"Community Banking", a system of making micro-credit loans to start businesses is the most highly effective way we have seen to lift widows out of their extreme poverty. Seventy percent of the women in Rwanda are widows due to the genocide and on-going hostilities in that area. Women in other areas of the "Great Lakes" region of Central Africa are in like situations.
A micro-credit bank consists of about 30 women who each receive a loan of $100 to start a small business. They pledge to meet with the group regularly, help each other succeed in their businesses, and pay back the loan with interest in a 16-week period. When all loans are paid, the money is available for re-loaning to increase businesses or is made available to new members. Caring people in the U.S. provide the capital to establish the "bank"(About $4,000 starts one bank), but after that the money stays in the local bank and is recycled over and over in loans to these poor, but industrious, widows. The repayment rate is over 97%!!
These women are desperate to feed their children and are making the loans work for them. After they are able to provide food, their next concern is to send their children to school. They know this is the best way to secure a better future for them. Omega Foundation is pleased to have established 4 such banks among the women of Goma, DRC, and will fund more in the future.
