Since the Foundation for Women’s establishment in 1997, the organization has supplied eligible women with microcredit loans, as well as motivational programs. These programs educate all participants about financial and business management in which the participants come together to learn and support each other in their ventures. By giving women loans that help them put their dreams into action, the microcredit programs not only inspire the women but instill a sense of pride in their work and communities. Loans are funded through individual contributions, memberships, grants and corporate donations.

Whether women use their loans to sell handcrafted merchandise or to buy and resell goods, each loan puts them one step closer to success and gives them a tremendous sense of accomplishment.

Get Involved
In order for the Foundation for Women to succeed in granting impoverished women microcredit loans, our organization is heavily dependent on the generosity and involvement of our communities. Our foundation provides a number of ways for interested community members to get involved in the fight to alleviate poverty among women, including coffee purchases, hosting parties, volunteering, donations, and spreading the word.

To donate, visit http://www.foundationforwomen.org/get-involved.html.

Rocio with her handmade purses

Microfinance Spotlight: Rocio works with La Maestra, a SDMFA partner.

I make handmade crafts from recycled materials, such as soda tabs, bottle caps, and CDs. I have been doing this for the past two years. I also knit scarves, slippers, and purses. My family used to own a butcher chop but then my husband got deported back to El Salvador and I suffered a stroke. I began knitting as a hobby after my stroke, but it evolved into a business. It feels good to be able to do something after I had a stroke and to have the chance to teach positive things to people. I helped a blind Cuban woman make her own purses, and that was very satisfying because it helped this woman learn to be independent and have her own income.

The microfinance loan that I asked for was used to buy t-shirts, bras, and socks, which I re-sold in the Tijuana flea market in order to take advantage of the higher premiums charged over there for these articles. The profit I obtained was reinvested in buying materials for making handcrafts. I enjoy microfinance meetings because we receive very good stimulus like workshops, business knowledge, and I get to network and socialize with people in my community.

If I could get help with something it would be using the internet to advertise my products. I would also like to develop a logo to represent my purses and make them easy to identify. My future goal is to patent the designs of my purses and make them a famous brand. I would like to sell big quantities through the internet

Want to purchase Rocio’s Hand Made Crafts?
Email: merino.rocioo@yahoo.com

In the following article, Marco Werman from PRI’s The World interviews Smith to find out more about how her involvement in microfinance transformed into an upcoming episode of The Simpsons that will feature Muhammad Yunus. Yeardley speaks of how she was first introduced to microfinance and how she has gotten involved in this anti-poverty movement. For the entire transcript of the audio interview, click here.

Peter DaSilva for The New York Times.

Amanda Keppert, pictured above, obtained a $6,500 loan at a 6.5% interest rate  through the Opportunity Fund (a California microlender). Prior to accepting a microfinance loan, Amanda applied and was rejected for loans at traditional banks. Keppert believes she would have lost Mandy’s Korner, her hot dog stand, if it weren’t for the microfinance loan she was able to secure.

Keppert’s microfinance loan is part of a pilot program that has been available in California and New Your since last summer. Kiva uploads profiles of small businesses to inspire donations from site visitors and  disperses the loans through local microfinance organizations like ACCION USA and the Opportunity Fund.  Since the inception of this program, 137 American companies have been helped through microfinance loans.

In an ailing economy, people are inspired to help others in their own communities and Kiva’s pilot program enables individuals to do so. “People are compelled to do something in their backyard,” said Gina Harman, president and chief executive of Accion USA, a microlender and partner in Kiva’s American pilot program.

For the full story on Keppart’s hot dog stand and others helped through this new pilot project, read the New York Times: With Credit Tight Microlending Blossoms.

Community Development

Through an innovative promotoria (community outreach) initiative, Via International (a partner of the SDMFA) and Los Niños have been able to support the development of promotoras (female outreach workers) and assist them in breaking the cycle of poverty and improving quality of life for themselves, their families, and their communities.

In collaboration with the Universidad Iberoamericana Noroeste of Mexico, women who have had little access to education are supported through a training program and guided to design, develop, implement, and evaluate a community project. Upon successful completion of the program, they can complete their primary and secondary education while also receiving a university credential in community development.

