By Charlotte Halligan | Communications and PR, SEDA
SEDA’s microfinance project continues to grow, helping women from the Vientiane province develop small businesses and generate regular income. Thank you yo everyone who has donated so far to this very worthwhile cause.
So far 30 women have signed up to receive the small loans and business training, and SEDA is busy expanding to double those numbers.
SEDA is trying to raise the $3000 needed to help these women achieve financial independence.
Why Microfinance?
For women in Laos, making enough money to run a home can be a struggle. Often they rely on occasional work, helping with laundry, sewing or cleaning, which leaves them with little financial security from month to month. And in vulnerable families, or where the woman is the sole earner, this is a huge problem.
Spinning for success:
For 30 women in Vientiane, the capital of Laos, microfinance is making a difference. Showing the resourcefulness of the Lao people, the women have been using discarded material from a nearby clothing factory to spin cotton that they can sell for a small profit.
With the help of small loans, ranging from $50 - $175, the women have been able to get their businesses off the ground. They use the small loans to buy the material, and with the help of SEDA, are able to sell the cotton at a fair price, either at the local markets, or to a nearby village that can weave the cotton into fabrics.
The women pay back the loans at a rate that they agree that they can afford – with a minimum payment of just $0.50 per day.
The microfinance program also teaches business skills and financial management, so that the women can eventually achieve financial independence.
Helping women throughout Laos
SEDA’s microfinance project is not limited to the city. Small loans and micro-credit are also be given out in rural and remote areas, with a goal of helping between 300-400 women in vulnerable families obtain a secure income and learn the skills necessary to run a business and a home.
Please consider donating to this project. Every penny donated helps to alleviate short term poverty, and also to create long term financial stability for women and their families.
Please donate through global giving. For more information please contact SEDA at info@seda-laos.org.
By Souly QuachAngkham | Founder/Director
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