Crowdfunding: A Cure to the World's Social Problems?

This blog was written by Lendwithcare lender, Jan Tchamani, and originally posted on DuCredit's website. It has been re-posted here with permission.

 

The Chitimba Women's Group, supported by Jan through Lendwithcare

Crowdfunding activity has been on the rise for a few years. With the rise of Kickstarter and other platforms, no sector benefits more fruitfully from crowd funding initiatives than the 3rd sector.

Micro-finance initiatives allow anyone to invest small amounts of money which make a huge difference to entrepreneurs and workers in the third world. Allowing them to provide a sustainable future for their families.

We asked one UK based donor, Jan Tchamani, one of AgeUK’s current internet champions, why she chose to give through crowdfunding and tell us a little about her experience of charitable giving through LendWithCare.

"It’s really important to me to do charitable giving, even though my means are quite limited. And, let’s face it, everyone has limits. Also, because I’ve been learning about sustainable development over the past few years, it’s also important to me to give in a way that’s responsible and environmentally-friendly.

Ever since I was at school, I’ve been fundraising. I think my first foray was running a sponsored music  day when I was a pupil at Stourbridge High School in the 1970s, raising funds for the Sunshine Children’s Home. I played the piano, as a soloist and accompanist, from 9am to 5pm, friends sang and played instruments, and I still remember what fun we had, and what a buzz it gave us when we handed over the money we had collected to the school secretary to send off.

When I was in my 30s, I was able to go overseas and do two years of development work in the Lobi tribal area of Burkina Faso, W Africa. I was teaching in a school for community leaders: mostly French language, since that was the language of administration, and the students had to be able to write letters and deal with officials. Other development workers were teaching well-digging or composting, treating ailments, organising conferences to bring local communities together, or getting the local languages written down in order to preserve them. Everyone was doing something useful. The Lobi are very dependent on subsistence farming, and therefore on the climate, so I saw at firsthand how important it is for charities who get involved in developing countries to be aware of the right way and the wrong way to intervene. I’m satisfied that Lendwithcare know what that right way is: small amounts lent, rather than given, and to people who have a solid business development plan.

I’m no longer able to travel abroad and help, but doing my bit is still very important to me. Although my means are modest, I’m still so much better off than some of the entrepreneurs the organisation is helping. I tend to go for individuals, and I tend to favour farmers who are trying to cultivate more efficiently, and get to a point where they can employ people and have enough produce to spare to sell it at local markets so, for example, they can afford to improve the house they live in, install a simple irrigation system, or pay for their children’s education.

I’ve been with Lendwithcare – run by CARE International UK – for about a year. I think I saw an ad for them on Facebook, and followed up. Lendwithcare.org offers a way of giving online that provides microfinance for entrepreneurs in developing countries. The entrepreneurs concerned have to have a strategic development plan, and the amount they want to borrow is calculated exactly, to the nearest pound.

Lendwithcare gives you plenty of information about the individual entrepreneur on which to base your choice, including a photograph. You can start with a loan as small as £15, and you can see how near their borrowing target the person has got. You get a notification email when they’re 100% funded. There’s also a repayment schedule. Nobody I’ve lent to has ever failed to pay back the scheduled monthly amount, and they often pay back faster, which goes to show how effective the borrowing is in improving their situation.

I get monthly emails from Lendwithcare – they’re great at communicating, but they don’t bombard me, and they never use emotional blackmail. In fact, their emails are always the first I look at when I open my inbox, because they’re always positive: “X, whom you helped, is now fully funded!”, a thank you, or news that all of my £15 has come back and I can reinvest it. Looking back over 2014 and the number of people I managed to help with my £15 gives me such an amazing feeling of being connected to people in other parts of the world – people who are really trying to improve their lives, and the lives of their local communities. The minimum investment amount of £15 is so small, really – the price of a simple pub lunch for two, or a couple of cinema tickets."

Register on Lendwithcare today and join Jan in supporting entrepreneurs in developing countries work their own way out of poverty.

Promoting solar power in Pakistan

The city of Lahore is renowned as the literary, educational and cultural heart of Pakistan and has a long history of beautiful architecture dating in particular from the Mughal period with buildings such as the Badshahi Masjid and the Shahi Qila or Lahore Fort.

Shakeel and Rehan from Akhuwat on the roof  where the solar panels are located

Although on a much more modest scale the new, purpose built headquarters of Akhuwat, Lendwithcare’s partner in Pakistan, continues this custom of bold, innovative design while respecting historical tradition.  The seven storey offices, completed in 2014, is the first large building in Lahore that can be run exclusively on solar power as up to 48 kilowatts of electricity can be generated from the 160 large solar panels located on the roof of the building. The energy is stored in 136 batteries all housed in a special control room on the top floor. When fully charged the batteries can power the entire building, which houses almost 70 staff, for almost eight hours or the whole of the working day. 

