New_Horizons_June_2008

NEWHORIZONSTHE ECLOF MAGAZINEJUNE 2008 ISSUE 39

Kenya ECLOF recovers from violenceECLOF/Heifer workshop

Myanmar cyclone losses • News from Ecuador, Ivory Coast,Jamaica, Peru, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Uganda

Page 2 NEWHORIZONS June 2008

NEWHORIZONS

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In this issue we report on two National ECLOFsoperating under very difficult circumstances.Kenya ECLOF after a very successful year in2007 is rebuilding its operations damaged bythe recent post election violence, while ECLOFMyanmar is just coming to terms with thedevastation caused by cyclone Nargis in May.

After hoping against hope that elections inZimbabwe would allow us to restart the stalledprogramme, we are discouraged by the eventsfollowing the elections – it might becomeimpossible to keep on waiting for a betterenvironment to operate in.

It is important to recognise that partnershipis a key factor for the effectiveness of ruralmicrofinance – and in hard times like thesethe ECLOF ethos of partnership shines through:

• In our lead story on the Kenyan violence onpages 4 and 5 you'll see how. We’ve appealedto our partners for help to fund training andhealing work that the committed team ofKenya ECLOF needs to do.

• I hope that the story about a Sri Lankan familyrebuilding their business after the tsunamiwill offer some hope to ECLOF Myanmar asthey come to terms with the havoc wreakedby the cyclone in May. We are delighted toreport that US church development agencyEpiscopal Relief and Development hascome on board as a partner in the Sri Lankan

livelihood project, thus underlining the valueof partnership.

But effective partnership building takescommitment in time and resources at all levelsas evidenced by the continuing work on thesecond phase of our partnership with HeiferInternational, reported on pages 12 to 13.

It is these partnerships at global and nationallevels that have enabled ECLOF to reach outto rural areas. In 2007 ECLOF granted 23,800new development loans worth US$38.7 millionto 110,900 direct beneficiaries reaching about554,500 people. Of this, 57% was in rural areaswith a similar percentage financing womenentrepreneurs. Lending for agriculture andlivestock reached US$10.7 millions.

This is my last message as the ExecutiveDirector of ECLOF International. The first phaseof my term which began in 1991 was markedby a painful restructuring resulting in theclosure of programmes in 27 countries, pruningunproductive branches. The Board approvedfurther pruning in four countries last year. Withfewer but more effective National ECLOFs wehave been able to reach out to more people.ECLOF is now in a new phase of evolutionthat is marked by the decision to have a sharecapital-based branch in Colombia, to invest inmajority shares in Amasezerano CommunityBanking in Rwanda and to establish an ECLOFGlobal Microfinance Fund.

I am delighted to pass on the mantle to mysuccessor, Irene Banda Mutalima who iseminently qualified and experienced to moveECLOF to the next phase in the context of arapidly changing microfinance environment.

I remain forever grateful to all who have walkedwith me, both professionally and personally,over the years. You have made the journeyworth it. It has been a privilege to serve. MayGod bless you and bless ECLOF.

Muhungi F. Kanyoro

Director’s Message

Rallying round in a crisis, as we mark a successful 2007

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New Horizons is published by ECLOF International and distributedwithout charge among ECLOF members and other interested partieswho request a copy. New Horizons is printed in English and Spanishand is available online at www.eclof.org in English, Spanish, Frenchand German.

The opinions expressed in New Horizons do not necessarily reflectthe positions of ECLOF.

ECLOF InternationalP.O. Box 21001211 Geneva 2Switzerland

Telephone: +41 22 791 63 12Fax: +41 22 710 20 05Website: www.eclof.orgE-mail: [email protected]

June 2008 NEWHORIZONS Page 3

New Executive DirectorIrene Banda Mutalimadraws inspirationfrom the Parable ofthe Talents

As I join the ECLOF family, I am deeplyhumbled by the work our National ECLOFs(NECs) are doing all over the globe. It takeshuge commitment to give the poor muchneeded financial services and ensure theseservices remain relevant. Our joy is in seeingpoor people’s lives improve as we servethem diligently.

Yet there is another side to our work: our ownaccountability to our donors, clients, staff andindeed to our heartfelt vision. More importantis the question of our accountability to God inwhom our vision is steeped.

