate some bad experiences for some people. They said: "I don't want to pay another person's debts." "I do not want to give anymore guarantees." Or in other cases, some people's business grew fast and the group solidarity credit was not enough to cover this kind of request. So they started to ask us for other forms of credit. What a fool. So the bank now manages "solidarity credits," individual credits, credits for much higher amounts.>> VOICEOVER: As the director of the state oil and gas company, not only does Jaime have to manage international deals, but also the delivery of gas and oil to the local market. >> JAIME BARRENECHEA: The gas that we administer comes from this kind of plant. These bottles are inconvenient for the population and very expensive for the government. Each year we spend $50 million on subsidies for liquid gas to maintain a low price for the population. So we should replace these bottles with connections to people's homes. >> VOICEOVER: In order to provide direct gas connections, inexpensive long-term loans must be obtained. >> JAIME BARRENECHEA: We can get sufficient materials to deliver natural gas to 130,000 households in Bolivia. That Chinese government agent promotes exports with these kinds of loans. What are they called? Concessional? The conditions are very special, no?>> WOMAN: Yes, the interest is 2 percent over 20 years. The first nine years are for free. So after nine years we start to pay.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Good evening. Can I get a Tampico?>> STORE EMPLOYEE: Which flavor?>> TOMAS BRAVO: Orange. And five eggs, please.>> NEWS ANNOUNCER: Jaime Barrenechea and the federation of neighbors of El Alto signed an agreement today to install domestic gas connections. The gas will be delivered to every household. The neighbors of El Alto will collaborate in the layout of connections to 22,000 houses and 48 educational centers.>> TITLE: Inauguration of El Alto Gas Distribution Center>> VOICEOVER: The first gas connections were made in El Alto on the very spot where, two years before, the fiercest mass riots took place. >> JAIME BARRENECHEA: It is different than connecting water. Gas involves pressure. It contains a potential risk. So it's a delicate venture. The neighbors contribute 30 percent to the costs of the work. That's very important. They leave their daily tasks in order to work here. They contribute from their salaries.>> WOMAN: We agree, we all agree to work.>> MAN: I live here, and this place is completely abandoned every day. Only today they are working!>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Sure, I just explained it a while ago. I am not a magician. If it were up to me I would wave my magic wand so that everybody gets gas. We need the money to buy materials, to transfer it to the micro businesses. The salaries of the people have to be paid. So bit by bit we have to advance. In El Alto there are almost one million inhabitants!>> SIGN: We Charge Batteries. Open 24 Hours>> MARTIN OLMEDO: That is okay, keep it like that.>> VOICEOVER: Maria's new business puts added demands on her entire family.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: On this battery charger I can connect batteries for 25 lamps. My husband is going to help me to charge the lamps, and to fill the water. He also distributes the lamps. The work of charging the batteries is a bit difficult for me. You have to check them at one, two, and three in the morning. Sometimes we cannot get any sleep. Good morning. Good morning, Apolinar. I want to tell you about my lamp-charging business. It's closer than in Calvario for which you have to go up and down. That takes you double the time. Just bring your lamps to my shop to be charged. It costs only a peso and I'm open 24 hours a day. You can pick them up whenever you need them. I got the money from Crecer. My husband is ill. Therefore I work with this money.>> MAN: What's the deal? Can we get a credit?>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Weekly I can charge the lamps. But I need to speak with your boss. Only he can decide about the guaranty on a credit. So are you coming to charge your lamps?>> MAN: We have to consult our boss to see if he can give us the warranty.>> TITLE: La Paz>> VOICEOVER: In addition to the minor, low-interest loan from China to cover the direct connection of gas to households, Jaime has been pursuing major Chinese business conglomerates for mega venture-capital investments.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: I just received good news. A group of Chinese confirmed an investment of $1.5 billion. They want to start the production of gas fields in Bolivia. They confirm an investment of about 1.5 billion dollars. This is the proof that they want to start their activities.>> VOICEOVER: Despite the huge Chinese investment, Jaime knows that he cannot relax his quest for additional capital. >> TITLE: Tarija>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: Imagine the impact we will have when we can produce larger volumes of gas and deliver that gas to the people.>> VOICEOVER: He shares his concerns with his friend Roberto, who doesn't fully understand this highly complex situation.>> ROBERTO: If the companies that work here want to leave, let them go. We have got the Chinese. They can replace them.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: No, definitely not. We need opportunities to be added, not to replace others. In no way can we afford to lose them. The country can't afford to go deeper into debt. We only have access to concessional loans. There are guidelines from the World Bank and the IMF which prevent us from obtaining sufficient credit for this development. The money invested will never reach the people if we can't create a legal framework that allows us to collect higher royalties.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Good afternoon.>> MR. LOIASA: Hello Tomas, this is Mr. Loiasa.>> TOMAS BRAVO: How are you, Mr. Loiasa?>> MR. LOIASA: They have looked at the proposal, and they told me that it is viable. But you need to provide an additional guaranty. Please come by the office with your proposal.>> TOMAS BRAVO: I intend to come by in the afternoon.>> MR. LOIASA: All right.>> TOMAS BRAVO: See you then. I have to provide an additional guaranty because I do not have enough to offer. When banks lend you one Boliviano, they ask two Bolivianos guaranty. The bank never loses. It has to be double the amount.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: Here are the lamps. Which ones are yours? The fat one? Take it easy, take it with care. This one is yours too?>> MAN: Yes.>> MARIA CABANA OLMEDA: I am happy for Mario, because my son is studying to become a guide. That's the dream of my son. I am proud of that.>> MARTIN OLMEDO: I want him to study, so he doesn't have to work in the mines. I do not want him to work like I did, I do not want him to suffer.>> JAIME BARRENECHEA: We are waiting for the new gas law in order to proceed with deals with Brazilian and Spanish companies. It is obvious that the negotiations are dragging on and on because there is no gas law yet. Our company urgently needs a definite new gas law with a framework that allows us to take off with new projects.>> VOICEOVER: In 2005, both President Mesa and Jaime Barrenechea were forced to resign. Political turmoil regarding the new gas law persists.>> PATRICIA [Tomas' wife]: Hello Tomas.>> TOMAS BRAVO: What is that?>> PATRICIA: Come here. How are you?>> TOMAS BRAVO: How are the kids?>> PATRICIA: Okay.>> TOMAS BRAVO: Mr. Loiasa of the bank called me.>> PATRICIA: What did he say?>>TOMAS BRAVO: It was about the project. We need a personal guaranty. I do not know how we can realize that.>> PATRICIA: Why?>> TOMAS BRAVO: They say the plan is feasible. But we need a personal guaranty. I have to go back to the bank. I have to talk about it to Javier. Let's see what he says. I tried to do it with my collateral but they do not accept it.>> PATRICIA: I will talk to Brigit's sister. What do you think?>> TOMAS BRAVO: I don't want to do the guaranty in that way. But I will think about it, see what we can do.>> PATRICIA: Don't you want a coffee or a soft drink?>> TOMAS BRAVO: Later.>> PATRICIA: Okay, go and see the children.>> VOICEOVER: Three months later, Tomas Bravo's loan was partially approved.>> BOY: Here's the bread.>> VOICEOVER: Maria continues to fund her children's education with her battery charging business. Although so far she's been able to manage her credit, she knows she has a very tough road ahead.>> MARTIN OLMEDO: Here's a cigarette, please help us.>> VOICEOVER: A few months after filming, Maria's husband Martin died at age 38 from respiratory problems caused by working in the mines.>> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-empowered-strength-in-numbers Small village banks aren't just helping Africans to save money and invest in their communities, they also empower women and help families break the cycle of poverty. This film profiles two microcredit success stories from Malawi. Mon, 25 Oct 2010 08:16:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/women-empowered-strength-in-numbers Latin America, Malawi, Microfinance, CARE, Phil Borges, Poverty, Microcredit, Africa, Gender, Agriculture & Food >> TITLE: Beginning in the 1970s, microcredit loans enabled millions of people in Asia and Latin America to break the cycle of poverty.>> TITLE: Unfortunately, the microcredit revolution stopped short of the poorest continent in the world: Africa.>> TITLE: Millions of hardworking people don't have a safe place to save money. Most of them can't get an affordable loan. Another way had to be found.>> TITLE: Strength in Numbers>> PHIL BORGES [Documentary Filmmaker and Photographer]: I've spent several years documenting humanitarian issues throughout Africa. I'd heard that very poor African women were being encouraged and even coached to open their own banks. I really didn't get it. How could someone who is struggling to feed their family save, let alone lend money to someone else? So, in 2008 I went to Malawi to see for myself how these so-called "village savings and loan" [VS&L] programs really worked. Most of the people in Malawi, which is one of the poorest countries in the world, are subsistence farmers living on less than a dollar a day. >> TITLE: Jinesi Mafuta, Kandaya village>> PHIL BORGES: Jinesi, her husband, and daughters were one of those families. She and her husband Eya could not even afford the clothing to send their daughters to school. Food itself was a luxury item for several months out of the year. Jinesi clearly remembers that day eight years ago, when CARE came to her village to present the VS&L program. Seventy people went to that meeting, but it wasn't long before Jinesi and 60 others walked out. CARE offered no grants, no loans. Jinesi was just very skeptical.>> JINESI MAFUTA: At first, I went to join the group without much confidence. I was the one discouraging my friends from joining VS&L. I had a change of heart when I saw what was happening with my friends, and decided to go.>> PHIL BORGES: Once in the group, Jinesi committed to save 20 cents a week. She stuck with it, and today, five years later, the results I saw were almost unbelievable. In the very first year, she took out a loan to buy fertilizer. That crop fed her family for the entire year. This caught her husband's attention. He started giving her money from his carpentry business to save. Today, their three daughters are in school. They've not only purchased an ox cart and livestock, but they've also purchased farmland, and land to build rental houses. As in so many developing countries, women here grow the food, they collect the firewood and water, they take care of the children and animals, but rarely do they handle the family's income. Yet it's women's discipline to save and repay loans that makes VS&Ls such a success. And it's women's tendencies to invest in their families that make VS&Ls so effective in fighting poverty.>> EYA MAFUTA [Farmer, Carpenter]: At first, getting cash was like hand to mouth. Once they got the money they would use it immediately. But now that the women started saving in VS&L, they are able to keep a lot of money and use it to achieve bigger things in life. The people in this community -- almost every person -- are really interested in VS&L after seeing what the women are doing. The community now respects the women.>> PHIL BORGES: Now, that's progress. Eight years after CARE started that very first VS&L group in Jinesi's village, 25 groups have started on their own, without depending on any outside support. The benefits, which are visible to everyone, just keep the groups multiplying.>> TITLE: Elise Mdzuma, Kaundama village>> PHIL BORGES: Elise is the treasurer of one of the 65 groups in her community. She became a member of a VS&L group in 2006, and has never looked back.>> ELISE MDZUMA: Before the VS&L program came to the area, I was so destitute. I was nobody. Soon after the introduction of VS&L, my life really improved, from zero to somebody.>> PHIL BORGES: When I met Elise, her group was getting ready to take the next step. They were pooling their money to start a poultry business. And they wanted to make their community the poultry capital of the whole district.>> ELISE MDZUMA: When we have a group business, it not only means our own households are better off, but the whole community is stronger. Kaundama will be known for where the women have a poultry business.>> PHIL BORGES: Now, after visiting over 40 groups, I realize that the VS&L process not only tackles poverty, but it instills pride. And it strengthens relationships between women, and relationships between husbands and wives. And, most importantly, it empowers and it builds respect for women. And women's empowerment is so central in the fight against poverty.>> ELISE MDZUMA: I could never imagine having a cell phone, buying iron sheets for the roof, and pigs. In my heart I have peace. Everything I want in my life is available.>> TITLE: The VS&L process is brilliant in its simplicity. CARE has an ambitious goal to enroll 30 million VS&L participants in the next decade.