Lend With Care: The Gift of a Loan to Help People Work Their Way out of Poverty

Lendwithcare provides entrepreneurs in developing countries  with loans to enable them to work their way out of poverty. The wonderful thing is that, being a loan, the money is repaid, allowing you to help people to help themselves by developing a business and at no cost to the lender, especially given that interest rates remain so low.

It all starts with an idea. A farmer may need a loan to buy a tractor to increase crop production or to buy livestock or fertiliser. A local women’s group may wish to buy materials to sell in a shop market stall. A workshop may need to repair or upgrade machinery.

The entrepreneur requests a loan from a Lendwithcare partner who is a microfinance organisation. Once approved, details of the loan requested are posted on the Lendwithcare website. Potential lenders then choose whom they would like to lend to and what amount. A typical loan would be £15.

Once the entrepreneur is fully funded, the loan is made. Regular updates are posted to the website and the lender receives a monthly email listing repayments made, and the new credit balance of the lender, which can be withdrawn or used to fund another loan.

I have been supporting Lendwithcare now for five years and have increased the amount of lending each December. The web site tells me that over that period I have made 68 loans to 127 people. This has helped 481 family members and 30 jobs have been created. Yet it has cost me nothing! To date, all loans have been repaid or are in the course of repayment.

So, if you would like to make a difference to people who are trying hard to lift themselves and their families out of poverty, by making an ethical loan, then please consider lending, here, or buying the Christmas gift of a loan here.

Lendwithcare is the microfinance arm of the charity Care International UK.