This reminds me of the Parable of the Talentsand my question is this: how do we need towork to earn the title ‘good and faithful servant’(Matthew 25: 14-30)? Like the master in theparable, ECLOF International entrusts money toNECs in the hope that they will use it wiselyand plough the money back to help even morepoor people.

ECLOF International’s expectations arechallenged when NECs face difficulties – frompoor stewardship of resources to clients beingunable to service their loans according toagreements. Currently some NECs havesubstantial amounts in arrears. While in somecases this is down to events beyond our control,we know that in others our own practices maybe called into question.

The microfinance landscape is changing.We need to be more accountable. We needto know what it will take for us to be ‘goodand faithful’ like the servants in the parablewho used their master’s money responsiblyand effectively.

I sincerely hope the ECLOF family will riseto this challenge and create institutionsthat are well managed and serve the peopleeffectively. As we continue to strengthen andsupport each other, I trust that we will seeourselves as ‘good and faithful’ servants.

Contents ReflectionWhy we need to be ‘goodand faithful servants’

Meet the clientsJamaica: Business-savvy bishop helps town go self-employed 6

Côte d’Ivoire: fish farmers pool their resources 7

Uganda: cattle dung and urine turn into green fuel 8

Uganda: farmers store glut of grain and veg till prices rise 9

Ecuador: community builds future in livestock farming 10

Philippines: Parents inspire school to build new classrooms 20

PartnershipsEcuador: helping city families make more money 11

Heifer partnership hots up: clearer roles and results 12

ERD joins Tsunami programme to set Sri Lankans back up in business 14

Côte d’Ivoire: help for women with HIV and AIDS 15

Church of Sweden visits ECLOF Uganda 15

Smartphones help process loan payments and prevent fraud 16

ECLOF news & peopleMyanmar reels from cyclone death toll 17

People moves 18

ECLOF news and events 19

Kenya recovery

KECLOF teams rebuildhope and disbandedsolidarity groups

Warehouse warriors

Ugandan farmers arestoring their harvesttill the price is right

ECLOF/Heiferpartnership hitsnew heights

Tighter measures for thebenefit of farmers.

Tsunami turtles

Vijitha’s turtles arebreeding and her millgrinds once more

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Kenya ECLOF (KECLOF) is appealing for helpto rebuild its business after the recent politicalcrisis, which left 1,000 people dead and at least350,000 more fleeing their homes.

KECLOF has asked partner agencies to helppay for new IT and training to help staff moveon from the outbreak of killing, looting andburning provoked by December’s disputedpresidential election.

During the violence, at least five KECLOF staffhad to hide out in the bush for up to a week,three employees lost their family homes, and

field officers from ‘enemy’ tribes werethreatened into leaving volatile areas.

KECLOF has already helped staff relocate tosafer places and arranged specialist counselingfor those most traumatised. Now the NECwants to run debriefing retreats and workshops,and training to help staff rebuild the business,peace-build and find new lending models.

KECLOF’s group lending system is severelythreatened because clients no longer trust thepeople from other tribes in their group.

Kenya post-election violence: six months on

National office appeals for help to rebuild business

Spotlight: Kenya

They set fire to my wood workshopSylvester Okoth Nyamwamda (seen here withKECLOF staff member Allan Ameda) was runninga wood workshop in Kisumu. He belongs to theKisumu solidarity group and was loaned aboutUS$1,500 in August 2007. He lost four machineswhen looters set his workshop ablaze.


Spotlight: Kenya

Loans going unpaid

Unfortunately, initial indications are that overUS$47,000 worth of loans will have to bewritten off because many of the displacedclients will never be traced again. This figureis likely to rise once a survey is completed.Overall, about half the outstanding loans areclassified as Portfolio At Risk (PAR).

Homes and businesses destroyed

During the violence, more than 250 KenyaECLOF’s clients saw their homes andbusinesses looted or burnt down. Severalhundred more are estimated to have beendisplaced from their homes – mostly livingin churches, police stations or with relatives.

Some 70 per cent of the KECLOF loansportfolio is in the Western Region, which iswhere the violence is worst.

Although KECLOF operations have continuedin the Central and Eastern Region, businessis struggling because clients can’t sell theirproduce or get to the bank.

KECLOF’s chief executive Rose Wanjohi visitedthe Western Region with three managers toassess the damage. For almost 400km fromNakuru to Kitale, the group saw people campingout in compounds by each shopping centre,usually near the police post.