>> TITLE: Seeing how fast these groups spread once the seed is planted, I think it just might be possible -- Phil Borges http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mali-small-loans-big-impact For people living in the remote Malian town of Yebe, the village bank cooperative has opened up new opportunities. With a microfinance loan of only 30 euros, Mama Coulibaly was able to buy a sack of corn and turn a profit. Now, she runs a small shop and is the only person in her village with a television. Will microfinance prove to be the anchor that keeps young Africans at home, with a bright future? Wed, 06 Oct 2010 08:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mali-small-loans-big-impact Microfinance, Mali, Microcredit, Loan, Africa, West Africa, Small business, Bank, Djenné, Bamako >> VOICEOVER: Sun, sand and relaxation. The Canary Islands are a popular travel destination for wealthy holidaymakers from Europe. Just a short distance away from Africa, and yet worlds apart. Every year thousands of people try to reach this paradise in the sun. Every day young men from the heart of Africa embark on a murderous journey to Europe. Dozens crowd together in tiny boats that are hardly seaworthy. Without food or water, they risk their lives setting out into an unpredictable Atlantic Ocean. It is their hope for a better future that makes them tempt their fate in this way. >> TITLE: Mama Coulibaly >> TITLE: Small loans, big impact >> VOICEOVER: Many young men come from West Africa, from villages like this one. We are in Yebe, a small village in Mali, south of the Sahara. The old clay mosques are the only reminder of the former kingdom. This is where the Bambara tribe live, the people who once ruled West Africa. The people here are farmers. When there is enough rain they grow corn, rice and millet. The whole village is dependent on the harvest, just like Mama Coulibaly, a local trader. She sells the wheat from Yebe in the surrounding cities and brings back some revenue to her impoverished village. >> MAMA COULIBALY [Trader]: During the drought two years ago there was no rice. We had to survive with very little corn. We couldn't even afford soap. Even this year we still have to buy extra rice for our village, but the prices are rising. Everything is in short supply. That's why many of our boys and men go to Europe. In times like these we must look out that we don't starve. >> VOICEOVER: And yet Mama Coulibaly and the people in Yebe are relatively well off in comparison to other villages. There is only one reason for this: eight years ago development workers came to visit their remote village, which had no electricity or water. These aid workers helped the villagers to build up their own special savings and lending bank. Financial expert Kunibar Darré regularly comes to Yebe to advise people about savings and loans. He keeps to the old rituals, first visiting the village elder before inviting everyone to a general meeting. >> GRIJO: Friends from a white TV station have come and would like to talk to you. That's why we have called for a village meeting today. Everybody is to come to the assembly square after the lunchtime prayer. The council of the elders and all men and women should come to talk about their experiences with our village bank. >> VOICEOVER: Today Mama Coulibaly is also invited. This is unusual, because according to the tradition of the Bamara, only the eldest men have the power to make decisions. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Good day, inhabitants of Yebe. Our friends form Europe want to know what we have achieved with European help. How have you used this help and what have you been able to do with it. To show our friends that we need their support, we will talk about whether our new bank has helped you to live better lives. Men and women, please tell them freely what you would like to say, tell them your concerns. >> DAR: The white people came to us and suggested that we build a village bank. They didn't give us any money, but they explained to us how to build up a cooperative and that everybody must pay in some money and everyone gets a savings account. That's how it started. We saved a lot and gave out many credits. The neighboring villages then also joined us. It works well, we are happy with it. That's why we hope that this kind of support will continue. Now this woman may speak. >> MAMA COULIBALY: With the loan I received from the bank I worked very hard and I made a good profit. I was able to pay back the money very soon and I got another loan. My business improved a lot this way. It was a big success for me, it was a really good deal. We always paid our loans back on time. I always managed to pay it back. I am very grateful that we have this bank. >> VOICEOVER: Over 80,000 families in the whole of Mali have received small loans. More than half of these loans went to women, because most of the men have long left the villages in the desert. The women here have always traditionally loaned each other money. Although the oldest men in the village have all the power, it is mostly women who work in agriculture and are involved in trading. They are used to making a lot happen, with very little money. >> VOICEOVER: Mama Coulibaly received the equivalent of only 30 euros for her first loan. She used the money to buy a sack of corn and a sack of millet. She took the grain to the market of the provincial capital Djenne and this is how she earned her first 25 euros. Today with her small shop Mama Coulibaly supplies the people in her village with the foodstuffs that they cannot grow themselves. The profit she has made has enabled her to be the first person in her village to buy a television set. Everyone who wants to watch her television has to pay a little, so that she can buy fuel for the generator that powers it. Here too, Mama Coulibaly, a businesswoman through and through, makes a little profit. Mama Coulibaly is about 40 years old. She is the mother of seven children aged 13-24. After her first husband died, she was married to his younger brother in keeping with tradition. But he is not very present in her life. She earns her own living and her children help her with the housework. Mama cannot read or write, but she makes sure that her daughters attend school. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Come on, come on. Hurry up, you must get to school on time. >> VOICEOVER: Only about half the residents of Yebe send their children to the French-speaking school. Books and school supplies have to be paid for by the parents and for many families it is more important that their children work, especially the girls. Mama Coulibaly's daughter is the only girl in the afternoon classes. After finishing school she can even go on to study; her mother will do everything to give her the opportunities she never had. >> MAMA COULIBALY: I believe that only women should receive small loans. Here in Yebe it is basically only the women who work. They can do something with the money. And if you help the women, then you help everyone, especially the children. We don't really have anything here. We need money to trade food and we need loans to help ourselves. >> VOICEOVER: Friday is savings day in Yebe. It's the only day the village bank is open. Experts from Germany taught the cashiers of the village bank basic accounting. It was a big problem to find the right people, as hardly anyone here can read or write. Surprisingly the Europeans never brought cash here but they brought their know-how and advice. Today the administration of the village bank works well in Yebe. The chairmen of the bank are the village elders, a sign of respect to African tradition. >> VOICEOVER: Yakuba is the head of the bank. He checks who has paid back their credit on time and decides whether there are enough savings to warrant new loans. The bank regularly counts the money and works out how much it can afford to loan to people. This month Yakuba has noticed that it is far less than they expected. Savings have shrunk a lot recently. Loans are being repaid very slowly these days. It is not that people are lazy or don't want to pay back their loans, it is the continuing drought which is ruining their business. The harvest was meager and people need their money to buy extra food. The interest rates are relatively high at over 20 percent. But they are necessary for the bank to continue to operate. Nobody in Yebe has any securities to offer and everyone needs their loans immediately. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Microfinance in Mali means self-governed village banks. They give out small loans. This is something the banks in the cities don't do because it is hardly worth it for them and the people in the countryside have no securities to offer. The idea behind microfinancing is to give those people small loans who would never stand a chance of getting one from a normal bank. >> VOICEOVER: To receive a loan from the village bank applicants don't need a big house or property or even cash as a guarantee. But they do have to join the cooperative, like Mama Coulibaly did. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Good morning, did you sleep well and your family? I am here because of the loan I asked for. I would like to know if you will loan me the money? >> SPARKASSE [Bank Worker]: Mama, I'm afraid that as far as I can see right now, we do not have enough money for your loan. Not enough people have paid money in, we are short of cash. But Yakuba can tell you exactly what the situation is, he is the head of the committee. >> YAKUBA [Committee Chief]: Mama, as you see we are all sitting here because we don't have enough money. Many people have come here to get a loan, but nobody has received one. I have checked the books and as much as I would like to do it, it is impossible to loan money right now. >> BANK WORKER: I know, Mama, you are one of the best members of our cooperative. You always pay your debts on time. That alone makes you eligible for a loan from us, but only when we have enough money. It is hard for us to not be able to help you, we are sorry. Have a little patience. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Thank you for your frank words. But God will help us, I wish you all a good day. I hope that things will improve soon and that we will soon be able to get loans again. >> YAKUBA: This bank has opened up opportunities for us which were unthinkable eight years ago. At the moment we can't give out any new loans but when the harvest is poor then people can at least buy food because they have some money left. >> VOICEOVER: Kunibar Darré, the microfinance expert from the German-Malian Development cooperation still controls and consults the village banks regularly. To gather all the heads of the village banks once a year he uses the radio – also a former development aid project. >> MAN: We interrupt our music program for an important message from the villlage bank. Kunibar Darré is with us. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: This is Kunibar Darré with an important message for the heads of the village banks. On Sunday at 8 o´clock there is a general assembly in Djenne in the office of the microfinance cooperative for all the heads of the village banks. I would like you all to personally attend the meeting and in particular it is important that Jakuba Traoré, head of the village bank in Yebe should attend Sunday's meeting. >> VOICEOVER: Sunday in Djenne. Many people have gathered in front of the mosque. The state president has announced his visit to the cultural capital on the Niger Delta. All the tribes in the region will play their music and perform their dances. Most of the heads of the village banks are also the oldest in the village or well-respected hunters. The respect for African traditions plays an important role in the success of the village banks. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Welcome to our meeting. I am happy to see you all. We want to talk about the future of our banks today and about our experiences with microfinancing, especially in this year where the harvest was so bad. >> MAN: Yes, it really isn't easy at the moment. But now that the banks have been set up and they work, we must continue. We need your support and it is good that we can have this exchange of ideas. >> VOICEOVER: It's not just village elders who run the banks. Some younger men have also reached these desirable positions. In return they had to promise to keep living in their villages. Kunibar wants more villages to start up banks. As always he must first ask the council of elders for their permission to present his ideas and his suggestions. Only then can he start to promote his ideas. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Hello, good day, have you ever heard anything about the banking cooperatives and the microcredits? >> WOMAN: Yes. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Do you really know the advantages they have and how they work? >> WOMAN: No, we don't really know much about them. But we do know that Mama Coulibaly has done very well with them. >> KUNIBAR DARRE: I can explain to you how these banks work, but for such a bank to be successful many of you have to become members. I should come back to this village another time and then we should all meet up in the village center. Hello, I am from Djenne and my name is Kunibar. >> MAN: And what is your surname? >> KUNIBAR DARRE: Darre. >> MAN: Hey, that means lion hunter, doesn't it? Don't try to hunt wild animals here. >> VOICEOVER: Until recently many people in the village worked as seasonal workers in the cocoa plantations of the neighboring country, Ivory Coast. It brought much needed income to this region. But the war in Ivory Coast has forced many people to return home -- people like Lamine Traore. >> LAMINE TRAORE: When the war started I stayed at home, because the military ordered us not to go out. But when things calmed down we fled and we tried to return to Mali via Ghana. We managed to get through in the end and that's how we came back here to our village. >> VOICEOVER: Lamine was only able to bring part of his family with him. His wife and his youngest children still live in Ivory Coast. He wants to build up a new life for them here. >> LAMINE TRAORE: I don't want to go to Europe like so many others. I just want to stay here to live my life in peace. I will try to build up a new existence. I would most like to stay here on the land, because this is where I am at home. >> VOICEOVER: This is difficult, as there is hardly any work for men here. Even in Yebe many people are still dependent on the money that their relatives send back from Europe. The head of the village bank, Yakuba Traore, the father of 15 children and husband of three wives, has not taken out a loan from his bank. Instead he is counting on the generosity of his two eldest sons who have both gone to Europe to find work. >> YAKUBA: We don't regret that they live and work there because they regularly send us money to support us. There is no real work for young men here anyway. If I were rich my sons would not have to emigrate to Europe. Then we could perhaps build up something here. But it's simply a question of money. I may have three wives but other than that I am a poor man. >> VOICEOVER: Mama Coulibaly won't let her children move to Europe. Her sons and daughters live in the countryside and the youngest are all doing some kind of vocational training. