Credits for Communities

About

Credits for Communities is a global movement connecting people across the world who want to contribute to our mission: empower groups of poor people across the globe to grow their own income through social enterprises contributing to the well-being of their whole village.

Join us on social media to stay up to date on the latest news and developments. We look forward to connecting with you.

Our mission

Poverty is number one of the Global (UN) Sustainable Development Goals (SDG’s), it’s a global challenge.

Poverty has such an enduring and devastating effects on people, and we can only solve it collectively. Credits for Communities believes that one key to fighting poverty is for groups to be empowered and take income-generation as well as growing their well-being in the village in their own hands.

Tradition has it in most villages in the world that groups come together and aim to solve an issue in society: whether it is to fight the attacks of a wild animal in the night, distribute the wells water equally amongst families or to bring sick people to remote hospitals, for ages those informal groups where driving solutions to issues on village level.

Why is it then today, that the same groups cannot access funds for increasing their well-being, at village level? This must change!

And that is why Credits for Communities aims to partner with those who want to support or are already connected to groups around the world - including Microfinance Institutions, NGOs, schools, and many more!

Together, we will work to create products, services and programs that enable groups to set-up, manage and grow their social enterprises, provide them with group loans and facilitate savings, develop entrepreneurial skills and, most importantly, to believe in themselves.

News

// Real stories from the Kula Loans & NEED partnership

Mr. Tuni Devi

This is Mr. Tuni Devi. He is a shop owner in a small village in the state of Bihar, a state characterised by “widespread and inescapable poverty” (The Economist). The electricity from the grid in his shop is very unreliable leaving him with no light or electricity at certain moments in the day, disrupting his business and eventually his income. He is left in what The Economist accurately called “inescapable poverty”.

With a group of 5 other entrepreneurs, Mr. Tuni Devi requested a loan from the Kula Loans & NEED program to invest in solar power and transform his life. The group now holds monthly group sessions to administer and repay the loan.

After the repayment of the loan, Mr. Tuni Devi and the others will have a free and trustworthy solution serving them with continuous light and electricity in their shops. They will now have the opportunity to escape the cycle of “inescapable poverty”.

The Kula Loans and NEED program aims to give ownership to poor people by empowering them to transform their lives and their communities through group loans.

For more information, please visit: http://www.kulaloans.org/ and http://www.needmfi.in/.

// Waterpumps - a source of pollution

pumps

Did you know that:
“Right now, water pumps on farms use nearly 20% of India’s electricity–much of which still comes from coal–and others run on polluting diesel.”?
Read more: Stanley Black&Deckers newest product is a solar powered water-pump for the developing world

// Kula Loans proud to announce their first partner: NEED MFI

Kula Loans has started in India and is proud to announce their first partner: NEED MFI.

In partnership they aim to raise the standard of living of the poor people in the Northern region of India, by creating access to solar power solutions through provision of group-loans; utilizing this renewable (non-polluting) resource will result in better environment for the whole village (amongst others: reduce forces of deforestation, decrease desertification) and increased livelihood opportunities for the group members.
Read more: www.kulaloans.org