Ms Wanjohi visited clients groups and listenedto their stories. One man who chairs his groupand the local church paid a high price for givingrefuge to churchgoers from another tribe.

“His fellow tribesmen came and burned hishouse and entire harvest of 250 90kg bags ofmaize,” says Ms Wanjohi.

My boutiquewas destroyedHosman Chore from MailiNane Eldoret in front ofwhat used to be hisbusiness – a boutiquewith stocks worth morethan US$4,000 (in thebackground is ECLOF staffmember Flora Singoei).Hosman recently took aloan of US$500 as partof the TemwingDevelopment Group.

Torched my home,stock and savingsAnne Muthoni Mathene infront of her house in MailiNane Eldoret. When herhouse was torched, shelost cash savings andUS$850 worth of stockfor her clothes and shoesbusiness. Anne hadborrowed US$680 throughMelody Solidarity Group.

2007 loans

• 98 staff across eight branches: Nairobi East, Nairobi West,Thika, Nyeri, Meru, Nakuru, Kisumu and Eldoret

• New leadership returned the business to profit

• Loans worth more than US$7 million – twice that for 2006• US$ 6.2 million in rural areas• Almost US$ 3 million for farming (more than 1,600 loans)

After the violence

• Two clients killed, out of nearly 31,000• 251 clients reported their homes and/or businesses lootedor burnt down

• 40 had both their homes and businesses looted or burnt• 400 of the 2,000 solidarity groups disintegrated becausemembers are from different ethnic groups.

• About 55% of loans are in violence-affected areas

KECLOF facts


Bishop Frank Otto started out as Frank Otto thereal estate agent. Parallel to his entrepreneurship,however, he was involved in the Linstead Pente-costal Church where he had studied Sundayschool as a boy. In 1975 he became the pastorof the church and expanded its outreach.He now leads seven churches throughoutSt Catherine parish where Linstead is located,congregated under the new name LinsteadPentecostal Tabernacle.

Bishop Otto realised that many members ofhis congregation were struggling economically.With unemployment so high in Linstead (seebox), many people’s only option is to try to workfor themselves. Being not only a pastor but anentrepreneur, Bishop Otto decided to form an‘empowerment group’ that could take up a largeloan and invest it in various businesses. To givecreditworthiness to the group’s members, heoffered a cash guarantee for part of the loan.

Even though banks would have gladly acceptedBishop Otto’s proposal, he thought they lackedan affinity with his social project. The bishop

knew he’d found in ECLOF Jamaica the partnerhe needed. He secured an ECLOF loan of nearlyUS$10,000 to benefit several small businessesincluding poultry and pig farming, dressmakingand street vending.

Thanks to this loan, enterprising Linsteaderssuch as Gladys Bygrave have for the first timebeen able to borrow the capital they need to runa profitable small business – and even to take itup to another level: Gladys has doubled thenumber of chickens in her poultry farm.

Gladys and the Bishop

How a business-savvy bishop is helping small- town Jamaicansbecome their own boss

Meet the clients

Spotlight on Linstead

• Population: 20,000, most aged under 18 inthe parish of St Catherine, Jamaica

• Four big employers account for most jobs• High unemployment• Over one in three workers are self-employed• Brain drain to metropolitan Kingstonand St Andrews


Fish farmers pool resources

Fish farmers in Côte d’Ivoire have pooled resources over a decade to builda thriving business

Meet the clients

For the past decade a group of fish breeders and sellersfrom the Côte d’Ivoire has been building up a thrivingfish farming and sales business.

Sales of tilapia and catfish are doing so well that thegroup has bought land where they grow vegetablessuch as eggplants, okra and pimento for sale. The farmis in Adjin, a village near Bingerville in the Ébrié lagoon.

And the group has grown from its original 21 members(including 13 women) in 1998 to more than 30 today.

Under the acronym APVPA (Association des Producteurset Vendeuses de Poissons d'Adjin), the group has a boardof directors, including a president, a technical director,a commercial director, a treasurer and an auditor.

Generally the men oversee the fish farming while thewomen run an efficient sales network: selling directfrom the farm or delivering to surrounding villages andcity markets.

APVPA started with capital from its members’joining fees and monthly dues. in 2003-4 the farmerspainstakingly cleaned up the land and built 20 ponds of200-250 m2 and a system of canals leading to the lagoon.