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Hey Mussa, let us help you. Those sacks are really heavy. But if you insist then carry them alone. >> VOICEOVER: Monday is Mama's hardest working day. That's when she drives to the provincial capital Djenne, to sell grain from her village at the market. She gets up at six o´clock. She travels for three hours by ox-drawn cart. >> MAMA COULIBALY: There are days where I am totally worn out, because I think of my mother who suffered more from poverty than I ever have. Now I try to help her. One sees this very clearly with the whites, when they are doing well they are very happy, but one must have patience. Many young people have left to find work somewhere else. That's not good. If God made you to make something of your life here, then nobody should change that. But it would be better if more women like me received help. It really is my wish that many more women manage to do the same as me and that we are successful. Hello Yakuba, what are you doing here already. >> VOICEOVER: Mama has not had a market stall for a long time. She sells her wheat directly to traders in Bamako, the capital of Mali. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Give me all the money. I won't confuse who gets how much. >> VOICEOVER: 56,000 CFA is how much Mama gets for her grain. Now Mama is buying goods and produce for her shop. Goods that are not available in Yebe. >> MAMA COULIBALY: Do you have canned tomatoes? How much do you want for them? What? 2,000 CFA? That's too expensive. How much is this garlic? 100 CFA? I'll take it. >> VOICEOVER: This is how Mama Coulibaly plays her part in Africa's domestic trading. She supplies the people in Yebe and Bamako. The village eldest, Yakuba, is in Djenne today. But he is not doing business, he is at the bank trying to get the money from his two sons who live illegally in Spain. He is totally dependent on their generosity. But this does not affect his status or his reputation as a man. He does not have to work for his money and can still support his family. With the youngest of his wives he is expecting his sixteenth child. Like these young men Yakuba's sons have made their way to Europe. All the way through the Sahara desert, via the nomadic cities like Gao via Algeria or Morocco. Often people travel for weeks in pick-ups until they get to the Algerian coast. Like this man. >> MAN: We come from Segu in Mali and are trying to get to Morocco. We leave our country because it is simply too poor. There is no work and no future. The journey is hard, we have to earn money first in Algeria to get into Morocco. Everyone knows that the border between Morocco and Algeria is closed and still we take on the risk of trying to get across the fence. The number of people who die each year is much higher than those who make it across to Europe. I know because I have tried it once and was caught. And still I will try again. It is my last chance. >> VOICEOVER: Is Europe really the only chance for Africa's young men? As Mama Coulibaly's success story shows, microfinancing offers young Africans the biggest chance in a long time to build a future for themselves at home. Small loans, initiative and hard work could spare many people the murderous path through the Sahara desert and across the ocean to Europe. >> TITLE: [End credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coffee-awakens-a-national-economy <p>Coffee has become a powerful economic driver for Rwanda, but how have the country's farmers managed to transform their crop into a premium product that can command top prices? The answer lies in washing stations and bicycles.</p> Fri, 24 Sep 2010 19:26:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/coffee-awakens-a-national-economy Coffee, Agriculture, Rwanda, USAID, Kigali, East Africa, Butare, Coffee bean, SPREAD, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Green Living Project presents "Coffee Awakens a National Economy" SPREAD >> TITLE: East Africa, Rwanda, Kigali, Butare >> SIGN: SPREAD National University of Rwanda >> TIM SCHILLING [Executive Director, SPREAD]: I'm Tim Schilling, and I'm the director of the USAID SPREAD project. This is a project with the single objective of raising the incomes of rural Rwandans, and to do that, we have targeted the specialty coffee sector, because we know that, with 500,000 coffee farmers in Rwanda, and an average family size of seven, that anything that we could do to increase the price of coffee would actually affect the livelihoods of one half of the population of Rwanda. >> TIM SCHILLING: Five hundred thousand farmers were processing coffee in 500,000 different ways. The common denominator there is always going to be poor quality. The challenge was, well, gee, with so many different farmers, how are we going to organize it to produce a quality product? So, the answer to that was the centralized coffee washing station. We are able to sort, select, and purchase only high-quality cherries. The downside of that is the fact that once you have just one center, that means all these farmers now have to travel in to that center with their cherries rather than just taking them home. Five to 12 kilometers with a 30-kilo load of coffee cherries on top of your head can take five, six, even up to eight hours to make it to the coffee washing station. During that time, the coffee in the cherry starts degrading, the quality degrades. There's a fermentation process that starts taking [place] inside the cherry imparting off flavors to the coffee bean that's inside, and that degrades the quality. Degrading the quality obvious degrades the price, so you lose value like that. >> JOSH [Volunteer, University of California]: It all started when Tom Ritchey, one of the creators of the mountain bike, came here in 2006, I believe, and he saw these wooden bikes that a lot of people use to carry coffee here -- it's basically like a scooter -- and he saw that and thought, "Jeez, if they had a decent bike to carry this coffee, they could make a huge difference." So he went back to the States. He's been building bike frames for 30 years, and came up with this design, talked to Schwinn and Dahon, and got them to let us use both their factories in China. >> TIM SCHILLING: But as the farmers pay for those bikes on a three-year microcredit loan, that money goes into another separate account, which is set up to buy more bikes, or things like maybe a school, or something like that, so it goes back to the cooperative. >> MAN [Coffee farmer]: To bring the cherries to the washing station is very easy. You don't need to pay someone to help you to bring the cherries to the washing station. If there's no rain, you can take 100 kilograms without a problem. >> PASCAL KALISA GAKWAYA [Coffee Regional Coordinator, SPREAD]: Because here we are in the cupping lab, they roast the samples from the coffee washing station, and after roasting, they ground, because they want to test each load from the washing station and score it. You push it around the mouth, and you have to do it because if the coffee is around the mouth, you can feel the body and the chocolate around the tongue. >> TIM SCHILLING: The coffee quality itself is just so high, it's so unique in its character, that it has become sought after. So as soon as we expose it or unveil the true quality of the coffee, the coffee industry, the specialty coffee industry picked it up immediately and started to source high-quality coffees out of Rwanda, and, of course, they're paying top dollar for it, and that top dollar makes it back to the farmer, which is what it's all about. >> TITLE: Green Living Project www.greenlivingproject.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/beyond-a-dollar-a-day Pro Mujer, a development organization working with women in Latin America, started out focusing on training. But it discovered that education only goes so far, and began issuing microloans so that women could start their own businesses and improve not only their lives but also the lives of their families. Wed, 22 Sep 2010 07:29:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/beyond-a-dollar-a-day Peru, Microfinance, Pro Mujer, Microcredit, Aymara ethnic group, Fish farming, Lake Titicaca, Business, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Entrepreneur >> VOICEOVER: Lake Titicaca is home to the Aymara people. It's 4,000 meters above sea level, and the climate is harsh, but there's an entrepreneurial spirit which is beginning to flourish. With the help of a small loan -- microcredit -- Gloria has started her own business. She borrowed just USD$100, but it was enough to buy nets and set up this fish farm on the lake. >> GLORIA BALCON FERNANDEZ: My life has changed. Before, I didn't catch many fish, and I was short of money. Now, I'm happy. At least there is something for my children, so they can study, and I can help my family.>> VOICEOVER: Microcredit is a worldwide movement, which began in Bangladesh in the 1970s. It involves giving very small loans to poor entrepreneurs who can't borrow from commercial banks because they have no credit history and nothing to offer as collateral. The microcredit for these women came from a local charity called Pro Mujer, but it has to be paid back with interest. >> NALDI DELGADO [Director, Pro Mujer Peru]: Here in the countryside, there are no laws that govern ownership. That's why, when we give a loan, we rely on the woman's word. >> VOICEOVER: The fisherwomen come to the local market every day to sell their catch. >> NALDI DELGADO: The goal of Pro Mujer is to empower women, so we work a lot on business training. We teach them to establish their earnings and their costs, so that they can be successful in their business. >> VOICEOVER: Francisca and her daughter Sonya have also received a loan from Pro Mujer to set up a fish farm on the lake. Francisca has spent much of her life on the move, trying to earn a living in Lima and other cities. >> FRANCISCA BALCON FERNANDEZ [Fish farmer]: We've woken up. We women are changing. Things are changing. Yes, we're making progress. I needed USD$100 to get started, then I could buy nets and breed fish. Now, we earn USD$3 a day selling the fish. We can survive on that. >> CARMEN VELASCO [Co-founder, Pro Mujer]: I think that one of the biggest differences between Pro Mujer and the rest of ... some other institutions is that, we are, mainly, we're focused on women because we see them as the engine to help their families and to bring their kids to a different level. We have been, from the very beginning, very active listeners, so every single program that we have developed in Pro Mujer was as an answer to what they needed, to what they were asking. That's why, at the beginning, we were only a training institution, and then, little by little, they began to ask more and more. We included health training, and we included business training, and they asked us, "Now we need money to begin a business." http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ticad-towards-a-vibrant-africa <p>The Tokyo International Conference on African Development is more than just a conference. It has become a major global framework for Asia, Africa, and the UNDP to collaborate in promoting Africa's development. Here are five projects working to improve people's everyday lives throughout the continent. Produced by <a title="UNDP" href="http://www.undp.org/" target="_blank">UNDP</a>.</p> Fri, 17 Sep 2010 23:50:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ticad-towards-a-vibrant-africa Africa, United Nations Development Programme, Tokyo International Conference on African Development, United Nations, Development aid, Social equality, Education, Empowerment, Community development, Gender equality >> TITLE: Towards a Vibrant Africa: A Continent of Hope & Opportunity >> TITLE: Tanzania Bed Net Factory (Japanese/Tanzanian joint venture) >> TITLE: More than 1 million people die of malaria each year >> TITLE: Mosquito nets are an effective and economical method of preventing the disease >> ELIREHEMA MANGA [resident of Manyata village]: I often suffered from malaria before we got the nets. I couldn't cultivate my land because I was often sick. The difference is huge because now I feel healthy and strong. I'm feeling so much better that I'm able to work, make a little money, and go to the market. Everyone's earnings have improved because we can all work hard to cultivate crops. >> TITLE: Mosquito Net Factory [Arusha, Tanzania] >> BINESH HARIA [Chief Operating Officer, A to Z Textile Mills]: What we want to do here is save lives, by manufacturing these products in Africa, and also reduce poverty. We've already created 3,200 direct employment. >> LUCY THOMAS [Employee, A to Z Textile Mills]: Before, I was living with my parents. But now I can afford to live alone and pay for my brother's school fees. I'm truly proud of the work I do, because it's helping prevent malaria. >> BINESH HARIA: What we are producing is a product which is going to be sold in Africa, and that is why I say Africa for Africa. What we want is: Africa should be able to sustain itself. >> ELIREHEMA MANGA: Since receiving the nets, all our lives have improved. My fellow villagers and I are very grateful. >> TITLE: Sierra Leone Schools & Community Centres ("Arms for Development" project Japan/UNDP) >> TITLE: After 11 years of devastating civil war, Sierra Leone is now recovering from conflict >> TITLE: Now former combatants are encouraged to surrender their arms in exchange for community development projects >> SOLDIER: The entire region is now arms free. >> TITLE: Community centres and schools are at the heart of the recovery effort >> MARYLEEN BANGURA [Resident of Binkolo Village]: I was seven years old when the rebels came in Binkolo. They attacked us here, and my mother was carrying me on her back, holding my sister on her hand. We had to run to the bushes where she damaged ... her lip had a cut. >> ANGELA BANGURA [resident of Binkolo Village]: I was bleeding profusely and I was feeling dizzy. I fell for the first time, second time, and then the third time she suggested that I should put her down. She always watched my movements. When I crawled, she also crawled. When I got up and tried to run, she followed my footsteps. That's the way we traveled the worst of the night, until we arrived in the next village the next morning. It's a night I pray that I will never repeat in my lifetime. >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: I don't like to hear about this past war, because it caused many damages in our country. Arms and feet of people were cut off. Houses were burnt. Some were killed. Some, when they killed, gave it to another human being to eat raw flesh. So I don't want to hear about it. I always like to think about my future than listen to the past. >> TITLE: School supported by Arms for Development Programme >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: The best part of my life now is that I'm going to school. All of the school lessons are free for everybody, so they have the opportunity to attend. I'm really concentrating on my education because I want to be somebody in the future, like I want to be a lawyer. That's my dream, and I know my dream is going to come true. >> TITLE: Community centre supported by Arms for Development Programme >> ABBAS A. BANGURA [Chairman, Masamanke Development