| Small scale farmers who in most cases are women lack collateral (usually land), and thus are disadvantaged in accessing credit and loans. The terms of access to rural loans usually favour more commercial enterprises leaving out important aspects related to food production and household nutrition. Confronted by these challenges, women and other poor people opt to work with informal credit systems - such as friends, relatives, informal merchants and money lenders whose interest rates turn out to be higher in comparison to formal lending institutions. The high rates negatively affects their pursuits of productive income generating opportunities. Women’s limited opportunities affects child wellbeing because their income is mostly channelled directly to family needs such as food, clothing, health and education. To have microcredit, women and youths (youths who are mostly household heads) form groups of 20 or so and pay a monthly contribution of a small amount which they eventually lend within their circles to anyone that needs a small loan for investment purposes. The borrower is expected to pay back with an interest, the chances of defrauds are minimal because of the pressure of the other members of the group who act as collateral. You could donate £20 /€25 towards the microcredit fund that boosts the amount available for lending purposes to these groups to facilitate investments in income generating activities. |
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