GK participant

In the meetings I witnessed, they were firm but very courteous with the borrowers (who are all women) and there seemed to be an atmosphere of mutual trust and respect (for example the field officer was quite happy to sit on the ground in the circle of women and the borrowers were not shy of debating him). According to the stats, the repayment rate is 100% ie. in every case where there is a default then the group makes up the difference.

In order to take a loan, borrowers must be earning less than approx. $1US per day which is considered the poverty line. Roughly 40% of Karnakta’s population meets this definition.

Grameen Koota currently has 100,000 members and plans to expand to 500,000 members by 2010, which would be about 11% of poor households in the state. This sort of growth will require more capital than can be raised from donors, hence they plan to convert to a private entity with the ability to raise capital from investors.

It was also very inspiring to see that the funds we raised really did make a practical difference and were being leveraged effectively to create ongoing benefits for people.’

Pages: 1 2