Furthermore, rather than install air conditioning units that are expensive and use lots of electricity, the narrow, open plan design of the building incorporates natural ventilation systems to simultaneously cool and channel fresh air throughout the building. Even during the hot summer months in Lahore when the average daily temperature routinely exceeds 40 degrees centigrade, the temperature inside the building remains much lower at around 25-30 degrees centigrade.

Shakeel  from Akhuwat in the control room

Dr Amjad Saqib, Akhuwat’s Founder and Executive Director, explains that the motivation to install solar power was not only an attempt to reduce carbon emissions and promote the use of renewable energy, but also in fact a response to the daily reality of frequent and often prolonged electricity cuts in Pakistan or ‘load shedding’ as it is referred to locally. Load shedding means that households and businesses alike receive electricity continuously only for a few hours each day, with power outages longer in rural areas. Whereas larger buildings and businesses can afford to rely on generators for power when there is no network electricity, small businesses are often forced to simply down tools and wait for the power to return. The costs to the economy in terms of lost production are staggering; one estimate is that annual gross national product has been reduced by 7%. Arguably nothing causes as much frustration and inconvenience for ordinary Pakistanis as load shedding.

Dr Amjad explains “I am convinced that solar energy can offer a practical and affordable solution to the thousands of microentrepreneurs that Akhuwat supports”. Therefore, to enable them to continue working during the frequent bouts of load shedding, Akhuwat intends in 2015 to start providing loans of between 20,000 and 100,000 rupees (approximately £130-£650) for small businesses to purchase and install solar power systems.  Since monthly electricity bills are often in the range of 2,000 to 3,000 rupees a month, Akhuwat estimates that the investment in solar power for most borrowers will actually pay for itself after a couple of years as their electricity bills will be much lower.

Such loans should soon be featured on the Lendwithcare website.

By Dr Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Microfinance Advisor at CARE International UK

Unprecedented floods in Malawi

A few days ago, terrible floods destroyed homes and livelihoods in Southern Malawi.

Flooded areas in Nsanje ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

The true extent of the damage is still not known but Lendwithcare's microfinance partner in Malawi, the MicroLoan Foundation, has told us that clients from at least two of their branches have been badly affected. It will take around six weeks for the water to subside enough for  MicroLoan Foundation staff to assess the impact of the floods on their client’s lives and businesses and in the meantime they are simply going out to reassure all their clients that they will help them through this crisis.

We have of course informed our local partner that Lendwithcare will also support them through this difficult time so as soon as we receive more information on which clients have been affected and to what extend we will let you know.

As we wait for more  information , here is the testimony of Innocent Mbvundula, a CARE Malawi member of staff.

“The devastation of floods as we saw it in Nsanje”

Flooded areas in Nsanje district, Malawi where waters have damaged houses, livestock and property. ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

Malawi’s Nsanje District in the lower Shire River basin lies 150 feet above sea level. While the district has been hit by floods on many occasions in the past, the recent continuous, heavy rains that pelted the region for five consecutive days led to heavy flooding in areas that have never experienced flooding before.

Floods have, for many people of Nsanje, become a normal annual occurrence, but the scale of this year’s floods are unprecedented. Travelling from Malawi's commercial city of Blantyre to Nsanje at the southern tip of Malawi, one is greeted by the sorry sight of damaged houses, hectares of land where the crops have been washed away, and men, women and children in dire need of basic amenities in various evacuation centres. All this is as a result of floods that have left over 50 people, including numerous children, dead in the district.

In traditional authority Mlolo, all public services have been suspended. Health centres and schools are submerged in water. Access to the area is only possible by helicopter and boats, making it difficult to reach the affected households. Listening to the affected people, especially women, it is clear this is a tragedy that they will never forget.

Grace Lawrence, a 20-year old pregnant woman relocated to Nyachilenda evacuation centre, will always remember this tragedy due to the loss of her daughter; Grace’s second born daughter, 3-year old Marita, could not be traced at the time of the rescue operation undertaken by the Malawi Defence Forces. Apparently, she fell from the roof and died but Grace does not know exactly what happened. 

Grace Lawrence at evacuation camp. ©Innocent Mbvundula/CARE

For Mathews Damiano of Brighton village in traditional authority Mbenje, life will never be the same. The floods happened at a time when his business was growing from strength to strength. From a humble beginning, his vegetable and fruit business grew steadily to become a reliable source of income. Today, a family that had become self-sufficient is now at the Bangula evacuation centre, destitute.

In a matter of days, the house he and his wife, Elube, laboured to build is but rubble as a result of floods. He lost all his property including a store house located 50 meters from their house. At the time of destruction, the store house had merchandise worth K50, 000 (US$104) in it.

“It will take us some time to recover from this damage. It took us years of hard work to build our house and the store house. We don’t know what to do now,” says Mathews Damiano.

In some areas of Nsanje district essential public services have been suspended. School has been disrupted for thousands of students. The floods have forced children to stop going to school because some schools have been damaged by the floods while others have been turned into evacuation centres. This disruption in school is particularly hard on students waiting to sit for their national examinations in May.

Marita Samuel, an elderly woman in her 80’s we met at Marka camp site, on the Malawi-Mozambique border, says in her life time she has never seen such devastating floods.

