WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009 - (Page 18)

a nationwide microfinance institution with a global following. Jamii Bora’s financial products include microcredit loans, housing, education, and life and health insurance, including services for HIV-positive clients. Their holistic approach to poverty alleviation includes alcohol rehabilitation, orphan outreach, and street beggar transition programs. These services result in high loan repayment rates and positive changes in clients’ standards of living. Jamii Bora targets the very poor living in urban and rural Kenya. Their ninety branches serve clients in virtually all major Kenyan cities. A truly unique MFI, Jamii Bora is causing the international development community to take notice with the development of Kaputei, an environmentally friendly housing development. The first of its kind in the history of African development, Kaputei will provide safe and affordable “green” homes for 2,500 Jamii Bora families, most of which are there from the Nairobi slums Mathari Valley and Kibera. Kaputei is the result of Munro’s philosophy: “As long as you are living in the slums, you will never climb out of poverty. Families of course need economic opportunities to rise out of poverty but what good are they if you are still living in hell?” Nearly 100 percent sustainable, this “eco-community” is made up of two- and four-bedroom homes on 400 acres of Masai land, only 36km from downtown Nairobi. While designing Kaputei, Munro brought together local experts and partnered with two local universities to draw up plans and conduct an environmental impact assessment. Employing the most cutting-edge “green” technology, houses are equipped with running water in both the kitchen and bathrooms and flush toilets with proper sanitation. Through Kaputei Unlimited, houses have solar panels for electricity and grey water is recycled back into the community using a sophisticated water filtration system. To qualify for a home in Kaputei, individuals need to be members of good standing with Jamii Bora and have successfully repaid three loans. Every family that moves in is required to plant four trees around their home to create a cooler, cleaner microclimate. Homes can be purchased through regular mortgage payments roughly equal to rent in the slums (about $250 US per month). “We are very pleased with the incredible programs Jamii Bora Trust JOhN hATCh NAMED 2009 SARGENT ShRIVER AWARD RECIPIENT Microfinance Pioneer, Founder of FINCA On June 26, 2009 John K. Hatch, founder of the microfinance organization FINCA International, was awarded the National Peace Corps Association’s 2009 Sargent Shriver Award for Distinguished Humanitarian Service. Timothy Shriver, son of Peace Corps founder Sargent Shriver and Chairman of Special Olympics International, presented the Award at a reception in Hatch’s honor. The Shriver Award is presented to a Returned Peace Corps Volunteer who continues to make a sustained and distinguished contribution to humanitarian causes at home or abroad, or is an innovative social entrepreneur whose actions will bring about significant long-term change. John Hatch began his service to the Peace Corps in 1962 as a community development volunteer in Colombia and later as a regional Peace Corps director John K. Hatch and Timothy Shriver in Peru. After completing his PhD, Hatch founded the non-profit microfinance organization FINCA (Foundation for International Community Assistance) International, whose mission is to provide financial services to the world’s lowest-income entrepreneurs so they can create jobs, build assets and improve their families’ standard of living. He developed a new microfinance methodology called Village Banking, which brings together ten to thirty people in a community—mostly women—who guarantee small business loans for each other, enabling them to create incomegenerating opportunities for themselves. FINCA operates in 21 countries of Africa, Eurasia, the Greater Middle East and Latin America, and is currently providing financial services to more than 750,000 people. “John Hatch and his life’s work, beginning with the Peace Corps and continuing today, reflects Sargent Shriver’s hopes for all volunteers; that Peace Corps service will lead to a lifetime commitment to assisting the under-served,” said Kevin Quigley, NPCA president. “John’s pioneering role in Village Banking and creating FINCA are these hopes made real, and he is an inspirational example for the Peace Corps community.” Learn more at www.peacecorpsconnect.org/ shriveraward/johnhatch 1 Summer 2009 http://www.peacecorpsconnect.org/shriveraward/johnhatch

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009
Contents
More Peace Corps Campaign: Better and Bolder!
Africa Rural Connect
Readers Write
You Too Can Be Bill Gates
Taking Peace Corps Back into the Field
Come for the Information, Stay for the Dancing
A “Green” Community Rising
Microfinance Pioneer Receives 2009 Shriver Award
The Colombia Project
A Voice for the Unheard
Hear Ye, Hear Ye: Microfinance Podcasts
Selected Microfinance Resources
Bicycle! Bamenda! Orange!
Luck and Fame
A Step in the Right Direction
Bringing What She Loves
Letter from Botswana: First Tongues of the Kalahari
Letter from Tanzania: Homo Sapien in Africa
In the Beginning (There Was John)
The Peace Corps Community Making a Difference
Community News
Advertiser Index

WorldView Magazine - Summer 2009

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