Shared Interest News

Grace Motlou, SEF (Motopa Kgomo 1. Limpopo)
The World Cup has come and gone.  South Africa outdid itself in welcoming players and spectators from across the globe, and showed its spirit, talent and determination once again.  While Spain claimed the trophy, South Africa stood victorious.
 
The fans have now gone home, leaving South Africa’s marginalized communities - and particularly its women - to continue the long march to economic justice.  Fifty-four years ago, 20,000 South African women captured the world’s attention when they took to the streets to protest the apartheid pass laws. The country now celebrates South African Women’s day on August 9.
 
Today’s leaders are breaking ground in communities across the country.  They are women like Grace Matlou, chairperson of the Motopa Kgomo I Village Center, organized by the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) - a beneficiary of two Shared Interest guarantees. 
 
“When my husband died in 2002 and left me with five children, SEF was there for me,” said Grace.  “I never asked for a loan from anyone else. Through SEF, I came this far.” 
 
Grace had been a client of the Small Enterprise Foundation (SEF) for four years when she was widowed.  “I was struggling,” she recalled.  “I needed something to feed my kids.”  She had begun by joining a SEF savings and borrowing group that enabled her to take out a R700 loan(approximately $96) to purchase bananas, chewing gum and other items to sell in schools and in the streets. She graduated to a R1,200 ($164) loan that she used to broaden her inventory to include fruits, vegetables and sweets.  As she saved and continued to move up the “loan ladder,” Grace was able to purchase construction materials and build herself a two-room tuck shop (convenience store) in the center of her village that supplies her neighbors with basic commodities ranging from corn meal, bread, soup and detergent to corn snacks and peanuts that she packages herself and soft drinks.
 
“I’m far better off because of the loans,” Grace noted.  “I am able to live with my kids.  I feel human, like everyone else.  SEF helped me dress my kids and pay their school fees.  If it were not for SEF, I might be dead, or deep in debt — struggling with loan sharks.”
 
As Grace continued up the ladder, she was able to take out a R12,000 ($1,644) loan and purchase a small van for her new business — transporting other people’s children to and from school. ”My businesses are helping a lot of people in my community,” she noted proudly.  “I get things from town and bring them nearer.  And now my transportation business is relieving the burden of parents who are working.”
 
Grace explained, “When a member has a problem, we call a meeting of the whole group to analyze the problem and try to help.  This helps us.  But in case we cannot solve the problem, we call SEF.”  Her leadership skills soon became evident, as her Village Center elected her Secretary, then Treasurer, then Chairperson.  ”I think they elected me because I respect the members of my center,” she reflected.  “It is because of the respect that I give them.”
 
Grace continues to borrow and to dream.  In the future she would like to see her tuck shop grow into a supermarket, and her small van become a bus.  At the same time she is helping others make realities of their dreams, and mark the slow steady pace to build communities in which their families and businesses prosper.
 
For Grace’s story in her own words, click here to watch her interview.
 
If you would like to visit SEF and other Shared Interest microfinance and small business partners, please contact our office immediately for information about our upcoming delegation to South Africa (September 22 - October 3). 
 
We urge you to help Shared Interest continue to provide financial and technical support for organizations like SEF and women like Grace, who remain on the front lines.  Please click on the “donate” button, or visit our website at www.sharedinterest.org.   We - and South Africa’s women - invite you to help make their continuing journey possible.
 

Spring 2010 Newsletter

Press contact: Donna Katzin, 646-442-0181, donna@sharedinterest.org

New York, NY. January 27, 2010. The Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) announced that it is making a $3 million investment guaranty facility available to Shared Interest, a not-for-profit U.S.-based social investment fund, to promote lending to primarily black-owned small businesses and microenterprises in South Africa. Shared Interest, which guarantees South African bank loans to impoverished entrepreneurs, will use the facility to expand its guaranty activities and attract additional capital from U.S. investors. This is a significant step towards helping Shared Interest meet its goal of increasing its portfolio of guaranties by 450 percent. “This facility will enable Shared Interest both to expand its lending to South African SMEs - an important engine of economic growth in the country — and draw additional capital from other investors: two multiplier effects that will greatly benefit South African small businesses,” said OPIC Acting President Dr. Lawrence Spinelli. “We at OPIC are extremely pleased to partner with Shared Interest, which has had such an instrumental effect in facilitating the provision of capital for South African SMEs.”

OPIC’s $3 million facility may be drawn down over a five-year period to cover potential losses on South African bank loans to poor entrepreneurs to whom they would otherwise be reluctant to lend. Shared Interest will be able to access the facility in the event that the organization exhausts its own guaranty loss reserve fund, which will enable the fund to grow to benefit thousands more South Africans. “OPIC’s facility will bolster the business of transformation,” commented Donna Katzin, Shared Interest’s executive director. “It will enable us to unlock millions more dollars of credit for struggling black-owned enterprises in South Africa.”

About Shared Interest: Shared Interest is a non-profit investment fund established 15 years ago to enable U.S. investors to participate in South Africa’s democratic and equitable reconstruction after apartheid. Shared Interest uses the funds it raises from investors to partially guarantee South African bank loans to entrepreneurs, microfinance institutions, and cooperatives in economically disenfranchised communities. It works with its South African partner, the Thembani International Guarantee Fund, to place, monitor and mitigate the risk of its guaranties – and to broaden the lending practices of South African banks. Since inception, the organization has helped its beneficiaries create more than 400,000 small and microenterprises, build and refurbish more than 100,000 low-cost homes, and obtain more than 1.6 million jobs. Not one of its investors has lost a penny of interest or principal.

About OPIC: OPIC was established as a U.S. government agency in 1971. It helps U.S. businesses invest overseas, fosters economic development in new and emerging markets, complements the private sector in managing risks associated with foreign direct investment, and supports U.S. foreign policy. OPIC’s political risk insurance and financing help U.S. businesses invest in more than 150 emerging markets and developing nations. Over the agency’s 38-year history, OPIC has supported $188 billion worth of investments that have helped developing countries to generate over 830,000 host-country jobs. OPIC projects have also generated $72 billion in U.S. exports and supported more than 273,000 American jobs.

On March 22, 2010 Shared Interest will hold its 16th Anniversary Awards Dinner at Gotham Hall in New York City. For more information please call The JFM Group at 914-235-1490 extension 14 or email sharedinterest@thejfmgroup.com .

To purchase tickets for the event please click here.