The program has given more than 200 outreach workers the opportunity to secure a higher level of education with graduates continuing on to university studies, securing employment, starting their own businesses, and further serving their community.

We need help in supporting women through this program. To sponsor a promotora or fund a scholarship, click here.

This article was written by Via International.

SDMFA partner ACCION is holding two events in San Diego that are geared towards small business owners. You can find more information about both events, and other microfinance-related activities by visiting our local events calendar.

This Thursday, ACCION is holding a Multicultural Women’s Business Luncheon. The luncheon will feature internationally acclaimed speaker Dee Sanford, who will speak about starting you own business. Attendees will also learn how to effectively use social media to promote small businesses and will have the opportunity to interact with event sponsors who will be sharing information on small business financing, banking, marketing, and more!

When: Thursday, July 20^th from 11:30am – 1:00pm
Where: Joe & Vi Jacobs Center, Celebration Hall – 404 Euclid Ave, San Diego, 92114.
Cost: Tickets cost $15 per person.
RSVP: If you are interested, please RSVP to Kimberly Pecox at 619-527-6161 x 150

This Saturday, ACCION is having a Debt Management for the Small Business Owner workshop. If your personal debt is affecting your business, this workshop can help! ACCION San Diego is partnering with SpendSmart.org’s CEO and a Workplace Financial Wellness Expert to host an “Invest in Your Debt” event.

When: Saturday, July 24^th 10am – 12:00pm (please arrive 15 minutes early to sign in)
Where: The Joe & Vi Jacobs Center – 404 Euclid Ave. San Diego, 92114
Cost: FREE!
RSVP: If you are interested in this event, please RSVP to jvanderstad@accionsandiego.org.

Lucy Ludwig of Ludwig Law Firm, A.P.C.

ACCION Client Spotlight

Ludwig Law Firm, A.P.C.

Lucy Ludwig works as an attorney out of her 1940′s two-bedroom, ocher-colored stucco house in Normal Heights. Armed with a J.D. from California Western School of Law, a L.L.M. from the University of San Diego, and a bilingual skill-set, she opened the doors of Ludwig Law Firm in June 2009. Although it is a full-service law firm, Ludwig specializes in assisting clients with IRS and California Franchise Tax Board problems and filing for bankruptcy.

Ludwig began her law career in 2006 as a public defender. After two months of back-to-back court cases and working menacingly long hours, Ludwig realized that she had not chosen the right path for herself. “I need to have a relationship with my client,” Ludwig says. With nine court trials lined up in just her first month as a public defender, that task proved impossible.

Thus, after only two months with the Public Defender’s Office, Ludwig decided to change her career course. She accepted a position with a tax firm in San Diego. During her employment there the company went under, and she realized that the time was ripe for her to start her own business.

Determined and eager for a fresh start, Ludwig set out to advertise her new firm by systematically visiting tax preparation companies to inform the owners that she was open for business. One of the companies Lucy visited was McDaniel Tax & Administrative Services, a current ACCION San Diego client, and the company shared loan program information with her.

Ludwig applied for a loan from ACCION in May 2009 and received $3,000 in “a quick couple of weeks,” she says. With the loan, she bought the software to build a business website and hired a marketing coach. She believes both have played a pivotal role in strengthening her business from the start.

Above all, it was ACCION’s community-based method that gave her the support she needed as a new business owner. “ACCION is small and has ties to the community,” Ludwig explains.

For the time being, Ludwig does all of the work herself. Her long-term goals are to expand her business, hire employees, and open an office outside of her home.

It is Ludwig’s dedication and commitment to her clients that keeps her business strong. At the end of her tenure with her last employer, Ludwig sent out letters to all the company’s former clients who were suddenly left with no representation, in part because she felt the responsibility of serving the clients who, in her opinion, were left high and dry. In her letter she explained the company’s reason for closure and stated that she would like to continue a working relationship under her new firm. Three-quarters of her former employer’s clients have joined forces with her in the past year.

