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Our partners include
AFRICA
CERUDEB
- Centenary Rural Development Bank / Uganda
UMU
- Uganda Microfinance Ltd. / Uganda
ASIA
CARD
- Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development / Philippines
Grameen
Bank /Bangladesh
SEWA -Self
Employed Women's Association / India
Pastoral
Institute / Singapore
WOTR
Watershed Organisation Trust / India
LATIN AMERICA
ADOPEM
- Asociación Dominicana para el Desarollo de la
Mujer / Dominican Republic
Caritas
Quicheé / Guatemala
CEPROLAI
- Centro de Promoción al Laicado / Bolivia
Diözese
San Marcos / Guatemala
EAST EUROPE
Albanian
Saving and Credit Union/ Albania
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AFRICA
CERUDEB - Centenary
Rural Development Bank / Uganda
CERUDEB is a commercial bank operating throughout
the whole of Uganda, serving customers within Uganda’s
micro-finance system as well as private customers from
higher income groups and established businesses. The Bank
was founded in 1982 on a funds-in-trust basis by Catholic
bishops, businessmen and bankers. With the help of SIDI
(France), Misereor (the German Catholic charity), the
Savings Bank Aachen and many others, and especially thanks
to advice from the Frankfurt IPC, the Bank has managed
to develop since 1992 into a “flagship of rural
banking reform in Africa” (Prof. H.-D. Seibel, Cologne)
with sustainable and expanding operations.
At the start of 2004, CERUDEB had more than 400,000 savers
and 45,000 borrowers. Its lending volume at that time
was about 34.7 million dollars. Because of its size, CERUDEB
is a guiding example for smaller (micro) banks. The Bank’s
aim is to offer all Ugandans, whether rich or poor, appropriate
financial services. The Bank is also seeking to reach
farmers and low-wage workers. CERUDEB is a partner in
“Imp-Act” and is actively involved both in
developing new services and financial products for customers
and in acquiring new investors, in order to ensure the
future growth of the Bank. CERUDEB also carries out monitoring
and evaluation programmes, particularly in order to evaluate
the results of using micro-credit to promote agriculture.
CERUDEB is seeking to become a Ugandan trademark for a
national, multifunctional, commercial micro-bank, for
whom customer development (e.g. by means of customer “training”)
is just as important as banking success. The Bank’s
target of a portfolio mix of 60% micro-credit and 40%
“classical” commercial loans is intended to
help achieve this goal. The average size of the loans
awarded by the Bank is 773 US dollars.
Further information at: www.centenarybank.co.ug
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UMU - Uganda Microfinance
Ltd. / Uganda
UMU is one of the leading micro-finance
institutions in Uganda and was recognised in August 2005
as a deposit bank under the supervision of the Bank of
Uganda (in accordance with the Micro-Deposit-Taking Institutions
Act). The Bank was founded in August 1997 as a local non-governmental
organisation with holdings among Ugandan academics, international
experts and students from the Institute for Sustainable
International Development at the Brandeis University (USA).
UML sees its main task as providing customer-oriented
financial services for people on low incomes, whilst taking
account of the need for economic and social sustainability,
in order to strengthen local self-help potential and micro-enterprises.
Some 60% of its 85,000 customers (figures from 2004),
who are served in 22 small-scale branch offices, are women.
In 2004, the lending volume was about 10.6 million US
dollars. UMU mainly serves people with very low incomes.
UML is a partner in “Imp-Act”, a global action
research programme (located in the Institute for Development
Studies at the University of Sussex, UK). Imp-Act has
set itself the task of improving the quality of micro-finance
systems and their impact on poverty. The work of UML is
described in expert circles as “financially sustainable”.
Numerous successes in research and practice and in co-operation
with other institutions have led to UML’s enormous
growth.
Further information at: : www.ids.ac.uk/impact/africa/CERUDEB_English.pdf
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ASIA
CARD
- Centre for Agriculture and Rural Development / Phillippines
CARD is a bank set up to support poor landless women in
the Philippines along the pattern of Grameen Bank. CARD
was founded in 1987, with support from the GTZ among others.
More than 28,000 women clients are currently served in
24 branch offices. CARD’s aims are the economic
and social development of women and their families. CARD’s
focus is on business start-ups, developing micro- and
small enterprises and generating employment. In addition
to that, however, the customers are also meant to become
shareholders and thus the owners of the Bank.
Further information at: www.cardbankph.com
Grameen Bank / Bangladesh
Grameen Bank (gram = village) was founded
in 1976, and is a provider of financial services to support
poor landless women in particular, in rural Bangladesh.
The main shareholders and thus owners of the Bank are
its 2.3 million members (96% of whom are women). Grameen
Bank’s aims are the holistic human development of
its members and the use of their productive skills. Through
savings and loans the customers are able to build up independent
livelihoods. In addition, Grameen Bank has designed a
social development programme (Social Charter), which enables
the women and their families to develop their social and
cultural skills and enhance their social standing. Grameen
Bank has founded a number of subsidiary companies that
have been supported using funds from German Financial
Co-operation and Technical Co-operation.
