Day Three: BBC3's Stacey Dooley returns to Sarajevo to meet more lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs

On her final day visiting lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, Stacey Dooley returns to Sarajevo and meets Mediha ...

Stacey with Mediha in her tailor shop in Sarajevo© CARE/Jon Spaull

Today we were back in the capital Sarajevo. I met Mediha, who runs a tailoring and craft shop, a business she started when she lost her job after the war.

Starting from home, Mediha worked hard to move her business into small premises. And now with help from Lendwithcare, she has a thriving business with the equipment she needs.

I could tell how much the loan had meant to her. She said it was the only way to get her family back on their feet after the war and broke down when she talked about the journey she'd been through.

Mediha wanted to thank lenders back in the UK who'd supported her to grow her business and urged them to continue to provide the chance for Bosnian women to start a business of their own.

Although I've only been here a short time it's become very apparent, very quickly, just how important these loans are, with one of the entrepreneurs telling me she literally sees this as the only option for women in Bosnia. Lendwithcare is a fantastic opportunity for people who ordinarily would have no other option. 

And with Christmas around the corner I guess there's no better time to check out Lendwithcare.org and maybe buy your pal or loved one a gift voucher.

Get lending! Merry Christmas :-)

Day Two: BBC3 journalist, Stacey Dooley, visits lendwithcare.org entrepreneurs in Srebrenica

On her second day visiting female entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina, BBC3's Stacey Dooley travels to Srebrenica to see how microloans provided through lendwithcare.org are changing lives.

BBC3's Stacey Dooley with Sefika and her son, Adnam© CARE/Jon Spaull

Second day here in Bosnia. Today I spent time in and around Srebenica. Srebenica is significant in Bosnia - this is where the genocide took place in 1995. At the Srebenica memorial, we heard first hand about the thousands of men and boys who lost their lives, from someone who managed to survive. Seventeen years on, the war has finished, but the problems created by the war are still visible. Lives were destroyed then and people are still trying to rebuild them now.

Just outside Srebenica we met Sefika, who's 21 and married with a 20 month-old son, Adnam. It was a real pleasure spending time with Sefika. She was able to explain very clearly the benefits of being involved with Lendwithcare. She told me if it wasn't for the opportunity of a loan, she doesn't think her husband's wage would be sufficient in supporting the whole family.

Sefika used her loan to buy a cow. Initially the cow was used to feed her baby and now the plan is to sell the calf, which will enable her to continue supporting her family, including her young son Adnam.

Sefika lost her father during the war and her brother soon after. She tells me her, and all of her girl friends who are of a similar age - early 20s - have no real hope of becoming employed any time soon, which unfortunately I'm learning is a massive problem here - youth unemployment. Despite being up against it, Sefika was so welcoming and incredibly positive about the future. Sefika wanted to thank lenders in the UK. She said she was very grateful for the loan and had invested it wisely.

To read more about women like Sefika, who are using microloans to rebuild or improve their lives, please visit the lendwithcare.org webiste: www.lendwithcare.org 

Lendwithcare.org is an initiative of aid and development agency CARE International UK and is supported by The Co-operative

BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, visits lendwithcare entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina

This week BBC Three journalist, Stacey Dooley, is visiting female entrepreneurs in Bosnia-Herzegovina who have received microloans through lendwithcare.org. Below she describes her first day meeting Azra Vatrenjak ...

Azra Vatrenjak in her shop in Sarajevo © CARE

DAY ONE

So here we are, arrived in Sarajevo. I've been given an amazing tour of the city by lendwithcare.org's local microfinance partner and CARE Bosnia. Then straight off to meet the lovely Azra. Amazing lady, remarkable story, massively inspiring. Azra's husband is very poorly and so she's had to take full responsibility in supporting the whole family. Her young lad is 11. Thanks to Lendwithcare, Azra has been able to make this happen. Her loan ensured she could get her own small business (a small general store in a suburb of Sarajevo) up and running. Better news still, she told me this afternoon she's moving premises to a bigger and better shop this Thursday. Cracking news. Hoping to pop my head round before I fly home. She told me she literally can't imagine where she would be if it wasn't for the loan.

Can't wait for tomorrow. Ciao!


To read more about Azra, and other women like her, please click here
You can read more about Stacey's trip to Bosnia on The Co-operative Join the Revolution blog

Why I Lend: To help out business owners from across the globe

Lendwithcare lender, Ffion Davies, founder of PR company Espressivo Creative, tells us why she lends …

Gilda Valerio, an entrepreneur from the Philippines supported by Espressivo Creative

© CARE

Being an entrepreneur can be extremely rewarding, but also, ridiculously lonely at times. When a fellow entrepreneur creates an alliance with another, there’s a new bond being created, an alliance, if you will, and it’s rather quite special.

What’s more special is that here at Espressivo Creative, we’re not only creating alliances with other entrepreneur’s on nearly an every day basis, but we’re proud to be helping out business owners from across the globe who don’t get the privilege to receive as much help as we do over here in the UK. We’ve got a tonne of information at our disposal to aid us with business related queries and issues we may come across, especially when it comes to funds. However, not everyone in this world is as lucky as we are.

We’re currently working with not 1, not 2, but 3 different businesses from some of the poorest places in the world, where people are just trying to start their own ventures in order to stand on their own 2 feet, although I can’t stand that overused cliché, it’s exactly what they’re doing. And how are we doing that? Well, we’re a member of lendwithcare.org, who provide micro loans from people just like you and me who pledge to help other ambitious people to get their businesses started.