“We have experienced floods in the past. It is not a strange occurrence. I remember we had extensive flooding in 1986 and it was destructive, but this flooding is worse than that one. I’m lost for a word,” said Marita.

Clearly, these floods have brought catastrophic effects to the people of Nsanje. It will take time to recover from the loss. In some cases it will be impossible to fully recover, as is the case of loss of life. Families, relatives and close friends have been separated, in some cases, forever. History will record these floods as one of the worst disasters in the history of the lower Shire district.

By Innocent Mbvundula , CARE Malawi”

January 26, 2015

Guest Blog - A gift that keeps on giving

When for my birthday I asked for donations to my charity instead of presents none of my friends or family thought that was such a good idea. To be fair many of them give already but generally people like to give gifts, to pick something out and see it be appreciated. To me the idea of getting donations without painful form filling, standing in the cold or embarrassing ‘asks’ seems like a great gift but for people who can’t see it being spent, see the money making a difference or people enjoying what it provides for them it’s perhaps less rewarding.
With donations as with gifts it’s great to be able to see it make someone happy.
One of my friends, Helen, was listening when I told her about how much I loved Lendwithcare. How not only was the scheme a great concept but one that comes with an amazing amount of consideration and attention to lenders. My enthusiasm for Lendwithcare led me to ask to visit their partner in Manila, something I wrote about in a previous post and since then I have continued to be impressed with the varied and regular updates, enthusiastic blogs from staff and frank explanations when things have gone awry.
I’ve bought Lendwithcare for three people that I can remember. For my young niece as a nicer way of giving her some money, although I hope she’ll never withdraw from the account, for my dad I chose an entrepreneur from Malawi as he’d spent time there many years ago and for someone who I suspect might never have cashed it in. And this is where vouchers really come into their own.
 We’ve all received presents we didn’t want. Without wanting to name and shame I’m sure my whole family would understand that we don’t really want to receive any more t-shirts or key rings bearing pictures of holiday destinations. But this present doesn’t get abandoned in a drawer or only worn to bed. Even if that person never looks at it again the money is already in the right place doing its job.
For my birthday last year Helen got me a Lendwithcare gift voucher. So now even though I’ve put money of my own in over the years I now think of her gift every time I get a repayment or have enough in my account to make a new loan. That’s an awful lot of enjoyment already out of one voucher. I’m sure it will carry on for years to come.
With donations as with gifts it’s great to be able to see it make someone happy.
One of my friends, Helen, was listening when I told her about how much I loved Lendwithcare. How not only was the scheme a great concept but one that comes with an amazing amount of consideration and attention to lenders. My enthusiasm for Lendwithcare led me to ask to visit their partner in Manila, something I wrote about in a previous post and since then I have continued to be impressed with the varied and regular updates, enthusiastic blogs from staff and frank explanations when things have gone awry.
I’ve bought Lendwithcare for three people that I can remember. For my young niece as a nicer way of giving her some money, although I hope she’ll never withdraw from the account, for my dad I chose an entrepreneur from Malawi as he’d spent time there many years ago and for someone who I suspect might never have cashed it in. And this is where vouchers really come into their own.
We’ve all received presents we didn’t want. Without wanting to name and shame I’m sure my whole family would understand that we don’t really want to receive any more t-shirts or key rings bearing pictures of holiday destinations. But this present doesn’t get abandoned in a drawer or only worn to bed. Even if that person never looks at it again the money is already in the right place doing its job.
For my birthday last year Helen got me a Lendwithcare gift voucher. So now even though I’ve put money of my own in over the years I now think of her gift every time I get a repayment or have enough in my account to make a new loan. That’s an awful lot of enjoyment already out of one voucher. I’m sure it will carry on for years to come.

This blog has been reposted here with permission from Amy Lythgoe.
Originally posted here

When for my birthday I asked for donations to my charity instead of presents none of my friends or family thought that was such a good idea. To be fair many of them give already but generally people like to give gifts, to pick something out and see it be appreciated. To me the idea of getting donations without painful form filling, standing in the cold or embarrassing ‘asks’ seems like a great gift but for people who can’t see it being spent, see the money making a difference or people enjoying what it provides for them it’s perhaps less rewarding.

With donations as with gifts it’s great to be able to see it make someone happy.

One of my friends, Helen, was listening when I told her about how much I loved Lendwithcare. How not only was the scheme a great concept but one that comes with an amazing amount of consideration and attention to lenders. My enthusiasm for Lendwithcare led me to ask to visit their partner in Manila, something I wrote about in a previous post and since then I have continued to be impressed with the varied and regular updates, enthusiastic blogs from staff and frank explanations when things have gone awry.

I’ve bought Lendwithcare for three people that I can remember. For my young niece as a nicer way of giving her some money, although I hope she’ll never withdraw from the account, for my dad I chose an entrepreneur from Malawi as he’d spent time there many years ago and for someone who I suspect might never have cashed it in. And this is where vouchers really come into their own.

