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The
micro-credit fallout
A
UNESCO-backed micro-credit programme is helping poor Jordanian
women to start up business and educate their children.
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Women
now own bakeries, grocery shops and other enterprises.
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How
do you get forty goats? You buy ten, tend them well …
and wait! That's the secret of success of Radia Saoud from
Hashimiyya village in the Ma'an region of Jordan.
With
a family relying on her to improve its life-style and cater
for its educational needs, Mrs Saoud sought a loan from the
Microcredit Programme for Children in Need, a joint project
of the Noor Al Hussein Foundation (NHF) and UNESCO. Using
an initial $850, she began to raise goats. Carefully farming
the animals, her original ten soon multiplied four-fold. The
milk from the goats has not only improved her own nutrition
and that of the children of her eleven member extended family,
but she also has enough leftover to sell for additional cash.
Now, she has expanded her business through goat trading.
Mrs Saoud's story is just one of the many successes of the
Children in Need Programme, launched two years ago with $500,000
from UNESCO. Through careful placement of microcredit loans,
the Foundation has given hope to hundreds of families throughout
Jordan. It concentrates on implementing new model projects
that enhance the lives of women and youth.
"NHF trains and empowers women for ownership and self-management
of their small enterprises" says Executive Director,
Dr Sima Bahous. The evidence shows that benefits from these
businesses flow on to children through better educational
opportunities and increased health standards.
In the Irbid Governate in the north of the country, Manal
Mahmoud Daki-Lah heard of the microcredit programme through
the Mother's Club in Himma village. Based on her training
as a hairdresser, she borrowed $700 and established her own
beauty salon. She is now training other women. The business
is making a profit and Mrs Daki-Lah uses the cash to improve
her family's life-style and the education of her children.
Further south in Karak, Muntaha El-Awasah, from That Ras village,
used her loan to plant medicinal herbs, such as thyme, which
she sells directly to merchants in the nearby city. In a neighbouring
village, Najah Sulaiman Al-Haddar supports her six children
through a sewing and embroidery enterprise she started with
a $700 loan from the NHF/UNESCO project. Now she has not only
taught other women and girls in the village how to embroider,
but she also employs them to sew items as her business continues
to expand.
With a 15-year record of community work in Jordan, the NHF
has pioneered a number of innovative projects that have served
thousands of needy families. The Microcredit Programme for
Children in Need is targeting seventeen villages which form
part of NHF's Quality of Life project.
"For the first time in Jordan and the region" says
Dr Bahous," development projects are fully handed over
to the communities."
Village Loan Committees process microcredit applications,
thus ensuring that villagers themselves have full participation
in the programme. The average overall repayment rate of loans
is a healthy 84 per cent, with some villages achieving a pay-back
rate of over 90 per cent. Loan recipient families must have
at least two children. More usually, it's over four. Although
Jordanian women are, traditionally, reluctant to seek loans
and establish small businesses, NHF's microcredit trainers
make special efforts to encourage them to put forward applications.
Thanks to the programme, women entrepreneurs now also own
bakeries, grocery shops and other enterprises. NHF helps them
to sell their handicrafts, rugs, embroidery and other goods
locally and internationally through a product marketing division.
Dr Bahous is pleased to see villagers taking control of their
own destinies. "NHF prides itself not on how many projects
it administers" she says, "but by how many projects
it has actually handed over to local communities."
Field evaluations of the Children in Need microcredit programme
have shown a marked improvement in the quality of life of
beneficiary youngsters and families, especially in their hygiene,
health and nutrition. NHF's innovative strategy for rural
families is, clearly, delivering results which also impact
on better educational achievements.
Martin
Hadlow, Director, UNESCO Amman
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