In late 2005, APVPA were finally ready to flood thefirst few ponds and set the fish free. They alreadyhad a motorised pump and fish feed, courtesy of theCanadian embassy and the United Nation’s Food andAgriculture Organisation (FAO).

In spring 2006 the association bought 10 floating cageswith a loan of US$9,350 from ECLOF Côte d’Ivoire.The loan came through just in time to transfer thefirst generation of 40,000 fish to a cage in the lagoon.Within nine months the first fish would be about 350grams, ready to take to market.

Since the association has been making a profit, half isdistributed among members, 30 percent gets re-investedin the business and the rest goes into savings.

Long lagoonThe Ébrié lagoon runs for 100km along theseaside of Côte d’Ivoire, only separated fromthe Atlantic Ocean by a narrow coastal strip.The country’s present-day capital Abidjan isamidst the lagoon, as is the old colonial capitalof Bingerville. Fish farming is the main livelihoodfor this region surrounded by water.


Meet the clients

Ugandans are using wood so fast that theircountry could eventually become a desert.That’s why ECLOF Uganda is supportingprojects to help communities convert livestockwaste into combustible gas.

Uganda’s population has doubled in the past20 years; nine in ten households and smallenterprises depend on wood and charcoal fortheir energy needs, stretching the country’swood resources. The smoke is also unhealthyfor women and children who spend a lot oftime at home.

Biogas offers a way out: it converts livestockwaste into combustible gas and, as an addedextra, produces high-quality fertiliser. Under a

joint Heifer/ECLOF scheme, Ugandan farmersare switching to biogas and learning how tobuild and maintain biogas units on their ownusing local materials.

Rosemary Nakireza is one of 270 membersof the Heifer/ECLOF sponsored project YWCADubana. This registered cooperative hasreceived a loan of US$19,200 from ECLOFUganda to buy a communal milk cooler andpasteuriser (nine members have receivedcomplementary individual loans totallingUS$5,300).

Rosemary keeps her cows under a shade.She collects their dung and urine and mixesthem in a special biogas chamber. The urine ischanneled through a urinal collection unit. Theresulting product is then stored in an airtightdome where it gets digested in the absenceof oxygen.

The dome is built underground and lined withcement. A floating metal drum collects the gasand feeds into tubes that take the gas to theburners that power lights and cooking units.

The waste material is disposed off throughan exit chamber and can be used in bananaplantations or kept for vegetable gardencompost.

ECLOF and Heifer have encouraged Rosemaryand other biogas users to champion it asanother step towards financial self-reliance.

Rosemary is cooking on biogas

Using livestock dung and urine for fuel may sound surprising butfor many Ugandans it’s a cheap and green alternative to wood.

Rosemary:“My cows run my lights and cooker”


Meet the clients

About four in five Ugandans are ruralsubsistence farmers who are at the mercyof strong price fluctuations for grains andvegetables. Traders snap up the harvest whenit’s going cheap, store it for a while and re-sellit at a high price – often to the very farmersthey originally bought it from.

But now, under a warehouse receipt systeminstalled by ECLOF Uganda, Ugandan farmerscan control when they put their products on themarket and at what price. Each farmer has spacein a storage facility where they and their peerskeep produce until the price is right, beforetransporting it collectively to a selling point.

This warehousing facility helps farmers earna higher profit margin. And the stored producecan act as collateral for another loan – safe-guarding farmers from losing their belongingsif they default.

Kuamiyana Farmers Group has benefited fromthe warehouse receipt system. These 14farmers borrowed US$ 5,144 from ECLOFUganda, using 44,849 kg of maize as collateral.The farmers have since paid off their loan andshared out the profit from holding back thecrop until they got a good price.

Inspired by this success, ECLOF Ugandahas processed new loans worth US$106,000to 74 farmers from the Nsangi CoffeeFarmers Association.

Ugandan farmers hold out for a better price

Storing produce in warehouses is helping Ugandan farmers charge morefor their harvest

Warehouse winners:Mr Dramadi Festo(left), Mr OkumuRichard (middle)and Mr OpiraGaudensio (right),in front of theirproduce.

Storing up forsuccess: threeKuamiyana farmers,a happy Ms Ajamo-gisha Christine,Mr Okumu Richard(left) and Mr OjukaRaymond (middle)stand proud.

Some Kuamiyanafarmers whobenefited fromthe warehousereceipt system,in front of theirmaize harvest.

