International Year of Microcredit 2005
 

Shared Interest

Shared Interest is a nonprofit social investment fund that for the lastdecade has pioneered the use of guarantees to advance social justice and work as a catalyst for social and economic change in South Africa. Shared Interest works through its South African partner organization to guarantee loans by South African financial institutions to Microcredit finance institutions they would otherwise consider "unbankable." Shared Interest has helped address apartheid's enduring economic legacy by providing access to credit and housing -- helping low-income South Africans launch 8,000 small businesses, create 13,000 jobs, and build 63,000 low-cost homes-rebuilding communities and improving the lives of more than 375,000 people across South Africa, of whom more than 75 percent are black women.

Donna Katzin
"We anticipate that 2005 will be a watershed year in South Africa for providing financial services to people who have been denied them since the days of colonialism and apartheid. The Year of Microcredit sends a strong signal that low-income communities and the micro-finance institutions that serve them are promising markets and powerful tools for reducing the growing gap between rich and poor in today's globalizing economy. It also highlights the tremendous impact of organized communities and effective institutions utilizing micro-finance as a tool for social and economic transformation."
--Donna Katzin, Executive Director, Shared Interest

Shared Interest
121 W 27th Street, Suite 905
New York, NY 10001
Phone: 212.337.8547
fax 212.337.8548
www.sharedinterest.org
info@sharedinterest.org


 
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