Association]: Life is changing rapidly here. When this community center wasn't around life was really difficult here. But now we can see so many kids every day are meeting here. >> MARYLEEN BANGURA: For my future, I'm seeing that it's going to be successful for me. Because I'm now attending school. I'm with my parents, they encourage me to learn. And for the country, I know my country is going to develop. >> TITLE: Burkina Faso Multifunctional Platform (The UN Trust Fund for Human Security) >> TITLE: Over 95 percent of rural households in Africa lack electrical power >> TITLE: A unique electric generator helps villagers with their daily lives >> IDANI ABIBA (resident of Komboari Village): Before the multifunctional electric generator, my life was very difficult. I had to wake early to pound millet, fetch water, and cook. Now I have more time to spend on other activities. >> OUOBA B. BENOIT [Tin Tua Association]: In our country, the difficulty of getting drinkable water and pounding the millet take up the women's entire day. With the introduction of the multiplatform generator, this changed. >> TITLE: Multifunctional platform (electric generator) >> OUOBA B. BENOIT: Now woman have more time. >> IDANI ABIBA: We now have time to learn to read and write. This opens our minds and makes us happy. With the generator, we also have many services. We used to have to go far to repair broken equipment. But now we can do welding in town. Because of the electric generator, everyone has free time to spend on other activities. Thanks to the generator our lives have changed for the better. >> TITLE: Uganda Millennium Village (The UN Trust Fund for Human Security) >> TITLE: More than 40 percent of the population of Africa lives on less than USD$1 a day >> TITLE: The Millennium Villages project empowers communities to break the cycle of poverty >> FRIDAH TUMUHIMBISE [resident of Ruhiira Millennium Village]: My family never used to have enough food to eat. But ever since the Millennium Village project, my family is able to cultivate enough food. We used to spend a lot of time preparing food for the children. But since they now eat at school, we have time to do other things. There's also a clinic where people are treated, and in case of complications an ambulance takes us to another hospital. It [the project] has helped by starting a village bank where women can borrow for our businesses. I bought sheep and goats, sold two of their offspring, and bought iron sheets to build a kitchen. >> DAVID SIRIRI [Millennium Village Coordinator]: The thing about this project is empowerment of communities. It's about involving communities in taking leadership, in ensuring that they have a say in their destiny. It's not just coming and dropping something on the ground; you have to get the villagers involved. This project has given a sense of ownership, a sense of belonging, a sense of leadership. The communities can stand up and say, "Yes, this is our project." They are seeing the impact of the interventions. People are now flocking [to] the health centers. Before you only used to have one or two people, now you have 150 people coming to the health units. Water was a major problem. Now the water is clean. Now we have students attending school right from P1 up to P7 without dropping out. All these things have brought new hope and it's a new way of rural devolvement that had never happened here. >> FRIDAH TUMUHIMBISE: If the project continues another 10 years, we can better our situation, we can educate our children and really improve our lives. >>TITLE: Nigeria Woman Empowerment Project (UNDP/Japan WID Fund) >> TITLE: In Nigeria, woman are traditionally disadvantaged, lacking access to resources and skills >> TITLE: Encouraging female enterprises is key to development and social equality >> NFON (GRACE) ETETE ITUEN [resident of Onna Village]: When my husband died, my children were very young, so I had to struggle a long way for them to go to school. And to eat was very difficult. But I thank God now that it's getting improved. Now under community partnership I can do these buns, chin chin [cookies], egg rolls, which people come in and buy. I have a little money every day. >> SIGN: Onna Woman Development Centre >> MRS. NSE UDOH [Director, Community Partners for Development]: The project has really affected the lives of the women in Onna local government area. They've been empowered to the extent that they can actually assist the family in basic feeding and clothing. After the training they've been able to replicate what was taught. They now make the products by themselves. They go and sell them in the town, and are able to market their product. We are hoping that, eventually, when the mill starts in full swing, they will be able to do large quantities, and send it out to many other local government states. The women now meet on their own, monthly, so the excitement they have, coming out to share issues with each other ... Women, as you know, especially in our own society, have been relegated to the background for years. And it's only now that they are now given the opportunity to comment, to air their views. >> NFON (GRACE) ETETE ITUEN: Everyone around me is improving because all of us are now busy in doing what we're supposed to do. As the community progresses, I'm sure it will be better. >> TITLE: [end credits] >> TITLE: UNDP Produced by the Office of Communications for TICAD http://www.viewchange.org/videos/investing-in-africa-from-your-lazy-chair <p>In the past, investing in African enterprises was too complicated a task for anyone except banks or large companies. But now, thanks to websites such as MYC4, just about anyone can use their capital to fund small businesses and individual entrepreneurs in developing nations -- all from the comfort of their own home.</p> Thu, 16 Sep 2010 18:35:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/investing-in-africa-from-your-lazy-chair Africa, Microfinance, Entrepreneurship, Microcredit, Kigali, Rwanda, Small business, Investment, LinkTV Picks, Business >> TITLE: Spark Africa. New Business Perspectives >> VOICEOVER: Spark Africa is always looking for new businesses and surprising initiatives. Today, we report from Rwanda and the Netherlands. >> TITLE: Rwanda. Population: 9.9 million. GNP per capita: USD$238. Economic growth 2008: 7.5 percent. >> ANETTE UWERA [Spark Africa, Rwanda]: Via the MYC4 website, aimed at supplying loans for local entrepreneurs, many businesses in Africa are made possible. Today, we follow the investment of a Dutch investor, who supports a local silversmith and makes money himself as he gets part of the interest on the loan. Kivuye runs the Bijouterie De La Ville in Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. With some success, he has now three employees. This has been a single-handed achievement, and not by the courtesy of local banks, which are reluctant to lend money to small entrepreneurs and charge considerable interest rates, as they believe the risk is too big. >> KIVUYE YAHYA [Silversmith, Bijouterie De La Ville]: I realized that MYC4 charges lower interest rates than other banks. And that's why I chose MYC4. >> ANETTE UWERA: The interest rates that Kivuye pays can still amount to rates of 30 to 40 percent due to both transaction costs and the middle man. By using a binding system, right now around 13 percent of the interest the investors receive is produce. Everyone can invest money in small enterprises in African countries through the website. This is how a portion of the loan for Kivuye's shop in Kigali comes from a living room in Rotterdam. >> KRISPIJN BEEK [MYC4 Investor]: I used to give around 200 to 300 euros a year to different development organizations, like Oxfam, Novib, Hivos, and the Refugee Foundation. Two years ago, I stopped doing that to invest money directly into African entrepreneurs. It is a breakthrough that you can do that so easily from your lazy chair. >> ANETTE UWERA: Krispijn Beek is one of the 17,000 investors of MYC4 across 100 countries. Together, they transferred 10.6 million euros. Beek invested in 70 companies, usually the minimum amount of 5 euros a time, to spread his potential and avoid risk. >> KRISPIJN BEEK: I invested in Bijouterie De La Ville for a couple of reasons. First, I thought the entrepreneur had a very unique story; he was living in Congo for 12 years and moved to Rwanda. These are two countries that, if I hear about them, it is mostly about civil war or misery. I find it very admirable that someone still starts a business there, especially in the precious metals and jewelry sector. >> ANETTE UWERA: The money does not go to Kivuye directly. Mr. Ocheng is a local delegate for MYC4. >> OCHENG PETER PATEL [Rwanda Microfinance Limited]: With the availability of an efficient delivery system like MYC4, more people will access funding in Rwanda, and will help us alleviate poverty, which is the major objective or vision of MYC4. >> ANETTE UWERA: There are also other interests. >> KRISPIJN BEEK: If you take stock, I'm not doing very well because I'm on minus 25 percent of return because a lot of people are not paying back anymore. This is a loss right now, and that is okay for an initial period, but eventually it has to give a positive return, of course. I am happy with my investment in La Bijouterie. He almost paid back everything, if I'm correct. >> KIVUYE YAHA: Thanks to the money I received from MYC4, I can realize my future plans. I can buy more raw materials and reach more customers. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/realizing-rights-with-street-vendors-in-liberia <p>Street vendors in Liberia are organizing themselves to gain rights and improve their working conditions. Helped by groups such as Realizing Rights, these informal workers are fighting hard for greater security and prosperity.</p> Fri, 03 Sep 2010 21:15:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/realizing-rights-with-street-vendors-in-liberia Realizing Rights, Microfinance, Microcredit, Mary Robinson, Ellen Johnson Sirleaf, Liberia, Africa, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Monrovia, Business >> TITLE: Realizing Rights: The Ethical Globalization Initiative. Realizing Rights with Street Vendors. Trade and Decent Work in Monrovia, Liberia. >> WOMAN 1 [Street vendor]: I've been on the street selling for seven years to be able to send my children to school, to feed myself, and to take care of my family. >> VOICEOVER: Realizing Rights has been active in Liberia since 2007 and, responding to their needs, started supporting workers in the informal economy. In November, 2009, Realizing Rights' staff visited Liberia's capital city of Monrovia to hear first-hand the concerns of street vendors and to give voice to those concerns at the highest levels of government. A decade of civil war sharply increased the number of Liberian households headed by women. Without skills and education, their best option is selling on the street surplus goods from their farms, local produce, or whatever they can round up. Men who are ex-combatants need a legal livelihood or risk a return to violence. Realizing Rights' staff interviewed informal traders about their progress in getting organized and improving their situation. >> HEZEKIAH [Bookseller]: The market is very small, especially for Liberians who like to read. So, when you get one customer, everybody wants to sell. So you got to be a real tough businessman. >> TITLE: A tough business >> THERESA [Shoe seller]: In the future, I want to get a store. I want to leave this sidewalk now because I ought not be on the sidewalk, police running behind me every day. >> INTERVIEWER: Every day? >> THERESA: Every day: police running, mirror broken, kicking our slippers. I'm tired. >> TITLE: I'm tired >> SAYON [Group Chairman]: So we work with Monrovia City Corporation to attempt to resolve the crisis between the government and us, to lessen the tension a little bit, because there has been tension since '94 when street vendors started. Street vendors have been formed as an organization before, but this is the first time where the government has contributed support to help us form. Yet there is still tension between us and the government, but, gradually, we will find a solution to that. >> TITLE: Organizing to find solutions >> COMFORT [Lace material vendor]: We don't want to be on the streets forever. We want relocation of site. And we want loans, to help our people, to improve their businesses so they can move from this level, the grassroots level, to another level. The police were really on our backs. They gave us chase and chase. There was no way for us to rest. We would run 24 hours around the clock. But now, we are not running. We are not running because of the association that has come along, and Realizing Rights, who are working really hard. So we all decided to form this organization to see how we can best move ourselves forward. >> TITLE: Organizing to move each other forward >> VOICEOVER: In addition to the on-street interviews, president of Realizing Rights, Mary Robinson, visited the leaders of the Petit Traders Union. These pioneering women provided a deeper insight into the pressing needs of their organization's members and what challenges remained on their path to greater security and prosperity. >> MARY ROBINSON [President, Realizing Rights]: And about how many members are there of the national petit traders association? >> HELEN WALKER [Treasurer, Petit Traders Union]: The National Petit Traders Union has several thousand members. >> MARY ROBINSON: So what are you hoping for now? >> HELEN WALKER: We are currently asking RR to help the organization [NEPETUL] with loans [credit] and to speak with the government to help us find an area for us to relocate to. >> MARY ROBINSON: This morning, I went with my colleagues to speak to two of the women who are involved in this Petit Traders Union of Liberia. In one way or another, they were both indicating that it's very hard to compete. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF [President, Republic of Liberia]: I think one of the missing links in the whole thing is the access to credit. >> MARY ROBINSON: Yes. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: By the Petit Traders. >> MARY JOHNSON: That's what they said. The first thing that they kept coming back to was exactly what you've said: access to credit that lets them build, and also a space for the market. >> ELLEN JOHNSON SIRLEAF: That is something where we can help them with, and we can certainly work with them through the Minister of Gender, through the Minister of Commerce, so I'll try to get more on that and see how we can be helpful. >> VOICEOVER: Since this visit took place, Monrovia City Corporation has allocated to the street vendors a legal place to vend. Although more space is needed, this is an important first step. In addition, Realizing Rights has provided seed money to the Petit Traders Union for them to rent office space close to Monrovia City Corporation so that they can maintain a regular dialogue with the mayor's office. A partnership with the global network WICO [Women's International Coalition] and others will continue to provide more skills and decent work opportunities for this community. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bamako-chic-threads-of-power-color-and-culture <p>In the 1960s, a small group of Malian women cloth dyers reinvigorated the craft of hand-dyed cloth using a fabric called bazin. Now, thanks to microcredit programs introduced in the mid-1980s, bazin production has flourished into a lucrative enterprise dominated by women. Their artistic creativity has become a force for alleviating poverty and affirming identity in West Africa.</p> Thu, 02 Sep 2010 02:56:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bamako-chic-threads-of-power-color-and-culture Mali, Freedom from Hunger, Microcredit, Bamako, Microfinance, Dye, ViewChange Online Film Contest, International Women's Day, World Bank, Poverty >> TITLE: Bamako Chic: Threads of Power, Color, and Culture. A film by Maureen Gosling and Maxine Downs. >> TITLE: Bamako, Capital of Mali. >> TITLE: Sanata Magassa, known for her talent for mixing colors, helps support a large extended family. >> SANATA MAGASSA: We are three cloth dyers in this house. We are co-wives doing the same work. We are here working non-stop. One of us always has an order, and we help each other with our orders. Thank God, we have some regular customers. I have customers from Rwanda, places like Burkina Faso, and Malians living in France. >> TITLE: Self-empowered African women in Mali, one of the poorest nations in the world. >> TITLE: In the 1960s, a small group of Malian women transformed the tradition of cloth dyeing, inspired by beauty and economic survival: Djeneba "Mme" Basse, Niamoye, Awa Cisse. >> KADIATOU DIALLO: Before, many of us were just sitting and doing nothing. >> TITLE: Mothers taught daughters, sisters, and neighbors to dye cloth and lightened the burden of poverty. >> TITLE: Today, cloth dyeing is a lucrative economic activity for many, dominated by women. >> KADIATOU DIALLO: Microcredit came in and helped us with our businesses. >> TITLE: Women's access to microcredit served to expand the dyeing business. >> SANATA MAGASSA: The bank is our only support. We borrow money, we work with it, and it helps us. >> BOUBACAR DIALLO [Technical Advisor, Freedom from Hunger]: Microfinance, as we know it today, started in Bangladesh with the research project of Professor Muhammad Yunus, what's called the Grameen Bank. In Mali, it started in the 1980s, around 1986. It was the result of the Structural Adjustment Program, PAS, initiated by the World Bank to restructure our economy. >> TITLE: Microcredit programs provide small loans to women, who have been shown to pay back their loans more successfully than men. >> BOUBACAR DIALLO: Who's in charge of putting food on the table? The woman. Who's in charge of the child? It's the mother. Who nurses the child? It's the mother. When it comes to vaccinations, it's the mother. When a mother sees an increase in her income, it will probably go towards her household, whereas with men, in our African context, it goes to the second wife! The second wife! That's how it is. >> SANATA MAGASSA: Women always have dreams. I have many dreams. If I start telling you, it'll get dark while I'm telling you. One of my dreams is a piece of land to build a house for my children and me from this business. Food is not a problem because of what I'm doing. At least I'm able to pay for my children's studies. We always thank God for this work. >> KADIATOU DIALLO: Cloth is the most important thing money can buy. If you give someone cloth, they will never forget you. >> TITLE: Hand-dyed bazin (polished cotton) is popular fashion and sought after by rich and poor alike. >> VOICE: We celebrate bazin because Mali depends on bazin. It's one of the top creations in Mali. >> SANATA MAGASSA: I've known people who'll buy it even if it means going hungry. >> BOUBACAR DIALLO: The cloth dyers are stars! http://www.viewchange.org/videos/colombian-microcredits <p>Small loans are enabling Colombians to own their own businesses.<br /><br />On forgotten mountains in the outskirts of Bogota, Colombia, people live in small shacks that they often build in days. Most of them unwittingly build on small plots of stolen land. Non-profit organization Un Techo Para Mi Pais (A Roof for My Country) offers microcredits to those with promising business ideas.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/colombian-microcredits Microfinance, South America, Colombia, Microcredit, Un Techo Para Mi Pais, Small business, Bogota, Latin America, ViewChange Online Film Contest >> TITLE: Microcredits in Soacha, Colombia >> DONA MARIA OLIVA [Microcredit Applicant]: This machine won't sew. I love my work. And I love to cook as well. I'm a seamstress. My job is making clothes. I make underwear, pajamas, sweatpants, shirts. >> DON ISRAEL [Husband]: "If you can't find a way to pay, then get out." So then and there, you have to leave. How can you become the owner of what's not yours? And that's what happened to us. We ran out of money, and we had to come up here. Thank goodness I had this little lot. Of course we're lacking resources. We're lacking them, but, oh well, we're getting by. >> JAVIER CAMILO VANEGAS [Volunteer, Un Techo Para Mi Pais]: I think that the main problem is that the government doesn't recognize this community. This prevents development in the community. We want to offer an opportunity to those people who have historically been excluded from participating in the country's financial system by offering them a small credit that enables them to start or fortify small business ideas. >> DONA MARIA OLIVA: For me, it was great news to hear that I'd get microcredits to start a garment-selling business. Open up a little table and sell clothes at low cost so that people can buy. So that's the kind of work I want to do. To be able to forge ahead. More than anything else, I want to find some work, some help, for our home, for my husband and I, so that we don't become a burden for our children, or a burden for anyone else either. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-promise-to-sow-seeds-for-the-future <p>Farmers in Kenya are reaping better harvests with the help of fertilizer, made available through a loan system. The farmers now believe they will become economically independent and able to properly care for their children.</p> Fri, 27 Aug 2010 11:06:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/a-promise-to-sow-seeds-for-the-future Millennium Villages Project, Kenya, Millennium Promise, Agriculture, ViewChange Online Film Contest, Aid, Foreign Assistance, Extreme poverty, Microcredit, Microfinance >> TITLE: Millennium Promise: Extreme Poverty Ends Here >> TITLE: A Promise to Sow Seeds for the Future. Sauri, Kenya. April, 2010 >> HANNINGTON OWITI NYANDO [Millennium Villages Agricultural Facilitator]: A hungry country cannot be a peaceful country, cannot be a healthy country. Without food, even our lives cannot be in order. Currently, the soil is quite bare. It does not have plant food. So, automatically, after having planted with fertilizer, a farmer will have to get a bumper harvest. >> EVELYN AKINYI OMONDI [Farmer, Gongo Sub-Location]: I started using fertilizer in 2007, when Millennium Villages Project brought it. Millennium Villages taught us how to plant, how to space our seeds, how to apply fertilizer, and to cover the soil. This method gives me much higher yields than I used to get before. Without fertilizer, you get nothing. If I plant here without fertilizer, my yield is only one sack. With fertilizer, I get over 15 sacks. People really want to use fertilizer now. Millennium Villages Project introduced a loan system for fertilizer. I have benefited from this loan system. I will pay back the loan. By next year, I hope to be self-sufficient. I hope to build on what I've borrowed so that next year I don't need any assistance. If I work hard, I can sell my maize to enable me to buy my own fertilizer. Millennium Villages Project has helped us. When Millennium Villages Project first came, I had no plans at all. But recently I built a house. If I work hard on the farm and in business, the way the Millennium Villages taught me, I can plan a better education for my children. >> TITLE: Each Millennium Village was a hunger hotspot, and the introduction of subsidized fertilizer was a crucial priority. >> TITLE: As a result, crop yields have dramatically increased, helping to reduce hunger and enabling farmers to sell surplus crops for profit. >> TITLE: Many farmers have transitioned entirely from being dependent on food aid to being entirely self-sufficient. >> TITLE: It costs as little as: USD$15 to provide a 25 kilogram bag of fertilizer; USD$20 to provide high-yield and disease-resistant seeds to farmers. >> TITLE: Help us ensure that mothers like Evelyn have the opportunity to feed their families, educate their children, and ensure healthy and independent livelihoods. >> TITLE: Millennium Promise: Extreme poverty ends here. Join us today at www.millenniumpromise.org http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mini-moguls <p>In the middle of a global recession, Kenya's Equity Bank is booming. Microloans as small as $10 are helping the country's budding business people. Can Wall Street learn a lesson from these rural entrepreneurs?</p> Fri, 20 Aug 2010 00:53:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/mini-moguls Kenya, Equity Bank, Small business, Microfinance, Poverty, Journeyman Pictures, Africa, Nairobi, Bank, Financial crisis of 2007–2010 >> TITLE: Mini Moguls >> VOICEOVER: It's dawn, and Phillip Ndungu has already been to market. It's only the start of what will be a long day. Every morning Phillip prepares hard-boiled eggs, salsa, and fried sausages. It's his micro-business: taking and selling a hot breakfast to his entire neighborhood. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: Often I start my day at 6 a.m. I sell to about 700 people a day before I go to school. >> VOICEOVER: Phillip's patch is the suburb of Kawangware, one of the poorest in Nairobi. His small business has earned him respect in what can be a tough place. >> PAUL GANDO: Hey, how are you doing? >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: Very well. >> VOICEOVER: Paul Gando is one of his loyal customers. >> PAUL GANDO: What do you have? Let me see. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: I have things for 15 shillings, some for 10, and sausages. >> PAUL GANDO: You have smokies. I think this is a very good idea because many boys like that guy wouldn't do such a job. They are scared that girls would look down on them or things like that. But I am impressed by that guy because he's really committed to the job he does, instead of getting involved in drugs. >> VOICEOVER: A year ago, Phillip had dropped out of school. He had no money to pay the fees and no way to get a loan. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: Yes, I had a problem paying my school fees, because my job was bringing in less and less money. >> VOICEOVER: Then a microlender called Equity Bank opened up in his neighborhood. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: I went and spoke to the bank and they were able to help me out with money for my fees. >> VOICEOVER: Phillip was granted a USD$100 loan to start his business. That was enough for Phillip to nurture his microenterprise, take on an assistant, and return to finish his last year of school, paying his own way. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: My life is going well because I'm not having to argue with anyone about taking time off to go to school. Things are going well because I'm self-reliant. >> VOICEOVER: Microloans, sometimes for as little as USD$10, are Equity Bank's mainstay. Today, Dr. James Mwangi, the bank's founder and CEO, is opening a new branch in a rural, low-income area that all major banks have avoided. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI [CEO, Equity Bank]: We are happy to declare this branch of Equity Bank officially open. >> VOICEOVER: Equity's business is booming, while the major international banks are being battered. Mwangi has a very clear view of what created the current financial crisis. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI: That was driven by greed as opposed to a need to serve. So it was not the basic tenets of banking; it was more about satisfying human greed. >> VOICEOVER: Bringing Kenya's poorest entrepreneurs, people like Phillip, out from the underground economy and into the mainstream has been the secret of Equity's microbanking success. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI: Equity has developed a model that has incorporated them, made banking inclusive, and done not only good but also done very well in terms of performance. For the last 10 years, Equity has kept a pace of growth in excess of 100 percent, year in year out. Last year, despite the financial turmoil, Equity was still able to register 110 percent growth in profitability. >> VOICEOVER: Equity's success has also been due to its efforts to bring women into Kenya's banking culture. Monica Weaver was working as an underpaid seamstress when an Equity employee came by to talk. >> MONICA WEAVER: They were just marketing Equity, telling us how it can empower women. I got a chance to be one of the women who were empowered by the Equity Bank. >> VOICEOVER: Monica opened her own account with Equity, and started saving for her own business. The bank charges nothing to open an account and encourages its clients to deposit as little as AUD$1. >> MONICA WEAVER: Even to open an account with another bank other than Equity was difficult. For them ... >> INTERVIEWER: You tried? >> MONICA WEAVER: I tried but it was difficult for me. Because maybe I had 2 shillings with me or 100: to take them to that big bank, it was a shame. But with Equity, even if I only have 50, I'm very comfortable to go and save my 50 shillings. I also gave them the television set if I was unable to pay the loan back. >> VOICEOVER: Monica had very little to use as collateral but Equity accepted her small table and television as security. James Mwangi says the bank accepts all kinds of interesting items as loan guarantees. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI: I think that a common but strange collateral is the matrimonial bed. We see with married women just a commitment that they will sign off their matrimonial bed. If you look at the level, the volume, in terms of the size of the loans, you can't go beyond what they have, that is the assets that they have, and that is what they value most. >> VOICEOVER: Until now, the majority of microbusinesses in Kenya have stayed out of the banking system, using cash instead. For years, the major banks believed that these people were not to be trusted to repay even the smallest loans. James Mwangi has proved that the truth is exactly the opposite: the most poor are, in fact, the most reliable. The default rate on Equity's microloans are the lowest in the banking industry: less than 6 percent. David Mataen is an investment adviser and he's been following Equity Bank's microfinance initiatives. >> DAVID MATAEN [Investment Advisor]: If you get to look at the books of micro-institutions, those which got microlendings, their rates of delinquencies is so minimal, is so unbelievable, and that's because of the financial and fiscal responsibility of the individuals who are running these organizations. Some of them have nothing else to turn to. That is the be-all and end-all of their economic wellbeing. They depend on it. They are so emotionally invested in it that they could not let it die. >> VOICEOVER: Lillian Macharia built this small hotel and pub with Equity money, but a large part of it burned down recently. Never having been able to afford insurance, Lillian went back to the bank, and without even additional collateral, they gave her a second loan to help rebuild. >> LILLIAN MACHARIA: I have noticed that Equity Bank, helps people who can't help themselves. You just have to make an effort to pay them back. When you pay it back they'll give you another loan. I've seen how Equity Bank has helped me and I thank God because, if not for them, someone like me wouldn't be able to do anything else. >> VOICEOVER: Mwangi says that this isn't charity, it's good business. He claims that clients like Lillian are the safest bet in banking. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI: They are very responsible people, they are people who have been responsible for their lives. It's only that they have never been understood. It's only that they've been measured through other people's lenses and standards. And that's why they fall short. Also, it's a very parochial perception that is upheld. But if you bother to do a lot of groundwork on those types of people, you realize, one, they are very reliable and trustworthy, and that they are committed. >> VOICEOVER: James Mwangi still criss-crosses all of Kenya, pushing his Equity Bank into remote areas. When he arrives in the rural town of Thala, he's greeted by a crowd of thousands. >> DR. JAMES MWANGI: This is a bank that is a product of the sweat of the Kenyan people, owned by Kenyans, managed by Kenyans, and committed through financial services to transform the lives of our people. >> VOICEOVER: Equity has shown that, without a doubt, the farmers, the weavers, and the hawkers in this rural crowd have something to teach the bigger players. >> REPORTER: What do you think that a small businessman in Kenya has to teach a Wall Street banker? >> DAVID MATAEN: If nothing else, honesty. >> PHILLIP NDUNGU: In the next five years I would like to continue doing business and hopefully to study business. Study business so that my business can grow so that I can help the rest of my family. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jacqueline-novogratz-invests-in-africa-s-own-solutions Jacqueline Novogratz applauds the world's heightened interest in Africa and poverty, but argues persuasively for a new approach. Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/ted-jacqueline-novogratz-invests-in-africa-s-own-solutions Jacqueline Novogratz, Microfinance, Africa, Acumen Fund, Kigali, TED, India, Tanzania, Developing country, Jeffrey Sachs >> TITLE: Remarkable people ... unmissable talks ... now free to the world. TED: Ideas worth spreading.>> TITLE: Jacqueline Novogratz>> TITLE: July 2005, Oxford, England.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I want to start with a story, a la Seth Godin, from when I was 12 years old. My uncle Ed gave me a beautiful blue sweater -- at least I thought it was beautiful -- and it had fuzzy zebras walking across the stomach, and Mount Kilimanjaro and Mount Meru kind of right across the chest, that were also fuzzy. And I wore it whenever I could, thinking it was the most fabulous thing I owned. Until one day in ninth grade, when I was standing with a number of the football players. And my body had clearly changed, and Matt Mussolina, who was undeniably my nemesis in high school, said in a booming voice that we no longer had to go far away to go on ski trips, but we could all ski on Mount Novogratz. And I was so humiliated and mortified that I immediately ran home to my mother and chastised her for ever letting me wear the hideous sweater. We drove to the Goodwill and we threw the sweater away somewhat ceremoniously, my idea being that I would never have to think about the sweater nor see it ever again.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Fast-forward 11 years later. I'm a 25-year-old kid working in Kigali, Rwanda, jogging through the steep slopes, when I see, 10 feet in front of me, a little boy, 11 years old, running toward me, wearing my sweater. And I'm thinking, no, this is not possible. But, so curious, I run up to the child -- of course scaring the living bejesus out of him -- grab him by the collar, turn it over, and there is my name written on the collar of this sweater.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I tell that story, because it has served and continues to serve as a metaphor to me about the level of connectedness that we all have on this Earth. We so often don't realize what our action and our inaction does to people we think we will never see and never know. I also tell it because it tells a larger contextual story of what aid is and can be. That this [sweater] traveled into the Goodwill in Virginia, and moved its way into the larger industry, which at that point was giving millions of tons of secondhand clothing to Africa and Asia. Which was a very good thing, providing low-cost clothing. And, at the same time, certainly in Rwanda, it destroyed the local retailing industry. Not to say that it shouldn't have, but that we have to get better at answering the questions that need to be considered when we think about consequences and responses.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: So, I'm going to stick in Rwanda, circa 1985, 1986, where I was doing two things. I had started a bakery with 20 unwed mothers, we called the Bad News Bears, and our notion was we were going to corner the snack food business in Kigali, which was not hard because there were no snacks before us. And because we had a good business model, we actually did it, and I watched these women transform on a micro level. But, at the same time, I started a microfinance bank, and tomorrow Iqbal Quadir is going to talk about Grameen, which is the grandfather of all microfinance banks, which now is a worldwide movement -- you talk about a meme -- but, then it was quite new, especially in an economy that was moving from barter into trade. >> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: We got a lot of things right. We focused on a business model, we insisted on skin in the game. The women made their own decisions at the end of the day as to how they would use this access to credit to build their little businesses, earn more income, so they could take care of their families better.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: What we didn't understand, what was happening all around us, with ... the confluence of fear, ethnic strife, and certainly an aid game, if you will, that was playing into this invisible but certainly palpable movement inside Rwanda, that at that time, 30 percent of the budget was all foreign aid. The genocide happened in 1994, seven years after these women all worked together to build this dream. And the good news was that the institution, the banking institution, lasted. In fact, it became the largest rehabilitation lender in the country. The bakery was completely wiped out, but the lessons for me were that accountability counts: got to build things with people on the ground, using business models where, as Steven Levitt would say, the incentives matter. Understand, however complex we might be, incentives matter.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: So when Chris raised to me how wonderful everything that was happening in the world, that we were seeing a shift in zeitgeist, on the one hand I absolutely agree with him, and I was so thrilled to see what happened with the G8 -- that the world, because of people like Tony Blair and Bono and Bob Geldof -- the world is talking about global poverty, the world is talking about Africa in ways I have never seen in my life. It's thrilling. And at the same time, what keeps me up at night is a fear that we'll look at the victories of the G8 -- USD$50 billion in increased aid to Africa, USD$40 billion in reduced debt -- as the victory, as more than chapter one, as our moral absolution.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: And, in fact, what we need to do is see that as chapter one, celebrate it, close it, and recognize that we need a chapter two that is all about execution, all about the how-to. And if you remember one thing from what I want to talk about today, it's that the only way to end poverty, to make it history, is to build viable systems on the ground that deliver critical and affordable goods and services to the poor, in ways that are financially sustainable and scalable. If we do that, we really can make poverty history.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: And it was that -- that whole philosophy -- that encouraged me to start my current endeavor called Acumen Fund, which is trying to build some mini-blueprints for how we might do that in water, health, and housing in Pakistan, India, Kenya, Tanzania, and Egypt. And I want to talk a little bit about that, and some of the examples so you can see what it is that we're doing. But before I do this -- and this is another one of my pet peeves -- I want to talk a little bit about who the poor are. Because we too often talk about them as these strong, huge masses of people yearning to be free, when in fact, it's quite an amazing story. >> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: On a macro level, four billion people on Earth make less than USD$4 a day. That's who we talk about when we think about the poor. If you aggregate it, it's the third-largest economy on Earth, and yet most of these people go invisible. Where we typically work, there's people making between USD$1 and USD$3 a day. Who are these people? They are farmers and factory workers. They're working in government offices. They're drivers. They are domestics. They typically pay for critical goods and services like water, like healthcare, like housing, and they pay 30 to 40 times what their middleclass counterparts pay -- certainly where we work in Karachi and Nairobi. The poor also are willing to make, and do make, smart decisions, if you give them that opportunity.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: So, two examples. One is in India, where there are 240 million farmers, most of whom make less than USD$2 a day. Where we work in Aurangabad, the land is extraordinarily parched. You see people on average making 60 cents to a dollar. This guy in pink is a social entrepreneur named Ami Tabar. What he did was see what was happening in Israel, larger approaches, and figure out how to do a drip irrigation, which is a way of bringing water directly to the plant stock. But previously it's only been created for large-scale farms, so Ami Tabar took this and modularized it down to an eighth of an acre. A couple of principles: build small, Make it infinitely expandable and affordable to the poor.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: This family, Sarita and her husband, bought a USD$15 unit when they were living in literally a three-walled lean-to with a corrugated iron roof. After one harvest, they had increased their income enough to buy a second system to do their full quarter-acre. A couple of years later, I meet them. They now make USD$4 a day, which is pretty much middle class for India, and they showed me the concrete foundation they'd just laid to build their house. And I swear, you could see the future in that woman's eyes, something I truly believe.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: You can't talk about poverty today without talking about malaria bed nets, and I again give Jeffrey Sachs of Harvard huge kudos for bringing to the world this notion of his rage: for USD$5 you can save a life. Malaria is a disease that kills one to three million people a year; 300 to 500 million cases are reported. It's estimated that Africa loses about USD$13 billion a year to the disease. USD$5 can save a life. We can send people to the Moon, we can see if there's life on Mars -- why can't we get USD$5 nets to 500 million people?>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: The question, though, is not why can't we; the question is how can we help Africans do this for themselves? A lot of hurdles: one, production is too low; two, price is too high; three, this is a good road right near where our factory is located -- distribution is a nightmare, but not impossible. We started by making a USD$350,000 loan to the largest traditional bed net manufacturer in Africa so that they could transfer technology from Japan and build these long-lasting, five-year nets. Here are just some pictures of the factory.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: Today, three years later, the company has employed another thousand women. It contributes about USD$600,000 in wages to the economy of Tanzania. It's the largest company in Tanzania. The throughput rate right now is 1.5 million nets, three million by the end of the year. We hope to have seven million at the end of next year. So the production side is working. On the distribution side though, as a world, we have a lot of work to do. Right now, 95 percent of these nets are being bought by the UN, and then given primarily to people around Africa. >> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: We're looking at building on some of the most precious resources of Africa: people, their women. And so I want you to meet Jacqueline, my namesake, 21 years old. If she were born anywhere else but Tanzania, I'm telling you, she could run Wall Street. She runs two of the lines, and has already saved enough money to put a down payment on her house. She makes about USD$2 a day, is creating an education fund, and told me she is not marrying nor having children until these things are completed. And so, when I told her about our idea -- that maybe we could take a Tupperware model from the United States, and find a way for the women themselves to go out and sell these nets to others -- she quickly started calculating what she herself could make and signed up.