An opportunity for small businesses

Micro credits and savings banks

Poor small businesses normally have no access to conventional bank loans. They cannot provide collateral, and traditional banks consider the expense per loan as too great. So they often remain stuck in the informal sector and depend on unscrupulous lenders who exploit their poverty.
Encouraged by early successes, special microfinance organisations have been set up in many developing countries with the purpose of providing small loans worldwide, based on similar rules. Fastenopfer supports such finance organisations and is a member of Oikocredit.

Savings banks make it easier for people to escape from the debt trap. They pool small amounts of fish, rice, wheat or a small sum of money. This allows an individual in need to obtain a loan, so that nobody is forced into debt as a result of exorbitant interest payments. Savings banks help people to gain more independence, as demonstrated in the Fastenopfer savings banks projects in India and Madagascar.

Micro credits from Oikocredit as fair loans

The Greek word 'oikos' shows the world as a shared home. 'Credit' reflects the way this works: Having access to credit gives people new hope. The word also contains the term 'credo', or belief. For the ecumenical development cooperative Oikocredit, so-called 'poor' people are credible partners. Oikocredit is one of the world's largest private financiers of micro credit institutions, which in turn provide hundreds of thousands of small loans. This enables people in the South to improve their lives with small amounts of money - perhaps to buy a few chickens. Fastenopfer, together with other charitable organisations as well as individual churches, is a member of Oikocredit.