Further information at: www.grameen-info.org
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SEWA - Self Employed
Women's Association / India
SEWA is an organisation that was founded
in 1971 in Gujarat and is recognised as a trade union
for poor, self-employed women workers and rural women
workers in India. Today, SEWA has about 700,000 members
throughout the whole of India.
SEWA’s goal is the holistic development of women,
in particular enhancing their economic and social position,
in other words employment and economic independence for
women. The SEWA concept is rooted in the philosophy of
Ghandi, which puts an emphasis on self-respect and dignity.
SEWA’s main activities consist of legal advice and
support for legal action, financial services, training,
health, housing, rural development and social security
systems.
Further information at: www.sewa.org
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Pastoral Institute
/ Singapore
The Pastoral Theological Institute in Singapore
trains Catholic lay people with the aim of organising
communities based on helping one’s neighbour. The
focus is on a participatory church that proclaims the
faith and promotes the development of the individual,
of the church community and of society. The basis for
this is the grassroots pastoral programme Asian Integral
Pastoral Approach (AsIPA) with its focus on bible-sharing,
small Christian communities, shared community responsibility
and participatory leadership. The Institute offers courses
in bible study and in helping one’s neighbour (nursing,
care of the old, etc.).
Further information at: www.veritas.org.sg/groups.php?group=Pastoral
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WOTR Watershed Organisation
Trust / India
The Watershed Organisation Trust is a programme
for watershed development. Its goals are to regenerate
and safeguard natural and human resources within a watershed,
in order to reduce the poverty and improve the living
conditions of the people living in the watershed area.
The programme is based on the active participation of
all stakeholders at the local and central government levels.
In September 2005, 80 watershed areas were being actively
cared for by WOTR in an area covering 54,825 hectares.
339 villages and 97 NGOs are currently receiving support
for the management of natural resources in an area of
273,951 hectares. WOTR itself was founded in 1993 and
is a co-ordinating and supporting organisation within
the Indo-German Watershed Development Programme.
Further information at: www.wotr.org
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LATIN AMERICA
ADOPEM - Asociación
Dominicana para el Desarollo de la Mujer / Dominican Republic
ADOPEM is a non-governmental, non-profit
financial institution, founded in 1982, for the promotion
of poor women. ADOPEM is a member of Women's
World Banking ,a global network that helps self-employed
women get access to finance, information and the national
market. It has been promoted with funds from German Technical
Co-operation among others. The aim of ADOPEM is to integrate
women and their families into the economic and financial
system by means of savings and credit, training and by
strengthening the position of women in the formal and
informal economic sector. ADOPEM’s focus is on promoting
poor women who have a small business in urban peripheries.
Further information at: www.adopem.org.do
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Caritas
in Sta. Cruz del Quiché / Guatemala
Church in Guatemala
The church was the only civil institution, particularly
during the 36 years of civil war (1960-96), that was able
to demand that the conflicting parties practise respect
for human rights. Through the pastoral letter in 1988,
“The Call for Land”, the Guatamalan bishops
pledged to help liberate the farmers from injustice and
hunger and defined this goal for their rural pastoral
care (Pastoral de la Tierra).
Diocese of Sta. Cruz
del Quiché
The Diocese of El Quiché consists of 25 parishes
and lies in the highlands of Guatemala, 85% of the population
are Maya (important ethnic groups: K’iche, Ixil,
Q’eqchi and Poqonchi). During the civil war the
Quiché region was the worst affected by the civil
war. The violence reached its peak between 1979 and 1984.
The Diocese did not become stable again until the mid-1980s.
Today, the process of clarification and reconciliation
is still one of the most important tasks being carried
out by the Diocese. Here particularly the work of the
REMHI project ('Recuperación de la Memoria Histórica'
– restoring historical memories) is particularly
important. The exhumation and naming of those murdered
in the civil war and those who “disappeared”
in “secret graveyards” is not only a necessary
component of socio-political clarification, it is also
part of a family-based process of mourning and psycho-social
therapy. Giving the dead a decent burial gives the bereaved
their only opportunity to really say goodbye and is necessary
for them to be able to live self-determined lives in their
families and in their villages. The psycho-social counselling
and therapy for traumatised victims of violence and their
loved ones (who have secondary trauma) was initiated by
Sister Barbara Ford, who has since been murdered, and
is being continued. In the health sector, further progress
has been made and some health workers have been trained.
Inculturation processes are strengthened by promoting
the “Pastoral Indígena” Commission
in every community. The “Pastoral de la Tierra”
helps the communities deal with agricultural and environmental
questions, whilst taking Maya culture into account. Another
focus of diocesan charitable work is the community-based
development and implementation of infrastructure measures,
particularly in the field of water supply, which also
requires further external financial support. The Diocese
of Sta. Cruz del Quiché is a project partner of
the charitable church organisations Adveniat and Misereor.
