By Scott Paterson | CEO/Founder
Poverty2Prosperity.org's Education/Tuition Fund is off to great start after its inception in 2015 with 114 loans 0% interest loans made. This past month's repayments alone will allow us to make an additional 7 loans this month (they were actually made today, fyi). We've already had 12 loans 100% repaid and zero defaults to date. Our social performance rating on this fund is already rated a 7 out of 7 with recognition for Anti-Poverty Focus, Entreprenurial Suppoort, Family and Community, Vulnerable Group Focus, Client Voice, Facilitation of Savings, and Innovation. We have made loans in 26 different countries (Albania, Bolivia, Columbia, Jordan, Lebanon, Pakistan, Armenia, Cambodia, Dominican Republic, Kenya, Nicaragua, Sierra Leone, Uganda, Rwanda, Paraguay, Tajikistan, Ghana, and Palestine). We not only focus on those who need fees for tuition, but we also provide loans to "Education Providers" who may need things like school supplies, chairs, desks, tables, and even computers.
Because P2P has such a high repayment rate - 100% in this fund - and 98.61% across all our funds since we started loaning in 2008 - we describe our loans as a kind of renewable economic resource that provides a help-out rather than a hand-out. As soon as repayments come back into our funds, they go right back out in the form of new loans. Money that was donated many years ago continues to support new people who are seeking to break the cycle of poverty through their own hard work whether it be by starting a business or getting/providing an education.
One of our latest loans, made today to Yves in Kigali, Rwanda to help expand his education technology business into more schools.
There are two things about Yves that are truly remarkable. First, he is a born entrepreneur. He has been launching various enterprises since an early age, failing and succeeding along the way. All the while, he has continued learning, innovating, testing, and pivoting. Second, Yves is deeply committed to bettering his country of Rwanda. Yves has worked for a variety of youth, educational, and entrepreneurial programs to provide opportunities for young people to fulfill their dreams of a quality education and to be strong contributors to their communities. In 2015, Yves launched Academic Bridge. Academic Bridge is a technology company that offers primary and secondary schools in Rwanda with affordable data management solutions. At present, most schools still use ineffective, paper-based data collection processes, and the costs of switching (ie. software and training staff) are too high. Teachers are frustrated because their data management requires a lot of extra time. Because of this, schools are also unable to communicate effectively with their parents. They can't send parents real-time information about their students' performance, and parents can't pay for school fees online or via mobile money platforms. Yves and Academic Bridge is here to change this. With an affordable platform that is easy-to-use without needing lots of technical support, Academic Bridge is helping schools and parents be better connected, ultimately improving the quality of education for the students of Rwanda. This financing will help Academic Bridge hire staff to increase the number of participating schools.
Thank you for supporting this fund!
-Scott
Scott Paterson
CEO/Founder - Poverty2Prosperity.org
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