Lendwithcare: Help Entrepreneurs Work Their Way Out Of Poverty

Each year I ask my friends and followers to consider supporting the charity Lendwithcare.
Lendwithcare provides entrepreneurs in developing countries with ethical loans to enable them to work their way out of poverty with dignity. The wonderful thing is that, being a loan, the money is repaid, allowing you to help people to help themselves to develop a business and at no cost to you, the lender. And with interest rates so low there is no better time.

How it works. It 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 or market. A workshop may need to repair or upgrade machinery. You can choose to lend by country, gender and groups/individuals. 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and the lender receives a monthly email listing repayments made, and the new credit balance of the lender, which can be withdrawn or used to fund another loan.Lendwithcare is currently working in ten countries. See how Lendwithcare works here.

Lendwithcare is an initiative of poverty fighting charity, CARE International UK. CARE is non-religious and non-political, allowing it to deliver humanitarian and development assistance to anyone in need regardless of race, gender, ethnicity, age, religion, political view or sexual orientation.

CARE has been working on microfinance for more than two decades and has pioneered Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), which enable people in poor communities to save and borrow money – meaning they can plan for the future, and get loans to start up or develop small businesses. The real potential of microfinance is still to be realised. Most of the world’s poorest people still have no access to basic financial services and little hope of lifting themselves out of poverty.
Help Make a Difference

I have been supporting Lendwithcare now for seven years and have increased the amount of lending each December. The web site tells me that over that period I have made 155 loans to 446 entrepreneurs. This has helped 1611 family members and 643 jobs have been created. Yet it has cost me nothing! At any time, you can withdraw the credit balance in your account.

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 a gift of a loan here.

For more information on Lendwithcare, please follow this link.

And remember – aid creates trade, trade builds friendship, friendship leads to world peace.