Contact:
Ms. Maria-Ulrike Morsell
6a. Calle 10-10, Zona 3
14001 Santa Cruz del Quiché
Guatemala
E-mail: caritasq@intelnet.net.gt
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CEPROLAI
- Centro de Promoción al Laicado / Bolivia
CEPROLAI is a foundation of the Archdiocese
of La Paz, which was set up about 20 years ago. CEPROLAI’s
central goal is to foster and train lay people with a
view to changing Bolivian society in the direction of
more solidarity and humanity. In co-operation with Caritas
(a German church charity) and the Bolivian church social
services, CEPROLAI is active in church and society. One
focus of CEPROLAI’s work is in political education
and fostering a critical awareness with regard to socio-economic
reality in Bolivia and in promoting participation. The
instruments that CEPROLAI uses for its work include radio
and television programmes, articles in the printed press,
its own educational materials and workshops. In 2003,
CEPROLAI received the “prize for services to democracy”
(Premio mérito democrático) from the Bolivian
Association for Political Science.
Contact:
Ms. Marta Aguirre
Calle 9, Nr 340
Obrajes, La Paz
Bolivia
E-mail: ceprolai-d@acelarate.com
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Diocese San
Marcos / Guatemala
Church in Guatemala
The church was the only civil institution, particularly
during the 36 years of civil war (1960-96), that was able
to demand that the conflicting parties practise respect
for human rights. Through the pastoral letter in 1988,
“The Call for Land”, the Guatamalan bishops
pledged to help liberate the farmers from injustice and
hunger and defined this goal for their rural pastoral
care (Pastoral de la Tierra).
Diocese of San Marcos
The Diocese of San Marcos (30 parishes – mostly
in the highlands) is also particularly committed to serving
the indigenous rural population (76% of the local population,
e.g. Mam). The Diocese of San Marcos develops and runs
numerous social projects and stands up to the local power
elites, even in the face of mortal danger. The inter-diocesan
rural pastoral care of the Guatamalan Conference of Bishops
reminds political decision-makers of their obligations
to the people and is an advocate for the fair distribution
of land. The Diocese of San Marcos supported the rural
population in the past repeatedly in conflicts with large-scale
local landowners – moral and practical support –
even in the face of murder threats. The report “Guatamala
– Nunca Mas” (“Never Again”) was
an important interim step in the project for restoring
historical memories (REMHI), which has set itself the
goal of recording the history of the 36-year civil war
from the perspective of the victims. The causes for the
widespread poverty and acts of terror in the past have
not been eliminated. The recognition of their guilt by
the perpetrators is the basis for reconciliation –
a process many of the survivors are willing to engage
in. The integrated, socio-pastoral and development policy
work of the Diocese in the various programmes and projects
has the purpose of achieving the goal of reconciliation
within society: e.g. the work of the human rights office
(PDDHSM), of the Pastoral de la Tierra (including extension
services for site-appropriate cultivation, self-organisation
in co-operatives, negotiating an agricultural platform
with the government), of the Catholic Workers Movement
– MTC (developing and advising trades unions of
finca workers), of the Pastoral Social (e.g. post-trauma
counselling, informal education), Caritas (e.g. aid for
individual cases and national emergencies). The Diocese
of San Marcos is a project partner of the German church
aid organisations Adveniat and Misereor..
Contact:
Bishof Alvaro Rammazini
Casa Episcopal
GCA – 12001 San Marcos
Guatemala
E-mail: obispado@amigo.net.gt
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EASTERN EUROPE
ASC UNION -
Albanian Saving and Credit Union
The ASC Union is composed of a total of
94 independent savings and credit institutions, with more
than 8,161 members and is one of the most important financial
institutions in Albania. The ASC Union was developed in
2002 from the previous RFF (Rural Finance Fund), which
had been founded back in 1999 by the Albanian government.
In 2003, the lending volume was more than 7,700,590 US
dollars. The ASC Union is seeking to improve the rural
situation in Albania. Its tasks include changing and extending
the rural banking systems and providing financial services
for farmers. Through its resources, savings and credit
institutions in particular receive financial and technical
support; but poor smallholders also get the chance to
take out micro-loans and thus secure their livelihoods.
The Union also supports the development of civil society
structures and offers training.
The ASC Union is based on a federal and democratic structure.
Its main tasks are representing its members vis-à-vis
the government, banks, donors and other organisations
and providing its members with financial and technical
support. Another key task of the Union is monitoring and
supervising its members, because all members or would-be
members must prove the quality of their work. The ASC
Union is in turn under the supervision of the Bank of
Albania.
Through its work the ASC Union has achieved considerable
successes in rural development and helped poor people
gain access to capital. Through the work of the ASC Union
investors have been found for rural Albania and jobs have
been created. The migration from the land to the towns
has been countered through improved living conditions.
CONTACT:
Ms. Zana Konini
Rs. Ismail Qemali, Nr 32
Tirana / Albania
E-mail: ffrural@albaniaonline.net
ascunion@icc-al.org
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