ESN Bigger Meals Ltd
Helping familes living on one meal a day to pull themselves
out of extreme poverty
NOT-FOR-PROFIT
BANKING SERVICES FOR THE POOREST OF THE POOR |
| Total
microfinance business loan borrowers: |
111 |
| Amount loaned
to date (some borrowers repaid loans and needed additional loans):
|
US$
7,739 |
| Bad and doubtful debts: |
US$
104 |
| Repayment Rate: |
98.59% |
| Children with
severe malnutrition treated : |
22 |
| Children with
severe malnutrition recovered : |
20 |
|
‘In
this new century, millions of people in the world’s
poorest countries remain imprisoned, enslaved and in chains.
They are trapped in the prison of poverty. It is time to set
them free.’ —
Nelson Mandela |
ESN Bigger Meals is a not-for-profit, micro-finance
company that focuses on freeing families surviving on one
meal a day from extreme poverty by providing small loans to
help them to start their own small businesses.. All borrowers
receive free basic training on how to run their own small
business successfully. Our borrowers do not need any collateral.
They will just need to be excluded from the formal economy
and accessing traditional financial services because of extreme
poverty. Because our loans are probably the only chance many
of our borrowers will ever get to pull themselves and their
families out of extreme poverty many take their opportunities
with both hands and work hard to realise their dreams. And
so far, for the most part, that has been what we have seen.
Then as their income and living standards improve they repay
their loan so we can relend that money to the next family
we find living in extreme poverty.
‘Poverty
is the worst form of violence.’ —
Mahatma Gandhi |
|
|
|
| Presently we are working hard to replicate
Grameen Bank's highly successful Grameen-style micro-finance and
banking model.
Below is a popular article one of our directors once wrote that
provides a brief, but inspiring outline on how the Grameen Bank
was founded and what it did that led to it's founder, Professor
Muhammad Yunus, being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2006.
|
Some
of our borrowers' children. From the left to right, Christopher, Angel
and Bridget.
© ESN Bigger Meals Ltd
|
|
*The facts and figures in this article are updated regularly
- Latest Update 7/3/21. Original Article
By Paul Sinclair (One World One People) 29/10/03
"Unleashing
of energy and creativity in each human being is the answer
to poverty." Professor
Muhammad Yunus.
Professor Muhammad Yunus was a highly respected Head of the
Economics Department at Chittagong University, Bangladesh. |
|
Grameen Micro-Credit is based on the premise that the poor have
skills that remain un-utilised or under-utilised. It is definitely
not the lack of skills, which make poor people poor.
© Grameen Communications |
In 1974 a terrible famine gripped Bangladesh and skeleton like people
began to flood into the capital Dhaka. This caused Professor Yunus to
feel empty inside. He used to get excited about teaching how economic
theories provided answers to economic problems of all types. But what
were the use of theories when all around him, people were dying of starvation.
Where did poverty fit into the economics equations?
So Professor Yunus decided to take a ‘worms eye view’ of a
local village – Jobra, so he could learn about village life in person.
The Poor would become his teachers and the village his university of the
real world.
To
contine reading...
|
December
2023
November
2021
Early
2021