 We’ve all received presents we didn’t want. Without wanting to name and shame I’m sure my whole family would understand that we don’t really want to receive any more t-shirts or key rings bearing pictures of holiday destinations. But this present doesn’t get abandoned in a drawer or only worn to bed. Even if that person never looks at it again the money is already in the right place doing its job.

For my birthday last year Helen got me a Lendwithcare gift voucher. So now even though I’ve put money of my own in over the years I now think of her gift every time I get a repayment or have enough in my account to make a new loan. That’s an awful lot of enjoyment already out of one voucher. I’m sure it will carry on for years to come.

When for my birthday I asked for donations to my charity instead of presents none of my friends or family thought that was such a good idea. To be fair many of them give already but generally people like to give gifts, to pick something out and see it be appreciated. To me the idea of getting donations without painful form filling, standing in the cold or embarrassing ‘asks’ seems like a great gift but for people who can’t see it being spent, see the money making a difference or people enjoying what it provides for them it’s perhaps less rewarding.

With donations as with gifts it’s great to be able to see it make someone happy.
One of my friends, Helen, was listening when I told her about how much I loved Lendwithcare. How not only was the scheme a great concept but one that comes with an amazing amount of consideration and attention to lenders. My enthusiasm for Lendwithcare led me to ask to visit their partner in Manila, something I wrote about in a previous post and since then I have continued to be impressed with the varied and regular updates, enthusiastic blogs from staff and frank explanations when things have gone awry.

I’ve bought Lendwithcare for three people that I can remember. For my young niece as a nicer way of giving her some money, although I hope she’ll never withdraw from the account, for my dad I chose an entrepreneur from Malawi as he’d spent time there many years ago and for someone who I suspect might never have cashed it in. And this is where Lendwithcare Gift Vouchers really come into their own.

We’ve all received presents we didn’t want. Without wanting to name and shame I’m sure my whole family would understand that we don’t really want to receive any more t-shirts or key rings bearing pictures of holiday destinations. But this present doesn’t get abandoned in a drawer or only worn to bed. Even if that person never looks at it again the money is already in the right place doing its job.

For my birthday last year Helen got me a Lendwithcare gift voucher. So now even though I’ve put money of my own in over the years I now think of her gift every time I get a repayment or have enough in my account to make a new loan. That’s an awful lot of enjoyment already out of one voucher. I’m sure it will carry on for years to come.

By Amy Lythgoe

Guest Blog - Ethical Loans Transform Lives in the Developing World

This blog has been reposted here with permission from Owen Knight.
Originally posted here

Joining LendWithCare three years ago was one of the best decisions I have made.During this time, my loan has been recycled four and a half times to a total of twenty-five entrepreneurs in six countries. Together with loans from other lenders, it has assisted people who would otherwise have no access to finance on the journey to work their way out of poverty. The individual loans have enabled entrepreneurs to buy raw materials, stock, tools and other essentials to start or develop their business and take control of their lives, in such diverse areas as farming, food production, general stores, market stalls, carpentry, vehicle repairs and sewing and tailoring.

The wonderful thing is that this has cost me absolutely nothing. With UK interest rates on savings at an all time low, it is a no-brainer to make better use of the money by helping people who want to improve their lives through their own efforts and with dignity.

LendWithCare makes interest-free loans to carefully screened microfinance partners that charge ‘reasonable and fair’ interest rates (or charges) to ensure that loans used are for ethical purposes and offer transparency. Loans are repaid in monthly instalments and, once they are repaid, you have the option of reinvesting with a loan to a new entrepreneur or withdrawing the funds. If you can afford to lend a minimum of £15, you will be making a real difference.

LendWithCare is supported by, amongst others, news presenter Alastair Stewart and Deborah Meaden of Dragon’s Den. The Co-operative was a founder launch partner.

Click here to take a look at the videos on the LendWithCare website, to learn more of their work and the benefits to entrepreneurs. 

You will see why, this Christmas, I have decided to double the amount of my modest loan to a worthwhile organisation.

Be Sociable, Share!

Owen Knight

Guest Blog - This Christmas, give the gift of giving.

This Christmas, give the gift of giving.
Posted on 30 November, 2014 by Keith Channing

Hang on; I didn’t mean that.

This Christmas, give the gift of lending.

For some months, my wife and I have been involved, in a small way, with Lendwithcare, a micro-finance organisation set up by Care International, one of the world’s leading aid and development organisations.

Microloans from CARE International UK The premise is simple: an entrepreneur in one of the world’s least affluent areas proposes a business idea to a microfinance intitution (MFI). The MFI approves the plan and grants the requested loan. The entrepreneur is then helped to construct a profile that appears on the lendwithcare.org web site. Supporters (that’s you and I) visit the site, select a profile that interests them, and make a contribution to support it. Once the full amount is reached, it is sent to the MFI, releasing their funds to support another entrepreneur.

As the supported business develops and grows, the loan is repaid, and the repayments find their way into your account with lendwithcare. You can then either withdraw them or, more likely, use them to finance another entrepreneur; and so the virtuous cycle continues.


