HOPE Micro-Finance Initiative

The HOPE Micro Finance Initiative (HOPE MFI) will be geared to meet the needs of women in Vietnam rural communities who are living in extreme poverty as measured by the World Bank standard of less than $1.25 per day. Their source of income for survival is usually small stall business, peasant farming, livestock, fishing and craft. They do not have access to capital to invest in the small businesses and the farm activities. In these households the children are malnourished and miss the opportunity for education to better their lives. These hardships have prompted girls to turn to commercial sex work or early marriages to help the family, while boys use to turn to child labor, drug abuse and other irresponsible behavior.

Mission: HOPE MFI's mission is to work with village-level organizations to provide working capital to women in the lowest income brackets in Vietnam so that they can engage in income producing activities.

Goal: HOPE MFI's goal is to help women build assets so that they can stabilize their income, raise their standard of living and reorient themselves and their families.

Specific loan goals for 2011 and 2012: Provide loans of $200 - $300 to a minimum of 20 new borrowers and 100 follow up borrowers, for a total of 120 loans.

Project Objectives

• To boost financial levels in women headed households and their families in rural areas
• To reduce rural poverty through a revolving loan fund to uphold small farming and other income generating activities, and therefore facilitate access basic needs -education, food, shelter, potable water, clothing and continuously improve their resources
• To prevent the desperate moves of commercial sex, teenage pregnancies and child labor among the rural poor communities
• To empower them in women's rights, farming and business skills, leadership and management skills, HIV/AIDS prevention, family planning, etc…
• To encourage self-help activities among the women, their families and communities, promoting group motivation, enthusiasm and hope.