Warehouse scheme helped mebuy my first plot

“I am a 40-year old single mother who separatedfrom my husband in 2000 and since then I’vehad no financial assistance from anybody,”says Ms Ajamogisha Christine. “Neither couldI get any loan from financial institution becauseI didn’t have any collateral security.

“In 2003, Bweyale Catholic Church gave meland where I would only have cultivated cropsto eat and sell the surplus to earn a living.Thanks to ECLOF, with its warehouse receiptsystem, I was able to receive a loan worthUS$670 on 17 May 2007.

“I have managed to buy a small piece of land

where I now stay and cultivate my crops. Andin future I will use it as collateral security. Mytwo children are now in school and I can meetall their scholastic needs plus school fees. Iam now going to pay my last installment andapply for a new loan under the same system.”

Ms AjamogishaChristine tellsKuamiyanafarmers howwarehousinghelped hergo it alone.

Families living in the dry, dusty heart of Ecuadorare fighting to keep their community togetherby fostering local enterprise.

The people of Patután, at the foot of theCotopaxi volcano, have founded a thrivingcommunal bank that has benefited 700 localfamilies. The bank, Path to Hope (‘Camino dela Esperanza’), is trying to stop villagers movingaway to the bright lights of the big cities.

Mother of five Piedad Caizaluiza hasborrowed from Path to Hope to expandher chicken farm, while father of nine LouisGonzalo Llumiquinga used his loan to set upa family farm. Both families are eager to buildbetter prospects for their children in theirhome province.

Path to Hope serves well over 300 clientsfor savings and loans. The bank opened forbusiness in 2006 with a first loan of US$15,750from ECLOF Ecuador. Because of the bank’sgood repayment record, it has since receivedfive more loans totalling US$111,000.

Keeping the community together

A community bank is building a future for 700 families in theheart of Ecuador


Meet the clients

Ecuador: Helping city families make more money

Church foundation and ECLOF Ecuador help parents earn from sewing,poultry farming and banana-packing


Partnerships

City children from 23 families in Northern Ecuadorcan expect to grow up a little healthier and bettereducated, thanks to a microfinance scheme run bya local church foundation.

ECLOF Ecuador has given two loans to the Fundacion4 de Julio as part of its work to help marginalisedchildren and their families from the Imbabura andCarchi provinces. The foundation has received twoloans of US$5,000 and US$45,000 so far.

The supported families’ income derives from sewingand embroidery plus some poultry farming, and sortingand packing bananas.

Fundacion 4 de Julio is funded by local church Iglesiadel Pacto, which is linked to Sweden’s Mission CovenantChurch. In February, Bertil Svensson, Mission Directorat Mission Covenant Church of Sweden and colleagues

visited ECLOF Ecuador. Mission Covenant Church putECLOF Ecuador in contact with the Fundación 4 de Julio’spresident Edum Vaca.


Partnerships

Sahr Lebbie Patrick Nalere

James Baaba Naate Masangazira

Martin Kyndt Irene Banda Mutalima


Partnerships

A partnership to support Ugandan farmers hasconsulted its clients on how to deliver betterresults. In March, about 30 representatives ofthe ECLOF/Heifer International link-up madefield visits to local dairy farming projects inthe Iganga district and Mbale.

The group asked for tips from field officersand clients on how to create workablememoranda of understanding (MoUs) for eachproject. These new agreements will clarifyroles, responsibilities and funding allocations.Each MoU will include a quantified action planand will be signed by field staff.

The field visits were part of a three-dayplanning meeting to map out phase two ofthe ECLOF/Heifer partnership. The groupdrew on the advice of a recent consultancyreport into the first phase of the partnership.This report, by consultant Makonen Getu,praised the partners for helping farmersproduce more milk and earn more. But MrGetu called for more input from field staff(see New Horizons issue 38, December 2007).

Global and national steering committees areto be set up to coordinate the partnership’swork and to monitor progress. This is toensure that communication flows bottomup as well as top down and that full-timeemployees champion the partnership.

During the meeting:

• Former Programme Executive for ECLOFInternational George Petty advised on howto draw up a memorandum of understanding.

• ECLOF Uganda’s Executive Director NaateMasangazira gave advice on how to setinterest rates that the borrower can affordwhile allowing the microfinance institutionto cover its costs and improve services.

• Minister praises partnership

Ugandan minister the Honorable JamesBaaba praised the partners for taking centrestage in the fight against poverty. Mr Baabawas standing in for Uganda’s Vice President.