What’s so great about this? Let me tell you what I think:

My money doesn’t go into a ‘pot'; I choose which individual or group is going to benefit from my contribution, based on a good amount of information about the applicant(s) and the business proposal. It’s personal. Many years ago, I was on an emergency blood donor list. On more than one occasion, when we were called to the hospital for an emergency bleed, we (usually only three or four of us) were introduced to the patient who would be receiving our blood. A cup of tea and a rich cream biscuit never gave that feeling!

The full amount of the loan goes to the desired recipient. There is an (optional) addition of 10% of the amount loaned to help cover the running costs,

It is a loan, not a gift; it can be re-used,

I have often heard the hackneyed ‘give a man a fish and you feed a man, teach a man to fish and you feed a family'; think what happens when you lend a man the money to buy a fishing rod, or maybe to repair or upgrade a fishing boat.

One of the people I have been privileged to support in recent months is a Togo man, married with two small children. He owns a small computer shop that provides office services such as photocopying, word processing and computer training. He also sells computer and office equipment.

He applied for a loan to buy a new photocopier and to expand his business. He is also keen to transform his small shop into a training centre, to pass his knowledge on to others. His ultimate goal is to build up his business so that he will be able to provide a better standard of living for his family.

Like most of the people I have been privileged to support, in many walks of life and across three continents, he is fully funded, and is on target with his repayments. The repayments that arrive in our account are all used for new loans.

What has all this to do with Christmas? Simply this: follow this link to lendwithcare.org, and buy your loved one, your friend, your colleague the gift that, quite literally, keeps on giving – a lendwithcare gift voucher.

How to increase investment in micro-enterprises (and get your money back)

This blog was orginally posted on CARE Insights.

Today CARE has submitted written evidence to the International Development Committee (IDC) of the House of Commons on our peer-to-peer lending network, Lendwithcare. (For a snappier and more entertaining overview of Lendwithcare, see our new Christmas animation above.) The IDC is currently looking at jobs and livelihoods and is interested to understand more about the role that a relatively new way of funding micro-enterprises can play in generating growth and jobs in developing countries.


Lendwithcare.org has been hugely successful since its launch four years ago, and now supports over 14,000 MSMEs by engaging online with over 18,000 lenders who have each, on average, loaned £35, raising nearly £5 million in the last four years. These really are loans – almost all are repaid within the agreed timescale. To date, only death and major disasters, like Typhoon Haiyan, have prevented our microentrepreneurs from repaying. Of course, our committed lenders very frequently recycle their loans to other entrepreneurs, keeping money in the system and reaching more businesses.

Lenders find Lendwithcare a compelling proposition: they can choose who to lend to, based on detailed information on the individual and their business plans, they get regular feedback on progress, and they know that they are helping resourceful individuals lift themselves and their families out of poverty. And they get all of this within a web experience in their own language, culture and currency. The other compelling aspect is that, when you put money into Lendwithcare, 100% of the money goes to the entrepreneur who is borrowing – CARE does not take a slice off the top. Rather, our modest administration costs are met from other funding within CARE, and until recently, by sponsorship from the Co-operative Group.

The opportunity (and the key issue)

There is a lot of scope for expanding Lendwithcare’s operations – there is certainly no shortage of small enterprises requiring loans. And we believe that there are many more microfinance institutions out there who are likely to meet our (demanding) criteria. We know this because Lendwithcare only lends in nine countries, compared to the 80 countries in total in which CARE International works.

We also believe that there are considerable opportunities for expanding the lender community of the Lendwithcare model. For instance, we believe that it is likely to be successful in other European countries where there already exists a CARE office. As this includes Germany, France, Austria, Norway and Denmark, there is a lot of opportunity. We would also like to explore rapidly developing countries such as India and Brazil. We know that lenders find it important to link with an organisation in their own country, for reasons of language, currency, tax laws and cultural affinity.

All of which would take some more investment – but we know that we can raise loans to the value of seven times the marketing and administration investment. This is a powerful win-win-win between CARE’s mission to end poverty, an individual’s desire to use some of their own hard-earned cash to help others, and entrepreneurs’ drive to build strong businesses to lift themselves and others out of poverty.

So now all we have to do is find the cash to pay for some administration and marketing…

By Gerry Boyle
CARE International UK's Senior Policy Adviser on Private Sector Engagement

Download our written evidence in full here.

Green Microfinance - supporting renewable energy in Vietnam

Biogas facility in Vietnam © MACDI 2014

In recent years a growing number of ‘green microfinance’ initiatives have encouraged eco-friendly microenterprises and supported the use of renewable energy. One such programme is implemented by Lendwithcare’s partner in Vietnam, the Microfinance and Community Development Institute (MACDI). MACDI provides loans to rural households so they can install household plants that use animal waste to generate biogas, a clean fuel that can be used for cooking, lighting and heating.
According to Minh Thai Dinh Thi, Director of MACDI, the motivation for providing biogas loans has as much do with the economic as the environmental benefits. She explains that “since households do not need to spend money on buying firewood, and for the poorer families the time spent by women and girls gathering firewood, biogas plants simultaneously save money, time and also reduce deforestation”. 