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: We took a lesson from IDEO, one of our favorite companies, and quickly did a prototyping on this, and took Jacqueline into the area where she lives. She brought 10 of the women with whom she interacts together to see if she could sell these nets, USD$5 apiece, despite the fact that people say nobody will buy one, and we learned a lot about how you sell things. Not coming in with our own notions, because she didn't even talk about malaria until the very end. First, she talked about comfort, status, beauty. These nets, she said, you put them on the floor, bugs leave your house. Children can sleep through the night, the house looks beautiful, you hang them in the window, and we've started making curtains. And not only is it beautiful, but people can see status -- that you care about your children. Only then did she talk about saving your children's lives. A lot of lessons to be learned in terms of how we sell goods and services to the poor.>> JACQUELINE NOVOGRATZ: I want to end just by saying that there's enormous opportunity to make poverty history. To do it right, we have to build business models that matter, that are scalable and that work with Africans, Indians, people all over the developing world who fit in this category, to do it themselves. Because at the end of the day, it's about engagement. It's about understanding that people really don't want handouts, that they want to make their own decisions, they want to solve their own problems. And that by engaging with them, not only do we create much more dignity for them, but for us as well. And so I urge all of you to think next time as to how to engage with this notion and this opportunity that we all have -- to make poverty history -- by really becoming part of the process and moving away from an us-and-them world, and realizing that it's about all of us, and the kind of world that we, together, want to live in and share. Thank you. >> TITLE: TED: New TED Talks each week at www.TED.com http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bangladesh-the-poverty-busters <p>Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on the planet: half of its population lives on less than a dollar a day. But in the tiny semi-rural village of Dholla, microfinance loans from the Grameen Bank are empowering locals to create thriving small businesses.</p> Tue, 10 Aug 2010 21:27:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/bangladesh-the-poverty-busters Grameen Bank, Bangladesh, Microcredit, Poverty, Small business, 2006-2008 Bangladeshi political crisis, Microfinance, LinkTV Picks, South Asia, Developing country >> TITLE: The Poverty Busters >> VOICEOVER: It is the morning rush hour here in Dhaka, a clangorous place of 11 million. Like most subcontinental Asian cities, Dhaka bustles but today it's deceptively peaceful, given what's been going on in these very streets of late. Back in August, thousands rioted here in Dhaka, angry at what they saw as the unelected government's reluctance to reintroduce democracy in Bangladesh. As a result, all political activity was banned and the major cities placed under strict curfew. Over the past year, not one but two former prime ministers, both of them women, have been jailed. And since the military-backed takeover in January, the government has detained more than a quarter of a million Bangladeshis, with reports of torture and killing rife. Apart from the political upheaval that's gripped the place for a year now, Bangladesh is one of the poorest nations on the planet. Half its population lives on less than a dollar a day. To say the least, economically, geographically, and now politically, it's a tricky place to carry on the normal stuff of life. But if there is such a thing as a good news story to be found here these days, you might find it a short journey out of town in places like this, the tiny semi-rural village of Dholla. Dholla's a classic example of Mohammed Yunus's now world-renowned poverty busting microcredit projects in local action. We made it to Dholla, appropriately enough, by boat. We were, after all, in Bangladesh's notorious flood-ridden Ganges Delta where most of this densely populated country's people are crammed. The Grameen Bank was already open for business. The word "grameen," by the way, actually means "village." Our guide from the bank was the general manager, Nurjahan Begum. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM [General Manager, Grameen Bank]: So he'll put down their number and money, how much he's collecting. >> REPORTER: So they bring their cash each week and pay their loan money back. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: Yes. So he will write down in this passbook. There's the money. >> VOICEOVER: Dholla's microbusinesswomen were gathered in this simple tin shed to pay the regular weekly installments on their loans. They don't go to the bank, the bank comes to them. They're all far too busy making money. Hardly a fortune, it has to be said, but more than Bangladesh's dirt-poor villagers normally live on. The annual per capita income in the country is just over AUD$500 [USD$450], with millions on much less. >> WOMAN: Yes, we had a very hard time. We had just a small meal every three of four days. Now we have no hardship at all. >> VOICEOVER: You would have noticed the almost complete predominance of women here. That's because something like 97 percent of the close enough to $3 billion Grameen has loaned over the last 30 years has been to women. >> REPORTER: And no collateral? They don't have to bring anything in? >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: No collateral. You can ask them. Did any of you need to offer collateral to get a loan? >> WOMEN: No. >> VOICEOVER: The reality is these modest village enterprises give a whole new definition to small business. In fact, they're the smallest of the small, all of them built up over a few years starting with a no-collateral microloan equivalent in takas, the Bangladeshi currency, of a lousy couple of hundred Australian dollars. Grameen-inspired, they're many and varied, be it sewing the country's traditionally colorful saris, selling them locally at affordable prices, or handmade mats from bamboo husks. No formal education or training, as such, is required. Point being, these women and 6 million others just like them throughout Bangladesh, have neither of these things. But, thanks to their microbusinesses, they told us, now their kids will. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: So now she has a house. What else have you achieved for your family? >> WOMAN: I have proper housing now. I have three daughters, no son. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: She has three daughters. >> WOMAN: I arranged marriages for two, one is at school. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: What class is she in? >> WOMAN: Class 7. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: She's reading in class 7. >> VOICEOVER: Precariously, if that's the word for being careful not to put a foot wrong, we rounded off our visit to Dholla with a quick visit to a business the locals are especially proud of: a cow-fattening farm. >> NURJAHAN BEGUM: He can earn per cow [BDT]10,000 to 15,000. >> REPORTER: So the men work on the farm with the cows, and the women still handle the loan money? And were they very poor before? >>NURJAHAN BEGUM: She doesn't have anything. >>REPORTER: Just a very, very basic life. Now they have a business, a thriving business. Well, I guess you could say this has been a tantalizing glimpse, a crash course, if you like, into how this way of financing incredibly modest small businesses, small village businesses like this one, and how it least has some sort of impact on what the rest of us have always felt as being a futile attempt to reduce the amount of poverty in the world. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/banking-on-change <p>J.S Parthibhan is a bank manager with a difference: he's interested in people, not numbers. Through micro loans, he's helping villagers in rural areas develop a sense of entrepreneurship and self-respect.</p> Thu, 15 Jul 2010 00:44:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/banking-on-change India, Microfinance, Bank account, Disability, Microcredit, Change Makers, Bank, Loan, Journeyman Pictures, LinkTV Picks >> TITLE: Many of India's 1.2 billion population are forced to borrow from private moneylenders at very high interest rates. Once they begin to borrow they rarely get free. >> TITLE: One man decided to challenge this system >> J.S. PARTHIBAN: My Name is Parthibhan. I am a bank manager in a place called Salem, South India. >>TITLE: Banking on Change. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: I don't see myself as someone who sits in the office signing papers and totaling, all those things. I used to go out in the afternoon after my lunch, just for a stroll. I saw a lot of fruit vendors, shoeshine boys, palm wallahs. These people, they all come from the villages with one dream: that is, to make money. But I found out, they all had problems with the private moneylenders. I used to wonder how much they would be earning. Do they ever save money? And to my surprise I found out even a beggar earns a little over 500 rupees a day. Most of these 500 rupees will go to the hands of the private moneylenders. He'll collect it on a daily basis. So I slowly suggested to them, why can't they open a bank account and start saving? And with the saving they can repay the loan taken from the moneylender, and take home some money as well. >> WOMAN: We break the bags, clean them, and turn them into rope. We go to the village markets three times a week and sell the ropes. The first time we took a loan from the bank we repaid it properly. The second time we repaid in time also. The third time we arranged a loan through a self-help group, not individually. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: I made it a point, I will take my cup of tea from a particular shop only. And I'll buy fruits from a particular man. That is how I made friends with these people. I told them about my bank branch, without telling them that I was a bank manager there. I told them why don't you go to this bank, at least that is nearby. But for two, three days afterwards they have not come to the bank. Then one day a group of five entered and they went straight to the clerk at the counter and told them that they want to open an account. By that time I had already briefed my staff about their plight and that we must do something about that. Later, when I went out for my afternoon walk most of these people that I knew said, "Sir, you are working in the bank? Oh I see we also want to open an account." "Okay, you come tomorrow." So like that we had opened a little over 300 savings accounts, ordinary saving accounts. And slowly everyone started repaying the money taken from the private moneylenders, and they were able to save. And the one thing I always told them is, if they save and live within those savings, they'll have self-respect. Many of the villages are not covered by bus service so instead of them coming to my bank, I take the bank to the people. Sindran here, he has finished his school. He wants 25,000 rupees. He'll buy more goats with that loan amount. >> SINDRAN: I want to earn enough for our needs. We also want to save enough to give our children a good education. I want to make her a teacher so that she can help others. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: For me as a banker, it is more than just dealing with money. It is dealing with people, it's dealing with their aspirations. See this is a special group we formed, with all the physically handicapped, challenged people, and people affected with leprosy. If they can come to the bank as one group and apply, we can definitely consider some financial help. >> WOMAN: I call them Pearl, Diamond, Ramu, Somu, and Queen. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: Now she would like to get a buffalo. How much will a buffalo cost you? >> WOMAN: If I buy it with a calf it will cost 3,000 rupees >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: We can arrange a buffalo for you. How will you repay it? >> WOMAN: Every month I will make a payment. After finishing my school finals I went to the town to look for a job, but when they saw my hands nobody would employ me. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: She said she had finished her school finals. She went around asking for some people to give her some job. Nobody came forward to give because of her fingers. Don't cry, because … You are looking at your fingers. Some people don't have legs. Some people are roaming on the streets deranged. God has given you good eyesight and a good brain. What else do we need? You recently got a good husband. Pearl, Diamond, Ramu, Somu, and Queen are all your children. Have courage: God keeps you with great affection. You don't need to cry. All of us want a bright future. It is everyone's dream to have our house, clothes to wear, and good food. When I see some people don't have these things, there's something wrong with the system. These people's needs are so simple and necessary. This is a good loan application for starting a brick kiln. We must encourage such entrepreneurship. If you have too many people applying to do the same thing in the village, it is not a sign of improvement. This is really a good one. Do you have any other kiln in the area? >> MAN: No, we bring bricks from the plains [62km away]. >> J.S. PARTHIBHAN: Oh, you can do really well. Do you have a bank account? You must understand one thing: when you begin a new venture don't think only of yourself and your family. It should benefit the community, the village, and the entire surroundings. I am happy about such ventures. It is for these ventures that the bank extends its help. We'll definitely sanction the loan for you. I encourage more group lending. It binds them together, and they take pride when the project is successful. The whole village celebrates. I feel an individual growth is important but, more than that, the growth of the entire village, the entire area, is more important. I suppose both go hand in hand. Some of them have managed to bring in primary health centers, a small library also in certain areas. There has been an increasing number of oneness of mind, oneness of spirit. If I were a doctor, I would care for the people coming to me the same way as I do now. If I were a teacher, I'd be teaching my students with the same sincerity. I feel it doesn't matter what you are or what your work is. It is your approach. It is the conviction behind the approach. You can talk about global economic or financial crisis, or the need to bring about a drastic change in the system. But the importance is cultivating people. If you do that, everything falls into the right place. If you help them change their attitude towards life: what they are doing, why they are doing, how they can be. If you can help them to find answers to all these things, I think we have found an answer to all the big headlines in the newspapers. >> TITLE: [end credits] http://www.viewchange.org/videos/liberia-microfinance <p>Improving the economic situation of women is key to peace-building efforts in Liberia following a civil war that tore the country apart and left 75 percent of its people in extreme poverty. UNDP, with funds from Denmark, has set up revolving microloans that provide funds to women entrepreneurs, many of whom are heads of households.