MBM Cow Pens 2007 Indonesia

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Maha Bhoga Marga (MBM) estimates that since the Bali bombing in October 2002, income levels of Balinese farmers has decreased by up to 60%. In an attempt to address this decline, MBM conducted a successful pilot project in 2003/04 which enabled targeted farmers to generate a supplementary income from cattle fattening. CowFund is supporting a follow-up to this project, involving 65 farmers selected and trained to:

• Build cattle pens for 130 cows.
• Purchase, feed and care for their penned cattle in small groups of five.
• Fatten and sell cattle on the Java meat market for maximum financial return.
• Make and use organic fertiliser, with cow manure as the main component.

As each cow is sold, farmers generate some supplementary income and apply a proportion of this to purchasing a new cow. Eventually farmers reach the point where they no longer need a loan to purchase and feed their cattle, at which point they exit the program and another farmer enters.

CowFunder Fiona Higgins visited MBM in February 2007. Read her report here.

Bangladesh Group 2006

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About one-third of Bangladesh floods annually during the monsoon rainy season, hampering economic development. Many people are landless and forced to live on and cultivate flood-prone land.

CowFund’s partner in Bangladesh is Integrated Development Foundation (IDF), a Grameen Bank affiliate which is implementing the ‘Poverty Alleviation through Micro-credit Program (PAMP)’.

This program targets poor and disadvantaged people, particularly women, of Juraichari Upazila in the Rangamati Hill District of Bangladesh, part of the Chittagong Hill Tracts. According to a Household and Income Survey conducted in the Year 2000 by the Bangladesh Bureau of Statistics, the percentage of absolute poverty in the Chittagong Hill Tracts was approximately 80%.

IDF’s ‘PAMP’ program includes training in:

• Group savings, credit management and micro-insurance
• Preparing and implementing income generating activities - e.g. animal husbandry, sewing groups, etc
• Social issues - health, sanitation and rights.

The program will run for two-years (2005 - 2007) from outside sources such as CowFund, after which time the revolving fund established by PAMP will be sustainable.

GK India client Lingamma

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There are 250 million people living below the poverty line in India. Through funds provided from CowFund, Grameen Koota is providing Income Generation Loans to poor women in rural areas and urban slums via microcredit.

CowFund monies have enabled the disbursement of 1,134 income generation loans, impacting in excess of 5,000 individuals.

Of these loans, approximately 50% constitute agricultural or livestock loans (i.e. cows).

CowFunder Michael Murray visited Grameen Koota in January 2007. Read more here.

KS Clients Sri Lanka

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In Sri Lanka, about 22% of people live below the poverty line. More recently, the southern coast of Sri Lanka was devastated by the Boxing Day tsunami. CowFund’s partner in Sri Lanka, Kantha Shakthi (KS), has been working to address economic disempowerment in poor communities since 1983.

According to KS, a lack of credit facilities due to high interest rates, as well as complicated bureaucratic procedures in state and private banks, have prevented a majority of enterprising rural women from starting small scale economic ventures, such as owning a cow or a herd of goats.

In response, Kantha Shakthi has a four-pronged approach in its service delivery, as follows:

1. Sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
2. Micro-credit schemes for small groups of 6-10 women
3. Self-banks for women, comprised of several small micro-credit groups.
4. Education programmes.

CowFunder Nathan Fabian met with KS in Sydney in March 2007. Read more here.