“Heifer has created real transformation” saidthe minister in the Vice President’s Office.

“I would also like to laud ECLOF for comingin with its credit line; this will support theGovernment in its fight against poverty.”

• Praise for the government

Sahr Lebbie, Vice President of HeiferInternational’s Africa Area Programmereturned the minister’s compliment, bypraising the Ugandan government forcreating the right framework for Heiferand ECLOF to work in.

• Partnership is a moral must,says ECLOF chair

“For ECLOF, partnership is a theologicalimperative,” ECLOF International’schairperson Martin Kyndt, told delegates.

“The teachings of the gospels demandthat ECLOF seeks out and joins handswith others.”

• Let’s meet yearly says HeiferCountry Director

Heifer International and ECLOF should meetevery year, to keep the partnership on track,said Uganda Country Director for HeiferInternational, Patrick Nalere. He stressedthat Heifer’s goals slot in with Uganda’santi-poverty initiatives, which makes it easyfor them to work together.

ECLOF/Heifer partnership consults clients

Partnership consults clients and field officers on how better tosupport dairy farmers


Partnerships

Episcopal Relief and Development (ERD) hassigned up in ECLOF’s Tsunami programmethat helps families restart businesses destroyedby the 2004 tidal wave.

The commitment comes after ERD ProgrammeAssociate Nagulan Nesiah visited Sri Lanka inFebruary to get to know ECLOF Lanka’s liveli-hood programme. Nagulan was accompaniedby ECLOF Lanka’s Chairperson CarmelGoonetilleke, Programme Manager GaminiSamarasinghe and Project Officer PriyashanthaSamarasinghe, who works in the southern area.

During his visit, Nagulan spoke to clientsrecovering from their traumatic experiencesthrough their sheer determination, hard workand a little help from ECLOF.

ECLOF Lanka staff shared with their guest theexperience they’ve gained in helping people likeIranganee (see box below). This includes trainingnew clients in the basics of project management,financial discipline and book keeping.

In backing the tsunami programme, ECLOF Lankajoins two other partners, Church of Swedenand ICCO/Kerkin Actie from the Netherlands.

Turtle farm and mill grind backinto action

Vijitha and her husband used to run asmall grinding mill and a turtle farm intheir backyard. But the tsunami wipedout the farm, the grinding mill machinery,and the motor cycle and rickshaw thatVijitha’s husband needed for deliveries.With their little savings the couplerepaired the mill but they needed a loanfrom ECLOF to restart both businesses.

US partner joins Tsunami programme

Episcopal Relief and Development backs efforts to helpSri Lankan families restart their businesses

Vijitha Iranganee, 44-year-old mother of three.

Visiting clients:Carmel Goonetilleke of ECLOF Lanka

and Nagulan Nesiah from ERD


Partnerships

Nearly 50 women with HIV/AIDS can stabilise theircondition better after receiving loans from a partnershipbetween ECLOF Côte d’Ivoire and British bankStandard Chartered.

Women with HIV/ AIDS face a particular dilemma:although they can get the antiretroviral therapy they need,being malnourished can interfere with the medication.

Under a pilot program, Standard Chartered is disbursingloans to a group of 20 women through ECLOF, allowingthem to make more money so they can afford to eathealthily and take full advantage of their HIV/ AIDS therapy.

In November 2007 ECLOF Côte d’Ivoire has lent€2,700 to the women, who will have twice as long torepay their loan, to allow for times when they cannotwork due to their illness.

In May 2008 the partnership disbursed a second loanof €2,100 to another group of 22 women. ECLOF Côted’Ivoire aims to reach 500 women during this firstphase of the partnership.

To cope with increasing demand for loans the NEC hasalso taken a capital loan of €150,000 from Togo-basedEcobank, which works across 20 African countries.

Church of Sweden’s Microfinance Coordinator PerSöderberg and his colleague Karin Bergman, Finance& Project Officer, met ECLOF Uganda staff and visitedfour schools that had received capital loans from ECLOFUganda. Church of Sweden supports these loans under

ECLOF’s education and training credit programme.

In 2007, ECLOF Uganda granted 21 loans totallingUS$600,000. All the loans were to churches and churchrelated institutions.

