Category Archives: Microfinance

Marriage, miracles, and Micro

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Marriage, miracles, and Micro | World Vision Blog
The following blog post was written by Timothy Hall, Africa’s regional field specialist for VisionFund International, the microfinance subsidiary of World Vision. On my final day in Rwanda, I attended a wedding. Weddings in this part of the world are a blend of the traditional and the modern. The celebrations begin in the morning with negotiations between the two families’ representatives. There are dancers, drums, and traditional costumes throughout. This is followed by lunch, and then progresses to a church where the ceremony is much closer to a typical Western wedding — complete with a white gown, attendants, candles, and a priest. The bride was a young woman who worked for one of VisionFund’s microfinance banks, translating and posting information...
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When vision is fueled by grace

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When vision is fueled by grace | World Vision Blog
When I met Grace Kapila Shilimbwa in rural Zambia, I had no idea about the story behind the owner of the premier guesthouse in the area. Standing by the recently added feature, a swimming pool, I was deeply curious to find out a little more about Grace’s background and journey. Grace lost her husband in 1996. “My husband was providing for the family, and I was merely supplementing his efforts, but now, things were different; I had to provide all that was needed.” After making several attempts to start a business, Grace sought help from a World Vision microfinance institution called HARMOS. With their counsel, she decided to reposition herself and pursue her dream of starting her own restaurant and...
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Where kids’ books meet the real story: Building a healthy village

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Emily, the successful beneficiary of a World Vision microloan, with her children and niece in Zambia. ©2011 Collins Kaumba/World vision
In the afternoon of our first day with World Vision in Sinazongwe, Zambia, Emily Syabubila, a widow and mother of three, gives us a tour of her compound. It consists of a one-room house with two beds for her and her daughters; another one-room home for her son; three raised chicken coops; an outdoor cook hut; and a raised drying rack for her corn. In my last post, I shared how microloans (similar to those described in my book “One Hen“) had enabled her to restore her family to economic and food security after malaria claimed the life of her husband. She now invites us to share in rituals of harvest and shuck dried maize with her. Hard. Then she...
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Where kids’ books meet the real story: From malaria to microloans

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Lodiaís smiles because she is healthier now that she no longer suffers from malaria because she sleeps under a mosquito net from World Vision. ©2009 Collins Kaumba/World Vision
I had the privilege last month of traveling with World Vision to the district of Sinazongwe, Zambia, where rolling hills covered in acacia, cacti, and fruit trees look remarkably like parts of Southern California. But tucked among them are mud brick huts with thatched roofs, small vegetable gardens by muddy pools, and high racks where cobs of maize dry beyond the reach of animals. We pass a small roadside market, where women sell tomatoes, carrots, potatoes, and stalks of sugar cane beside a banana grove. The statistics of this region belie the bucolic scene. Malaria plagues a quarter of children under 5, often fatally, and affects 9 percent of the overall population, according to Rose Zambezi, World Vision’s technical adviser...
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