“Clients are scared of their situation [with their tax problems and the IRS], so they need someone to take control,” Ludwig says. “I need to have patience and be a counselor.” Above all, Ludwig not only educates her clients on their options and helps them find workable solutions, but builds a personal relationship and ensures they that they never have to face the IRS alone.

Article By: Barbara Marchini, ACCION San Diego Volunteer

ACCION is a partner of the San Diego Microfinance Alliance.

Ludwig Law Firm, A.P.C.
Phone: 619-281-8741
Email: lucy@ludwiglegal.com
Website: http://www.ludwiglegal.com/

Join us for the “How to Responsibly Invest in Microfinance” speaker event here in  San Diego on July 15th.  Terry Provance, Executive Director of OikoCredit USA, will give a detailed presentation on how you can begin making financial investments that impact the lives of the working poor around the globe.

Mr. Provance presented at this year’s 2010 San Diego Microfinance Summit in April.  This event will be catered towards those who are interested in making a socially responsible, financial investment in OikoCredit USA that will yield modest returns.  Registration will be on a first come, first served basis with 40 spots available.

Terry Provance, Executive Director of OikoCredit USA

When: July 15th from 6:00-8:00 P.M.

What: Beverages, appetizers, a presentation from Executive Director Terry Provance on Oikocredit USA and how to responsibly invest in microfinance.

Where: Fermanian School Of Business at Point Loma Nazarene University
3900 Lomaland Dr., San Diego, CA 92106

Cost: Free!

If you would like to attend this event, visit http://microinvest.eventbrite.com. Directions to the campus may be found at: www.pointloma.edu/Directions.htm.

The Opportunity Fund developed a microlending timeline, complete with a one page overview of the history of microfinance in the U.S. for their annual conference. The timeline stretches from 1973, when ShoreBank Corporation began to provide investment capital to business owners who were denied access to credit by larger financial institutions, to 2010 when the first nationwide conference on microfinance, which gathered practitioners, policymakers, investors, and enthusiasts took place.

Some events featured in the timeline include the first college course taught on U.S. Microfinance, foundations making their first U.S. microfinance loan, the Community Reinvestment  Act, and Kiva launching it’s first U.S. partnership. Throughout the over 30-year history of microfinance in the U.S., lending institutions proove again and again that disadvantaged communities and small businesses are, in fact, creditworthy.

Download the microfunding timeline (PDF).

There are 800 million rural subsistence farmers around the world and each one of them are relying on their land for survival. Many farmers have to use slash and burn agriculture to create more land to plant cash crops or clear cut forests to produce charcoal and provide enough income to support their families. These harmful methods lead to further environmental degradation and eventually force desperate families to flee their lands and move into densely overpopulated cities such as Port-au-Prince to seek economic opportunity.

Plant With Purpose is a San Diego based non-profit organization that works internationally to reverse cycles of environmental decline and poverty by teaching sustainable agriculture and microfinance. 

As a part with Plant With Purpose’s holistic approach to community development, they teach savings-led microfinance to encourage savings and provide access to affordable credit in regions where money lenders charge exorbitant rates and traditional banks refuse to loan to farmers. Access to credit can create a buffer to allow families to pay for things like school fees for their children when their crops haven’t been harvested and sold yet. Savings-led credit groups use social capital and local leadership to equip rural farmers with financial tools to improve the quality of life for themselves and their families.

One example of the transformation spurred by Plant With Purpose’s savings and credit program is the story of Dina Kokeroe, a mother of five school age children from the village of Ashira, Tanzania. After Dina’s husband abandoned the family, she was left in a desperate situation. Unable to provide for her family’s needs, she was forced to borrow money from relatives. After hearing how Plant With Purpose’s work had benefited the nearby village of Masia Mamba, she took the initiative to gather a group of 40 people and invited Plant with Purpose to help them form a Village Community Bank in Ashira. Dina has been able to grow her small business and can now support her five children. She says, “Now I can look to the future with confidence, since I am able to sand on my own. I am so happy that Plant with Purpose has come to my community.”

For more information visit www.plantwithpurpose.org.