The Importance of Micro-Finance

     The term micro-finance refers to small loans and other financial and non-financial services  that enable people to start their own small businesses.  These loans and services have been proven to be an effective and sustainable tool in fighting poverty around the world.  The term was first used by Muhammad Yunus who won the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006 for his work using micro-finance in Bangladesh where he successfully helped one million people become financially independent and freed from poverty.  Micro-finance creates empowerment through the creation and maintenance of  sustainable and independent businesses.

     Micro-finance helps by:

• Offering people who are typically excluded from the traditional banking system access to unique financial and non-financial services
• Provides the training and services that allows people to create sustainable businesses
• Demands these business work within a culture based upon strong ethics and business management

Professor Yunus 

     WomenTeachingWomen (WTW) successfully uses these principles all over the world to help people out of poverty  and achieve the vision of self-empowerment and economic independence.  Working with micro-finance and business experts WTW aims to maintain the economic sustainability of the people they work with as they build up their own ventures to become profitable businesses.  Working with the basic philosophy of  helping people to help themselves, WTW helps to strengthen and enable the poor to become independent and productive members of society.

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Twelve Arab Women Start A Business

It is not unusual for Arab women in Israel to work as farmers on land owned by other people.  As ‘farm hands’ they earn small salaries that are barely enough to feed their families.   For the most part they live in poverty without any control over their future.

When twelve Arab women living in a village called Macker, near Akko, were awarded micro loans their financial backers were surprised that the women decided to pool their loans to rent a field and grow zaatar, an herb that is commonly used in Israel and one, that Arabs believe, will make their children smart.

These women — each a wife and mother — had little trouble deciding to partner with each other and were in complete agreement on how to use the money. Motivated to go into business for themselves, and assisted by the Rural Women’s Development Project, they rented a field, bought supplies and plants, and returned to the land — as farmers, which is traditional for Arab women, and as owners of their own crop, which is not.

Each day these women ride a bumpy three-mile long road  to their field.. A lean-to, built of two-by-fours and a flimsy tarp, offers shady respite from the sun, and serves as their business office where they make important decisions. 

Currently, they sell half their crop as processed zaatar, or hyssop, which is used as a spice on pita and other foods. The other half is sold as mature plants. The women track the expenses and proceeds of each to determine the most lucrative way to market their crop.

Working together these women are using their skills to operate a profitable business.  With the help of the Rural Women’s Development Project they have become financially independent, are changing the lives of their families and becoming leaders in their community. 

Empowering Bedouin Women Through Weaving

Sidreh is the only organization of its kind in Israel… working to educate and promote the rights of Bedouin women. Khadra El Saneh is the director of Sidreh.  El Saneh, the mother of four children, overcame initial opposition from the traditional elements in her community to set up a weaving center. The center now employs seventy local women who make rugs that sell in boutiques across Israel and are exported as far afield as New York and Tokyo.

Bedouin women are at the lowest level of employment in Israeli society; 90 percent of Bedouin women living in recognized villages are illiterate. In unrecognized villages, that number is more like 100 percent. If a woman has education and economic empowerment, she can take more control of her life, make decisions and be more useful to her society and her family.

In an effort to combat low literacy rates, Sidreh also runs courses teaching Arabic, Hebrew and English. Since it opened in 1998, 1,400 women have graduated from its literacy course. It also offers community services, like early childcare.

Sidreh’s weaving business was launched in 2007. The 70 women employed to spin wool, stitch and weave the rugs each earn on average 2,000 shekels ($586) a month. The organization is supported by a number of international and national aid agencies, including Oxfam.  It does not receive support from the State of Israel.

WomenTeachingWomen and Sidreh share the same mission. Both organizations are devoted to empowering women by providing them with the skills and opportunities to become economically self-sufficient.  

The Plight of Bedouin Women

More than 180,000 Bedouin live in the Negev desert in southern Israel, but there is a big gap in terms of life opportunities between those Bedouins who live in 35 villages that are unrecognized by Israel and those who live in seven officially recognized villages.

Those in unrecognized villages face a constant threat of eviction and are at times cut off from even basic services.  People in these unrecognized villages have no address and they have no claim to land. Many of the villages have no water or electricity and there are no education or health care services.

Unemployment and poverty rates among the Negev Bedouin are the highest in Israel.  There is very little currently being done to lift these Bedouin communities out of poverty and help them to become financially independent.

The situation is most difficult for Bedouin women who face the dual challenges of living as Bedouin in Israel but also as women in a patriarchal society, where 30 percent of families are polygamous.

The conditions for women living in unrecognized villages are dramatically worse than for their counterparts in Israeli-built Negev towns.  Today 75 percent of the Bedouin students (mostly from Israeli recognized Negev towns) in university are women. But in the unrecognized villages the situation is very different — 65 percent of girls are out of school because there are no schools.

Micro-Loans Pave Road To The Future

To succeed in business, you must start with something. Sheer will does not give aspiring businessperson money to buy supplies and other necessities to run a business.

Here at WomenTeachingWomen, we believe in micro-loan programs. It is inspiring to see how people seize the opportunities these loans provide. Our work throughout Africa, Southeast Asia and even in the United States shows us that when women are given the skills and opportunity to become financially independent they make better lives for themselves and their families.

Microloans usually start out quite small, but as the loans are paid back and the new business shows a profit the women are given larger loans that allow them to expand their businesses to the next level.  These second round loans could be as much as $2,000. When these microloans are paid back with interest, funds are made available to others who need financial assistance.

An important component of the WomenTeachingWomen model is that teach loan participants the skills needed to start and operate a business including the value of ethical business practices, money management and accountability.

The women we have helped to start businesses have shown that when people have a steady source of income they are able to take care of their basic needs, send their children to school and plan for their future.