This isn’t a donation, but a loan, where we treat our fellow entrepreneur’s with respect, just like we’d like to be treated too. We’re not offering hand outs but a solution to get their brand new business started and giving their lives an extra dimension. I’m proud to say that we’re part of enabling business growth in some of the poorest areas in the world.

Thank you lendwithcare.org for allowing us to help!

By lendwithcare lender, Ffion Davies

Why I Lend: to help secure a happier future

Lendwithcare lender, Daniel Openshaw, tells us why he lends ...

Srebrenica Memorial

© CARE/Jon Spaull

I started to lend with care on the day that Ratko Mladic was put on trial in The Hague for genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity during the Bosnian war, 1992-95. Mladic's alleged atrocities rank amongst the worst in living memory; certainly they typify for most people the pointless horrors and bloodshed of war. He became known as the 'Butcher of Bosnia' by the media who love a nickname no matter how much it tends to trivialise the nature of heinous acts, but there was nothing trivial about Mladic's repeated slaughtering and raping under the guise of Serb nationalism. His most infamous attack was on Srebrenica, a Bosniak town under supposed UN protection in 1995 where he rounded up Bosniak boys and men and over five days his forces shot dead more than 7,500 before burying them in mass graves.

Imagine living through this regime. Imagine the fear. Simply because of your ethnicity, who you are, how you were born, you might get shot, tortured, or raped. You might have to watch people you love be shot, tortured or raped. This must have been the reality for every civilian living in Bosnia at the time but as is always the case, women are disproportionately affected by the horrors of war. It must have been hell. And what's more it all happened in living memory.

Entrepreneur Mirjana Tadic
© CARE

Lendwithcare entrepreneur Mirjana Tadic is 43. When the war started she would have been 23. If it is hard enough to imagine living through the terror of war, the terror that a monster like Mladic could force his way into your village and your home at any moment and basically do as he pleases, then imagine trying to rebuild your life afterwards. I find the prospect incomprehensible. However, Mirjana's story is that of a fairytale: a widow bringing up her only son, selling the milk that their cow produces to survive. There are certainly parallels with a certain beanstalk related fable but in this real-life story Mirjana has dreams and she is taking control of them, she doesn’t want to have to steal gold from a giant in the sky in order to achieve them. They are not surviving off the cow, she already has a job, but she is an entrepreneur who wants to buy another cow and use the extra income to build a better life for her and her son. Mirjana is prepared to work hard, but she did need some help - some magic beans if you will - to get started. She needed to borrow £948.66 to buy her second cow, she wasn’t asking for the world and she wasn’t asking for it all from one person. I lent her £15 and what is more she is determined to pay it back. I’ve since heard that Mirjana has been fully funded.

Whilst Mladic was facing his demons in The Hague, Mirjana was bravely looking to the future. Lending with care to her was the least I could do to help secure a happy ending for her fairytale.

By lendwithcare lender, Daniel Openshaw

Small Initiative, Lasting Impact

Vasantamma © CARE/Hema Padmanaban

A Guest Blog from CARE India

Meet Vasantamma: a feisty 45 years old woman from a small village in Andhra Pradesh and a successful entrepreneur. She has found an equal footing in her family. After patiently bearing years of hardship and domestic discord she can now hold up her head high. Her opinion is now sought in her family and she is looked upon with respect in the family and the community. Just five years ago, her husband would beat her up after drinking alcohol. Many times they could not even afford two square meals a day.

“The turning point in my life came when I was invited to join the Mutually Aided Co-operative Thrift Societies* being promoted by CARE along with a partner NGO" says Vasantamma. “Initially we were reluctant but we gradually started saving Rs.30 every week and now I have saved more than Rs 8000" (USD 175).

When the collective got its first group loan, Vasantamma borrowed Rs 4000 to pay for her daughter’s medical treatment. Her second loan for Rs. 10,000 allowed her to purchase a buffalo. “I started selling milk for the local dairy and neighbours. I purchased groceries and snacks for my children without having to depend on my husband. This motivated me to make timely payments to repay the loan. To date, I have taken out four loans to purchase three buffaloes and three calves. Now we have a well thatched house which protects us in the rainy season and we also have a television,” says Vasantamma proudly.

Vasantamma and many collective members like her have received training on leadership skills, group and fund management from CARE trained microfinance professionals. “My husband’s attitude has undergone a change after I started contributing to the family economy. I am happy that I purchased buffaloes and improved my family’s wellbeing. Now I feel I can manage any situation in my life,” reiterates Vasantamma.

Vasantamma represents millions of women who have participated in CARE’s programmes on health, education and livelihood. The positive changes in their lives pass on to their families, in turn the community and the world.



 Hema Padmanaban

© CARE/Hema Padmanaban



CARE’s Microfinance program aims to increase the income levels and improve the living standards of the poor by providing access to thrift, credit and other financial products and services. CARE works closely with NGOs and Micro Finance Institutions (MFI) providing on-site technical services through a well structured mentoring process covering aspects like Strategic Business Planning and Human Resource Development based on the best practices in the Micro Finance sector.

By Hema Padmanaban, CARE India

Hema has completed a postgraduate course in development management. She has five years work experience in microfinance and was associated with SART (South Asia Resource Team) of CARE.