Women with HIV/AIDS can afford to eat well

A partnership with a major bank is lending women money to buynutritious food

Church of Sweden visits ECLOF Uganda

Barbra Kwebiiha, head mistressof St Athanasius primary schoolhas received visitors from Churchof Sweden

Per Söderberg (second from right)with staff of ECLOF Uganda


Smartphones are helping ECLOF Peru staffstay in touch and log into the central databasefrom remote locations.

ECLOF Peru is the first National ECLOFto trial BlackBerries, mobile phones thatlet you access the internet and emails onthe move.

Thanks to a Technical Assistance grant fromthe Church of Sweden, employees can checktheir email messages from outside the office.

Field officers use the phone to log on to their

management information system (MIS),check clients’ payments records, tele-transfer

codes, pending accounts and debts. Fieldofficers also use the phones’ digital cam-eras to help match names to faces and sig-natures stored in the MIS, helpingpreventing fraud.

The smartphones allow field officers tocover more remote areas and respond to clientneeds more promptly. “We are able to disbursea new loan the same day a client has paid offhis debt!“ said credit analyst Ezequiel Asto.

Smartphones help process loan paymentsand prevent fraud

Peru’s field officers are using BlackBerries to check recordsfrom remote locations

ECLOF loan officer Ezequiel Asto using aBlackBerry when visiting a client

Catholic parishrenews loanThe Communauté Catholique de Begnins etenvirons – a Catholic parish in the canton ofVaud, near Geneva – has renewed its interestfree loan of 40'000 Swiss francs to ECLOFfor another two years, starting October 2008.The Communauté’s president André Bourquiis pictured here with ECLOF International’sMuhungi Kanyoro.

Partnerships


ECLOF news & people

Myanmar: cyclone death toll rises

Many loans will have to be written off and new loans are on hold

The recent cyclone has severely affected ECLOFMyanmar, with at least six clients reported killed inthe storm and many loans due to be written off.

Cyclone Nargis, which hit Myanmar on 2 May 2008,has devastated the Irrawaddy Delta, where manyECLOF Myanmar clients are based

ECLOF Myanmar’s Executive Secretary, May Aye Shwehas recently travelled to the delta, where the toll includes:

• Six coordinators of a client association have perishedwithout a trace as the storm destroyed their villages.

• One client from the Tha Pyin Ching area escaped thecyclone because she was visiting ECLOF’s offices inthe capital Yangon (formerly Rangoon). She lost all herfamily who stayed behind in the village.

It is feared that many more such cases will come tolight, given only a handful of people have survived inmany places.

Dr Rebecca Tapa, the President of ECLOF Myanmarsays that the loan programme is on hold in cyclone-affected areas.

ECLOF International’s Executive Director MuhungiKanyoro has written to Dr Tapa, sympathizing andoffering support on behalf of the ECLOF family.He shared ECLOF’s experiences in Sri Lanka afterthe tsunami (see issue #37 of New Horizons) andexpressed his hope that ECLOF International couldhelp ECLOF Myanmar with the reconstruction.

Photo: ACT International


ECLOF news & people

George joined ECLOF in 1996 and leftat the end of January 2008. He didsome consulting for ECLOF in the lastfew months and is now setting up alending/investment company for smalland medium enterprises.

Priscilla joined ECLOF in 1998 and leftat the end of May 2008 to return toIndia. She has gone back to the NGOshe founded.

Business Development,Planning and PartnershipsThe newly-created role of ProgrammeExecutive for Business Development,Planning and Partnerships will drawon Jean’s 20-year track record inmicrofinance. Jean is the formermanaging director of Swissmicrofinance foundation RAFAD.

In 2006-07 Jean led the Swiss cooperative InternationalGuarantee Fund (FIG), which gives bank guarantees formicrofinance. Before that he led IT at the MicrofinanceInformation eXchange (MIX) in Washington DC. Jean is onthe European Microfinance Platform’s steering committee.He is a French citizen and speaker. He also speaks Englishand gets by in Spanish and German.

Credit operationsJuan’s newly-created role is ProgrammeExecutive for Credit Operations. Forthe past few years Juan has workedin microfinance, most recently withTe Creemos, Grupo Ahorro in Mexicowhere he helped develop newproducts. Before that, Juan workedat the Colombian Central Bank and

at Paris-based PlaNet Finance, which trains and consults inmicrofinance. At PlaNet Finance Juan worked on projectsin Mexico and Colombia. He has qualifications in finance,international relations, and development economics. Juan isa Colombian citizen and native Spanish speaker. He speaksEnglish and French too.

