One loan has gone to a farmer and his wife in Rwanda to buy seeds for the Irish potatoes that they grow. Two loans have gone to Ecuador: one to a small scale farmer who grows coffee and cocoa to help him with the cost of labour and ploughing; the other Ecuadoran loan has gone to a female pig farmer to help with her costs. Our fourth recent loan has gone to a female rice farmer in Cambodia and will go towards seeds and other things that she needs to farm the rice.
Lendwithcare was founded by the renowned global development charity CARE International. It aims to help people in developing countries out of poverty by providing them with small loans for entrepreneurial ideas.
It all starts off with an entrepreneur (for instance, a farmer) in a particular developing country having an idea and taking it to one of Lendwithcare’s partner microfinance institutions (MFIs). Once the entrepreneur gets the go-head, individuals or organizations (such as our club) can help fund their idea with a microloan (which can be as little as £15). The entrepreneur then pays back their loan in instalments to the MFI, which transfers these repayments to CARE International. They then credit the repayment to the Lendwithcare account. Once repaid, the money can be withdrawn, donated towards their costs, or recycled for another loan. Dragon’s Den’s Deborah Meaden is an Ambassador for Lendwithcare.
We’ve supported a number of entrepreneurs since we opened our account in 2016. To date, we’ve funded 29 loans, which have helped 194 entrepreneurs (and helped 742 family members) and created 179 jobs. Many of our loans have already been repaid. What’s great from now until 22 April is that donations will be doubled by the UK government — with the matched funding going to support women farmers in Tanzania so they can increase their income and grow their business as part of CARE’s Help Her Live, Learn and Earn campaign.
To see who else we are supporting with our Lendwithcare account click here.
Picture: Screenshot of our Lendwithcare account.
(Note that a previous version of this article referred to Lendwithcare working in partnership with The Co-operative. We understand that they are no longer in Partnership with The Co-operative.)
