The Women’s Opportunity Fund will use a $30,000 grant to extend loans to help poor women in South Africa start micro-businesses, says Kelly Connolly, director of marketing for the Chicago-based non-profit organization.
Looking for the “the poorest of the poor,” the fund will make loans as small as $50 and averaging $80 so women “can start (a) small business and pull themselves out of poverty,” says Connolly.
“It’s amazing what you can do with $50,” she says. “With $50 you can make a heck of a difference.”
In South Africa the program will focus on women in Soweto near Johannesburg and show them how to set up businesses such as day-care centers and other cottage industries, Connolly says.
The grant comes from the Citizen’s Energy Corporation, a community-development organization whose chairman and chief executive officer is Michael Kennedy, a son of the late Robert F. Kennedy. More than 30 Kennedy friends and family members will meet loan recipients on a 30th anniversary tour to South Africa commemorating Robert Kennedy’s 1968 trip to the region.
The fund, which is 4 years old, has expanded its micro-loans into seven countries on four continents, helping more than 2,000 women.
One feature of the micro-enterprise program is that it binds 20 to 30 women into a support group that guarantees the loan.
“In some countries these women have built such a sense of trust that they start to take action to improve their communities,” Connolly says. “This says so much about the women that we’re serving.”
