Extension of our Microfinance Pilot Project
Due to the successful running of the two original ASOLs and to the high demand for participation from other people in the communities, we have decided to extend our pilot project to give approximately another 24 people in the area the opportunity to benefit from a microfinance scheme, as well as to offer our two initial groups the option of entering a second cycle of the project, with the opportunity of receiving higher loans.
In May we started talking to people in Santa Isabél, Unión Perú and Santa Crúz de Huachipa, to see who was interested in forming a new group. By the end of the month we had already formed two new groups, one in Santa Crúz de Huachipa and another in Santa Isabél.
Approved funding for the extension of our project by the Austrian Embassy in Lima
We are very pleased to announce that our application for funding from the Austrian Embassy in Lima for our extension of the Microfinance Project in Alto Peru has been approved. At a meeting with the Ambassador, Dr. Andreas Melán, and with Mrs. Karin Eckert, responsible for cultural issues and international cooperation, which took place at the end of May, we were told that the Embassy was happy to provide funding to our project and cover the remaining budget.
We would like to take this opportunity to sincerely thank the Austrian Embassy in Lima, Education World 86, as well as our other donors for allowing us to carry out our work!
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Education World 86 – French NGOo European School Brussels, Belgium - EEB1ForPeru
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Austrian Embassy in Lima
Education World 86
Asociación SOLAC implemented a pilot microfinance project in the community of Alto Perú, Lima, from July 2009 to January 2011, with the aim of introducing the methodology of Village Banking to this area, and stimulate the interest on the part of microfinance institutions (MFIs) to enter the area and provide its inhabitants with the benefits of microfinance services. The project has now been passed-over to a Peruvian MFI that will continue to expand the outreach of microfinance within Alto Perú.
Asociación SOLAC
www.asociacionsolac.org
Microfinance Team
- Microfinance SOLAC
- The coordination of the project is in the hands of three European graduates of the University of Sussex, in Great Britain, who have been working alongside SOLAC for the past two years - Valentina Martufi, Ruth Pollak, and Marta Dormal. To find out more about SOLAC's staff and the Microfinance team visit the following link: www.asociacionsolac.org/about/staff
Our Sponsors
o Austrian Embassy in Lima
o
o European School Culham, UK - Students of the Italian Section with Prof. Giovanna Tega
o Private Funds Raised in the UK – “Latino Nights”
charity events
charity events
o Private donor in Austria – Anonymous
o Private Fundraising in the US – Shawn Eubank
o Private Fundraising in the US – Shawn Eubank
Austrian Embassy in Lima
Education World 86
Project Location: Alto Perú
The area of Alto Perú, in the district of Chosica-Lurigancho (East Cone), is one of the most rural areas in the periphery of Lima. It has long been accustomed to migration from the Andean interior and this, along with the inexorable demands of industry and the deriving industrial contamination, has resulted in extreme standards of living and sanitation, and pervasive child labour.
Previously, Asociación SOLAC has built a library in the school with the help of the community, to give the children and adolescents a place where they can develop their educational and creative skills. However, the library has not been used to the extent hoped for. Soon it became clear that children could not spend more time at the school premises as their labour was inevitable for the families' income. Most families in Alto Perú earn their living by making bricks out of contaminated water and earth. They get paid per 1,000 bricks produced and need the help of their children from as early as 3 a.m. every day. After school, children need to continue making bricks. Not only does this lead to a lack of concentration and children being tired during class, but they often suffer respiratory and similar problems and miss classes for many related reasons.
Microfinance will allow the families to receive a sum of money that they will invest in a way which is most beneficial to their situation. The loans will be accompanied by courses and workshops (such as how to keep track of money, as well as practical workshops on, for example, producing and selling textiles) and emphasis will be placed on the promotion of saving. The long term aim is that children spend less hours working and have more time to devote to education and simply being a child.
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