</p> Tue, 06 Jul 2010 21:26:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/liberia-microfinance Microfinance, Africa, United Nations Development Programme, Gender, Liberia, United Nations, Developing country, International Women's Day, Gender equality, Foreign Assistance >> KEBBEH SUMBO: They started me with 3,000 Liberian dollars, and with that 3,000 I was able to buy three tins of oil, and I started to sell. As time went by I was able to pay LEAP [Local Enterprise Advancement Program, a UNDP microfinance initiative] money. Then I got another loan of 10,000. I own my own house and I've got a warehouse. So it is through LEAP that I have come this far. >> KENYEH BARLAY [UNDP Liberia]: The rational for targeting women in microfinance worldwide is both practical, strategic, and economically viable. Women are more likely to pay debts. Women are more likely to use resources for the family rather than their individual benefit. And women are very adept in making small businesses grow. >> KEBBEH SUMBO: This will be my living room, this is my living room ... and here is the dining room. I am so thankful to LEAP for having empowered me, that I am able as a woman, a single woman, to be able to build this kind of house. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0916 <p>A financial program aimed at Fijian women who want to start small businesses is helping to generate income, create jobs, and, ultimately, increasen their self-sufficiency.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 28 May 2010 22:30:52 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0916 Microfinance, Fiji, Suva, Pacific Islands, Microcredit, Lautoka, United Nations, UN in Action, Gender >> VOICEOVER: Litia Mate needed to start a business. Her husband's wages were not enough to pay for the education of their five children. Litia's idea was to sell cooked seafood at the biggest market in Suva, the capital of Fiji. But to do that she needed to find money. How to get credit? UN coordinator in Fiji, Peter Witham. >> PETER WITHAM: Microcredit, of course, is directed at giving people resources to start a business, to become economically productive, to have their own little business or job, when those people would not normally qualify for commercial credit through commercial banks. >> VOICEOVER: It was a microcredit grant that helped Litia to succeed. Now, once a week, she goes to the wharf and waits for the arrival of the fishing boats. She buys seafood and goes home to prepare it. Thanks to a program supported by the UN Development Programme, voluntary organizations, and the country's government, Litia was able to obtain a small loan and get her business going. Her funding came from the National Centre for Small and Micro Enterprises Development. It promotes and supports businesses such as Litia's. The result? She's become a successful small entrepreneur. After repaying her loan, she borrowed again. Demand is growing and now members of her family are helping too. >> LITIA MATE: I want to expand my business. I want to buy a lorry to get my business from here to Suva. >> VOICEOVER: Biu Vakacereibau also had no choice but to start a business. Her husband left her with their three small children. There was only one thing that she could do to earn a living: make tapa art. >> BIU VAKACEREIBAU: In my island, all the kids, when we grow up, we learned how to make tapa, because that's the only income for my island. >> VOICEOVER: Biu got a microcredit loan and bought the materials she needed to make her crafts. Produced from the bark of the mulberry tree, tapa art is an important part of the Pacific Islands' culture and traditions. All over Fiji, tourist stores and hotels now display Biu's attractive handcraft. At this market in Lautoka, western Fiji, more than 50 percent of women vendors have benefited from the microcredit scheme. The rate of repayment here is over 90 percent. In another initiative, the UN is helping successful small entrepreneurs expand their businesses by getting loans from commercial banks. Most people here have never dealt with banks. The idea is to get them to first open a savings account, says Ravindra Singh from Fiji's Colonial National Bank. >> RAVINDRA SINGH: At least, they do save something and we are trying to educate them on that. And we're also trying to educate them on fees and charges where they can save, and we'll be also giving them business tips, too. >> VOICEOVER: 2005 will be the International Year of Microcredit. It will be an opportunity to boost microcredit schemes all over the world. These programs are a proven way for people to generate income, create jobs, and lead a dignified life. This report was prepared by Chaim Litewski for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0895 <p>Women in the Pacific Island of Fiji are being helped to start small-scale flower-growing businesses to supplement their income, which in turn provides extra food and housing improvements for their families.&nbsp;</p> Fri, 28 May 2010 21:36:27 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia_0895 Microfinance, United Nations, Fiji, Pacific Islands, United Nations Development Programme, UN in Action, Agriculture & Food >> VOICEOVER: One of the world's most popular flowers, orchids have fascinated people since the earliest times. They've been associated with love, luxury, beauty, virility, and gentleness. With over 25,000 naturally occurring species and 100,000 registered hybrids, they're the largest family of flowers on the planet. Throughout the Pacific Islands, these flowers are used for body ornaments and in births, weddings, and death ceremonies. And orchids are big business, says expert Aileen Burness. >> AILEEN BURNESS: The orchid growers, they produced, and we sold 100,000 sprays of orchids. Now that money was all left in Fiji to the growers. >> VOICEOVER: Aileen knows a lot about these flowers. Her company, South Sea Orchids, is the biggest domestic supplier of cut flowers in the Fiji Islands, a South Pacific nation. Aileen wants to pass on the secrets of how to grow these beautiful flowers and, at the same time, use them to make a living. She approached the Fijian Government and the UN Development Programme, UNDP, with a project whereby her company assisted women growers to obtain bank loans for shade houses, planting materials, and provided training workshops and technical advice. Each grower became an independent business in itself. Verona Lucas has 4,000 orchids of the Dendrobium variety. But most women plant much smaller quantities. Natalau, a village of 300 people in Western Fiji is becoming well-known countrywide thanks to the production of orchids. Ten small entrepreneurs here have benefited from the project. The money generated by the flower business is a most welcome extra source of income for their families. The plants take 12 months to flower. The women help each other by exchanging experiences and techniques. Mataike Saukuru has been growing orchids since 1999. She has 200 plants in the garden next to her home. The village's land belongs to the entire community, but each woman keeps the profits of their labor. A mother of two, Mataika used the income generated by the flowers to buy food and housing improvements. She's delighted to participate in the project. >> MATAIKA SAUKURU: My husband was the only one working in the family, he was the only breadwinner in the family, so I decided to plant orchids to help him. >> VOICEOVER: South Sea Orchids guarantees the purchase of the women's entire production. The business is booming. They are now preparing to export the flowers to Australia. As a result of this project, the life of dozens of families throughout Fiji have improved. UNDP's Pacific Sustainable Livelihoods Programme Chief, Jeff Liew. >> JEFF LIEW: Invariably, the first profits is always invested in the home and you will notice that we work primarily with women and we know for a fact that women invest more in their families. >> VOICEOVER: Fiji is an important tourist destination and the service industry is a significant outlet for these flowers. The potential for growth is enormous. Orchids are much cheaper to produce locally than roses. And for many they're just as pretty. This report was prepared by Chaim Litewski for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia-0873 <p>Supported by the UN Development Programme, the Tianjin Women Business Incubator is helping unemployed workers set up in business, including one woman who has created a chain of 60 car wash stores.</p> Wed, 26 May 2010 00:52:24 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/unia-0873 United Nations, China, United Nations Development Programme, Tianjin, Business incubator, Microfinance, UN in Action, Gender >> VOICEOVER: A chauffeured limousine in Tianjin, an industrial city in Northern China. The passenger is Zou Lianhui, the president of a technology venture that includes a chain of 60 car-wash stores, employing nearly 300 workers. Just a few years ago, she was an unemployed ink factory worker struggling to make ends meet by selling flowers. Now she owns a business that's worth a million US dollars or more, selling machines that recycle water. The machines have helped revive the city's car-wash industry that almost collapsed when a regional drought led to a ban on the use of fresh water. Ms. Zou owes her success largely to the Tianjin Women Business Incubator. Established in the year 2000, it's a pilot program set up by the Tianjin Women Federation and supported by the UN Development Programme, UNDP. Its beneficiaries are women laid off by state-owned factories as a result of China's recent economic restructuring. By offering counseling and training programs to promote new businesses and jobs, it has helped 3,000 women workers re-enter the job market. Yang Jing Sui is the Director of the Incubator. >> YANG JING SUI: We view unemployed women as the motivating force and engine for development in our country. >> VOICEOVER: The project includes a micro-credit program that offers start-up loans. Although many workers have no business experience, they seem to have a natural entrepreneurial talent, says UNDP's China Representative, Kerstin Leitner. >> KERSTIN LEITNER: So what they really needed was just that encouragement, that push, that empowerment, that kind of support to learn how to run a business. >> VOICEOVER: The incubator supports some 40 businesses ranging from small-scale crafts to medium-sized ventures. For a hundred dollars a month, they get space, free utilities, and business consultation. Many more women are waiting for their turn to join it. Wang Huai Ying of the Tianjin Women's Federation explains the goal. >> WANG HUAI YING: As they develop their own business, they create not only jobs for themselves, but also new jobs and opportunities for other unemployed workers to start their own business. >> VOICEOVER: Operating out of the incubator, car wash tycoon Ms. Zou sells her water recycling system for USD$9,000 a set. So far, it's the most successful business hatched here. >> ZOU LIANHUI: Our business has just gotten off the ground. The financial base is not very solid. Thanks to the incubator, which has guided us from the beginning, we have stayed on track, growing smoothly and quickly without being sidetracked. >> VOICEOVER: Ms. Zou seized an opportunity and revitalized an industry, generating a ripple effect resulting in hundreds of jobs. Her success is an example for China's millions of job seekers. Given a chance, perhaps they too one day will have their lucky break, clean up, and own a limousine. This report was prepared by Patricia Chan for the United Nations. http://www.viewchange.org/videos/successful-female-entrepreneur-in-india <p>In India, small loans administered by local self-help groups are helping women pull themselves and their families out of poverty.</p> Tue, 04 May 2010 21:22:00 +0000 http://www.viewchange.org/videos/successful-female-entrepreneur-in-india Microfinance, United Nations, World Bank, India, Poverty, International Women's Day, Dalit, Andhra Pradesh >> VOICEOVER: Pakeeramma is proud of her giant barrel of rice, a year's worth of food. It took her a long time and a lot of work to amass such a visible sign of prosperity. Pakeeramma went from cleaning toilets a decade ago, to being a businesswoman today. A businesswoman who is building four new houses next to her own, to rent. Pakeeramma has two strikes against her: she's a woman, and a Dalit, a poor caste whose members have been discriminated against for generations. About 10 years ago, Pakeeramma borrowed 500 rupees from a World Bank-supported women's self-help group. She began selling vegetables door-to-door. Soon, her income doubled. She sold her vegetables to hotels. Her income tripled. >> M. PAKEERAMMA: I went to my mother-in-law's house when I got married and my father-in-law's business was cleaning toilets. I got 30 rupees per toilet: 10 rupees went for liquor, 20 for food. I had only one meal a day for 20 years. >> VOICEOVER: Now she's a landholder with a daughter in school, one son studying for his MBA, and another with a brand-new car to start up a taxi service. The big event of this morning is a blessing for the new car. Bought with a 25,000-rupee loan from the self-help group, it's a new car and a sign of still more success. Premeela, her daughter, thanks her mother for pulling their family out of poverty. >> PREMEELA: Now, because of her, I want to be a policewoman or a doctor. >> VOICEOVER: The key, according to the local self-help group leader, is capital. It seems obvious, but it takes money, Vijaya Bharathi says, to end poverty. >> VIJAYA BHARATHI: Capital will give strength and confidence to the poor and this project is successful in that area. So through bank linkages, by savings, by giving seed money, the project is able to show the poor a way to reach the capital. >> VOICEOVER: Pakeeramma is from one of India's lowest castes, and grew up in severe poverty. She says her husband used to spend most of their money on arak, the local home-brewed liquor, until she made some money and made him stop. Now it is her name on the titles to the land, and her decision to invest in the new car. >> M. PAKEERAMMA: If the country is to improve, women should be given opportunities in every aspect of life. >> VOICEOVER: Self-help groups like the one Pakeeramma belongs to are spreading throughout India. There are more than 600,000 such groups in Andhra Pradesh alone, and budding Pakeerammas in almost every village. >> VOICEOVER: For the United Nations, I'm Alison Schafer, reporting.