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The $25,000 Question

A cheque repaying a $25,000 loan from PWRDF to the Caixa Nampula. Photo: Simon Chambers

July 21, 2014

By Simon Chambers

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In 1999, PWRDF gave a grant of $50,000 to the Two Rivers Community Development Centre (TRCDC) in Six Nations of the Grand River and Mississaugas of the New Credit.  The grant, earmarked for micro-credit loans to indigenous women and youth, was made in memory of PWRDF’s former Executive Director Robin Gibson who had died on December 27, 1998.

In 2009, TRCDC sent PWRDF a cheque for $55,314 in repayment of the micro-credit loans.  The loans had gone to people like Marjorie Henhawk, who makes arts and crafts to sell at Pow Wows and craft shows or Dianne Harris who opened a restaurant out of her home.  80% of the businesses were able to repay their loans in full over the course of the 10 years.

PRWDF decided to split the original $50,000 in half and offer it to two new partners at this time.  $25,000 was earmarked for the Caixa das Mulheres de Nampula, a women’s microcredit organization in Mozambique, and $25,000 for the Organization for Eelam Refugees Rehabilitation (OfERR).  Unfortunately, OfERR was unable to make use of the funds in micro-credit at that time, but the Caixas received their $25,000.

Over the ensuing five years, that loan allowed women to start restaurants, tailor shops, gravel businesses and more.  Asuncion is one such woman, who used a loan from the Caixa to start a butchery, selling beef one cow at a time until she was able to purchase a refrigerator with a subsequent loan which has allowed her to expand her business.  She has now expanded with the purchase of a barbeque to the sale of cooked meat on the weekends.

In just five years, the Caixa was able to repay the $25,000 loan to PWRDF.  Which leaves us with the $25,000 question- what will be done with the money now?

The answer is: It will be sent to a new area of Mozambique””Pemba””where the Caixas are expanding, enabling more women to take control of their own lives and livelihoods.  Five years from now, who knows what stories that $25,000 will tell!

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