From July, two new Programme Executives will take over from George Petty and Priscilla Daniel.Under a new structure, Jean Pouit will focus on Business Development, Planning and Partnershipswhile Juan Forero will look after Credit Operations. George and Priscilla are now pursuing theirown projects. Thanks to them both for more than a decade’s service to ECLOF.

Ehouman heads up Côte d’Ivoire

In January 2008, Ehouman Oi Ehouman was elected the new president of ECLOFCôte d’Ivoire. Ehouman is Managing Director of engineering consultancySysconsulting and fundraising director at Foursquare Gospel Church, Côted’Ivoire. Previously he has been an engineering consultant at the Ministry ofPublic Health. He is a computer sciences graduate of HEPITA-ISIA.

People moves

Programme Executives’ reshuffle

George Petty

Priscilla Daniel

Jean Pouit

Juan Forero

Ehouman Oi Ehouman

EI in the media

Guillaume Taylor, Board member of ECLOFInternational, has been interviewed by twopublications: Geneva magazine L’Hebdo andParis finance newspaper Les Afriques. GuillaumeTaylor talked about his role as a foundingmember of the association Sustainable FinanceGeneva. He also mentioned ECLOF as apioneer of sustainable finance back in 1946.

EI Board member advisesCook Islands

Erlinda Torres-Velarga, ECLOF International Boardmember from the Philippines, is working withthe Financial Supervisory Commission (FSC) inCook Islands as a Supervisor. She is helpingthe Commission launch an onsite and offsitesupervision programme for licensed financialinstitutions. The Commission will supervisethrough onsite examinations, offsite monitoringand by consolidating institutions’ reports.


ECLOF news & people

Farming talk

ECLOF Uganda’s ExecutiveDirector Naate Masangazira hasaddressed a national symposiumon how credit can help developsustainable farming.

Heifer International organisedthe symposium in May to sharehow using livestock can help therural poor. About 100 participantsattended, from governmentagencies to local NGOs.

Strategy scholar

In February Naate also receivedtraining in strategic thinkingskills and administrative

techniques, thanks to a scholarhipfrom Galilee College in Israelfor their Small and MediumEnterprises Development andManagement programme.

Tractor care

Seventy five farmers from theBaitambogwe DevelopmentAssociation have been learninghow proper planning and recordkeeping could help them raisetheir profits from land andlivestock. They also got hands-onlessons in how to manage,maintain and repair the tractorthey recently bought with a loanfrom ECLOF Uganda.

Uganda: capacity building

News & events

Representatives of ECLOF International andAmasezerano Community Banking SA aftersigning a memorandum of understanding

Zambia: better boards

Six members of ECLOF Zambia have been learning what makes a well-run board, how to assess aboard’s capacity and how to monitor the CEO. Staff including Chair and Treasurer of the Board and thenational Program Manager attended a workshop in February on Board governance in microfinanceinstitutions. The three-day training was part of the technical support package from MennoniteEconomic Development Associates (MEDA).

Opening and closingNational ECLOFs

At it’s November 2007 meeting, theECLOF International Board has agreed tobuy a majority of shares in AmasezeranoCommunity Banking S.A. (ACB) in Rwanda.This is the first time ECLOF buys a company.ACB will change its name to ECLOF Rwandaand conform to ECLOF Global Guidelinesand Minimal Standards of Performance.

The remainder of the shares is held byAfrican Evangelistic Enterprise (AEE) Rwandaand various local church organisations.

The ECLOF International Board has alsodecided to close four National ECLOFs inMalawi, Sierra Leone, Swaziland and Tonga.

Loyal parents have spearheaded a campaign tobuild new classrooms at a popular rural school inthe Philippines.

Golden Sunbeams Christian School is one of AntipoloCity’s few schools to offer pre-school education.The Methodist-run school’s modest fees and highstandards have helped it grow from 20 pupils in1999 to 517 in 2007.

Golden Sunbeams Parent-Teacher Fellowship raisedthe first US$600 towards the extension – a fractionof what was needed. But their efforts inspired theschool to apply for a general capital loan fromECLOF Philippines.

The school has since pooled its own funds with theUS$18,000 loan to build four classrooms for up to150 students and five staff.

Parents inspire school to build new classrooms

Christian school borrows US$18,000 to take on 150 more pupils

Documents

New_Horizons_June_2008