Biogas offers other compelling advantages. It promotes better health through eliminating smoke from cooking with firewood. It also reduces harmful pathogens from animal waste that might lead to illnesses (the Asian Development Bank estimates more than 70 million tonnes of animal waste is improperly disposed of each year in Vietnam, contaminating the environment and often finding its way into streams and rivers). Importantly it also converts animal manure into an improved fertiliser, saving farmers money on expensive chemical fertilisers. Many families who have installed biogas plants have also commented that their general environment looks cleaner with less foul odours and flies. While the biogas technology can work in most climatic conditions it seems particularly suitable to countries such as Vietnam with generally warm temperatures and sufficient rainfall. 

Biogas being used for cooking in Vietnam © MACDI 2014

However, despite the potential benefits, the adoption of biogas technology has been slow. This is mainly because of the relatively high cost of biogas plants for people living in rural areas with limited financial resources. To overcome this obstacle, starting in 2011, MACDI has been providing households with loans for between US$500-700 with a long repayment period of between 24-36 months to install the biogas plants. On average, households with at least two cattle or six pigs can generate sufficient biogas to meet their daily basic cooking and lighting needs and the investment pays for itself after about three years. To date, almost 400 families have benefited from the loans. MACDI negotiated with a specialist company to build, service and maintain the biogas plants to ensure they are correctly and safely installed so that they have a long life span. MACDI also provides borrowers with training on management and upkeep of the biogas plants to ensure that they receive the best returns from their investment.

Most of MACDI’s borrowers are small-scale farmers who grow rice and maize and typically raise livestock and poultry. Whilst previously the pig, cattle and buffalo manure and crop residue was left to rot or burned (wasting valuable plant nutrients), households now feed the manure mixed with water, but also some crop residue and other organic matter, into the biogas plant where it decomposes. Under anaerobic (without air) conditions the rotting matter produces biogas which is pumped into the home, usually the kitchen, and used for cooking, lighting and in the winter months heating as well. The slurry which has a high nutrient content is used as a fertiliser and crop yields of vegetable crops such as potatoes and onions, fruit, sugar cane and rice have reacted particularly favourably. The biogas generally comprises  just under 60% methane, almost 40% carbon dioxide and a small fraction of other gases such as hydrogen, nitrogen  and hydrogen sulphide. Although methane is a damaging greenhouse gas, since it is burnt the process is essentially ‘carbon negative’.

The potential for biogas in Vietnam is huge, with more than two-thirds of the population earning a living from agriculture, animal husbandry and fishing and most have traditionally relied on wood, agricultural residue and animal dung for their energy needs. Lendwithcare is supporting MACDI to increase the scale and outreach of its green microfinance programme to ensure more rural households in Vietnam are able to install household biogas plants and have access to clean, sustainable and affordable energy.




You can invest in a green loan today by simply visiting the Lendwithcare website www.lendwithcare.org

By Dr Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Lendwithcare Microfinance Advisor

Guest blog | You don’t have to wait for Christmas!!

This blog was originally posted on Richard Kemp's blog and has been re-posted here with his permission.

Pictured above is Ghulam Qadir who has a recycling business in Pakistan

I have to admit that I am not an easy person to buy things for at Christmas and birthdays. I am lucky that I can afford to buy things that I need and have very few things that I want to buy on top of that except for stamps (I am a stamp collector).

So I always present a challenge. However my ever resourceful younger daughter Rachel, currently the Lady Mayoress of Liverpool, knows my foibles and my interests and is a dab hand at whizzing around on her computer looking for things.

In the past she has bought me things like goats from Oxfam which I have appreciated but it felt a bit sterile. I like being involved with things. This year she found a perfect present when she gave me a voucher for Lendwithcare. In this she combined two of my interests.

Professionally I used to be a regeneration adviser helping people set up programmes to help small business in some of the most deprived parts of England and in places like Turkey.

Politically I represent the UK on a number of international local government bodies and have had the opportunity to visit villages and towns in Africa to see at first hand the hand to mouth existence that so many of the people of Africa and similar areas face.

From the start I was delighted with the gift and within a couple of days invested most of it. I have since put two more small amounts in and intend to give small amounts on a regular basis.

I like thinking about which countries and people to invest in. I don’t put money into retail businesses but prefer to put them into things like recycling, food production and farming. I like the feedback that I get from Lendwithcare and to see the relatively small amounts dribbling in monthly. This means that I know that Lendwithcare is investing well although I do expect that sometimes it will not work out and the investment will disappear.

I have currently made two investments in Pakistan and one each in Benin and Cambodia. Two of the investments are with men and two with women.

To me this is what Christmas is all about. I don’t need another tie and although I will always eventually eat another bar of chocolate doing some small things for people in far greater need than I have ever experienced gives me a small glow of satisfaction. So thanks Rachel for leading me to Lendwithcare. You know what Santa can bring me next year don’t you!?

But you don’t have to wait for Christmas. If you go onto their website you can sign up and start lending straight away  http://www.careinternational.org. Alternatively ring them on 0207 091 6014. Lend some money, do some good and have a pleasurable learning time as well. You could even become a Lendwithcare angel – probably the only chance that I will ever get of acquiring a pair of wings! If you come from Greater Liverpool you can also join a group and see what other members (there are currently four of us) are doing and investing in. I don’t want to urge you on too much but Manchester has a bigger group than Liverpool – a situation I would really like to see rectified!!

Is peer-to-peer (P2P) lending an efficient way to support microfinance?

The Lendwithcare.org Homepage

Peer-to-peer (P2P) micro-lending platforms, such as lendwithcare, have become a popular method of supporting small businesses in developing countries. Local microfinance institutions (MFIs) select borrowers and appraise their loan applications, which if approved, are financed by the P2P platform. Lendwithcare was established in 2010 and to date some 17,000 individual lenders have financed loans to more than 8,000 borrowers across ten countries.  Our experience over the past four years is that as their loans are repaid, lenders invariably re-lend; rather than withdraw their money. While lendwithcare has proven to be very popular with supporters, is it an efficient way for MFIs to access funding?

The obvious attraction for MFIs is that they do not have to pay any interest whatsoever on the capital they receive from lendwithcare. Although some MFIs are permitted to accept savings, most of our partners are legally prohibited from accepting deposits. Therefore, in common with many other MFIs, they must rely on external loans to finance their lending. Typically, they access capital from Microfinance Investment Vehicles (MIVs); these are specialist microfinance investment investors such as Blue Orchard, Oikocredit, Triodos and responsAbility, and from local commercial banks. Both these categories of lenders charge interest on their loans, although the MIVs typically charge lower rates than commercial banks and some also provide technical assistance and expertise.

Although lendwithcare does not charge any interest, the funding we provide is not cost free for our MFI partners. This is because they have to visit borrowers, collect details regarding their businesses, take photographs, upload all this information onto the lendwithcare website and then provide further updates on borrowers’ businesses. If the MFI’s clients are living in isolated villages spread over a large area then the administrative obligations associated with participating in lendwithcare could be considerable. This could mean that any benefits arising from interest free capital might be negated by an increase in operational costs. This raises the question, might it actually be cheaper for MFIs to simply access capital from the MIVs and other commercial lenders, even though they have to pay interest, than from lendwithcare?

During a recent visit to Cambodia, this is a question I posed to the Cambodian Community Savings Federation (CCSF) who have been working with lendwithcare for the past three years. CCSF works with rural clients, mainly rice farmers, in the provinces of Battambang and Banteay Meanchey in North West Cambodia. Pisey Phal, CCSF’s CEO, confessed that while they do access loans from several MIVs they prefer funding from lendwithcare because it is much cheaper for them.

Lendwithcare Entrepreneur with CCSF loan officer © CARE/Nancy Thomas

Pisey mentioned that during 2013 lendwithcare provided CCSF with US$416,000 to fund loans to more than 500 individual borrowers as well as a small grant to help with administrative costs. CCSF used the donation to cover the salary paid to one employee who was contracted specifically to work on lendwithcare – the grant just about covered all of his annual salary, although it did not cover his expenditure on fuel and the small amount of time that other staff, particularly the finance manager, spent on lendwithcare related duties. To access an equivalent amount of funding from an MIV or commercial lender, CCSF would have had to pay at least US$32,800 in interest charges, possibly more. Pisey added that lendwithcare funding would still be cheaper for them even had it not received the administrative grant. She added that the greatest advantage of lendwithcare funding is that it provided CCSF with a secure source of funding over a longer period of time, loans from MIVs in contrast are generally for shorter periods of 1-2 years. Furthermore, since loans from lendwithcare are repaid monthly and transfers simply offset against new loans being financed, Pisey mentioned that the exposure to possible currency fluctuations is greatly reduced.

From discussions with lendwithcare’s other MFI partners, they make an effort to ensure that any extra administrative costs are kept to a minimum by integrating lendwithcare duties with other routine operational tasks. For example, our partner in Ecuador, Fundacion de Apoyo Comunitario y Social del Ecuador, requests several loan officers from three branch offices to each collect four borrower profiles every month. The loan officers estimate that lendwithcare adds on average just an extra 1-2 hours to their monthly work burdens – they already visit borrowers to assess the feasibility of their loan application, the only extra work associated with lendwithcare is taking photographs and preparing a narrative for the website.  By dividing extra responsibilities related to lendwithcare between several staff, there is actually only a marginal increase in administrative work.

By Dr Ajaz Ahmed Khan, Microfinance Advisor at CARE International UK

Finalists for Lendwithcare Grassroots Entrepreneur Awards announced!

Public voting has closed for the 2014 Lendwithcare Grassroots Entrepreneur Awards and the ten most popular entrepreneurs, featured below, have been passed to our expert judging panel to pick an overall winner.

The standard of entrants has been extremely high. Every one of the 33 nominees is inspiring and has demonstrated an incredible level of enterprise and entrepreneurialism, often in the most challenging circumstances. The Lendwithcare Grassroots Awards recognises the most innovative and determined small businesspeople in poor communities in the developing world. The Awards celebrate creativity, enterprise and innovation, and prioritises social values and poverty alleviation.

It’s now down to our able panel of high profile names from across the business world to come to a final decision. Alastair Stewart, Deborah Meaden, Levi Roots, Nick Hewer, Richard Reed, Sir Stuart Rose, have a difficult decision on their hands! 

 Leonida Bironga Makori

 

Leonida, from Kenya, is a 32 year old entrepreneur. She has been involved in the franchise business for CARE’s Group Savings and Loan (GS&L) project. So far, Leonida has trained over 50,000 individuals on CARE Kenya’s GS&L project. She also supplies carbon-free cook stoves and micro solar lamps to GS&L members on credit, which has improved the individuals’ lives as they have been able to pay for these appliances in installments. She has distributed over 644 carbon-free cook stoves and 636 micro solar lamps to her community through the GS&L programme. Through her work with the GS&L programme, she has employed 30 community-based trainers, whom she pays from her own income, creating long-lasting community change.

La Morm

La Morm, from Cambodia, is a seamstress with a difference. She is incredibly committed to investing in her community and decided to take out a small loan to purchase sewing machines to train local apprentices. Apprentices pay $12 to be trained by La Morm over two months and once they have completed their training can take the machines home to start their own businesses. The machines cost £150 each and apprentices take on this loan if they choose to take the sewing machines home. This entrepreneurial education education has transformed her community forever.


Bora Mau

Bora, from Cambodia, is a truly dynamic entrepreneur. She used a small loan to invest in both her husband’s welding business and her fish and chicken farms, increasing her profit margins to between 20-30%. Bora Mau believes education is crucial in the fight against poverty, and in addition to investing in her businesses, the entrepreneur set-up a school where she teaches over 100 local children in the morning and evenings.

 Anwar Bibi

Anwar, from Pakistan, is an embroiderer. She went through critical illness and her son died in a fire accident, inducing heavy medical expenses. She started embroidering with her daughter, earning little. After a loan, she expanded to six employees, and now plans on sending her children back to school. She turned her fortunes around, even becoming an earning source for others. Anwar has proved that if you are determined, you can turn things around for the better. Apart from providing a better lifestyle to her family, she has also become a source of income for four families.


Bertha Nkhata

Bertha, from Malawi, runs a bicycle taxi business alongside her smallholding farm. This taxi business enables her to pay the school fees for her two children as well as buying a solar light to enable the family to be productive in the evenings and use basic kitchen equipment. Bertha also employs casual labourers for her farm, thus creating much needed local employment.
She is happy to know that she is a self-sufficient woman, giving her independence rather than having to always rely on her husband.


Teresa

Teresa, from Egypt, first took a loan of just £17 and purchased ducklings. She was able to repay the loan and earn some money. The whole family work in poultry and expanded their business with further small loans. She encouraged her friends and neighbors to form Village Savings and Loans groups and she trained them on how to raise ducks. Moreover, her group members elected her to be the chairwoman. Being the group chairwoman affected Theresa’s character, and the leadership and decision making skills she has  learned have changed her community.


Appoline Ahossi 

Appoline, from Benin, produces cassava flour and tapioca. She only employs young women and girls, paying them fairly and allowing weekends off, as she believes in women’s potential to be an economic driving force in Benin. She has employed up to ten women simultaneously. Aware of environment protection, Appoline uses clean, fuel-efficient stoves in her production.



 

Elisabeth Houessou

Elisabeth, from Benin, is an example of achievement and innovation in her village. She has overcome a variety of problems related to her production and has managed to become a quality producer of gari (cassava flour), also innovating and developing new products like a snack from coconut milk and sugar. Also, Elisabeth employs staff permanently, always recruiting women in difficulties showing solidarity with other women and a desire to help her community. Finally Elisabeth has been training women in the production of quality gari for 10 years, passing on her knowledge to other people.


Amake Albiro Ogoudele

Amake, from Benin, produces cassava flour, employing eight full-time staff, and exporting her produce across the Nigerian border. During the busy December month, she hires more staff. Aware of environment protection, Amake uses fuel-efficient stoves to reduce firewood consumption, and participates in reforestation campaigns. She is a role model for her community.




Victorine Fianyo

Victorine, from Togo, is a fantastic example of how microfinance can give people living in poverty the opportunity to transform their lives. 18 years ago, she accessed her first loan of just £25 to buy basic ingredients for her ‘Kom’ (a corn meal very popular in parts of West Africa) stall which she set-up outside her home. Today she produces Kom wholesale, has built her own shop where she sells a diverse range of goods, employs seven people, and can afford to send all her children to school. Indeed, much to the entrepreneur’s great pride, her fourth daughter has just gone to Germany to complete higher education – something quite rare indeed.

Have your chance to invest in next year's Grassroots Entrepreneur of the Year and visit www.lendwithcare.org today!