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News & Events Founded in 1946, Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit, international development organization that brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty.			Fact Box Collaboration to Change the World How can a small organization end chronic hunger around the world? Credit with Education Status Report 2011 A quarterly publication providing information on Credit with Education programs worldwide. (PDF)
Media Info News Archive	AIM Youth: Continued Learning About Meeting Youth Needs Our AIM Youth partners in Mali and Ecuador are reporting strong outreach to youth. And, as the numbers of young people participating in this innovative microfinance and education initiative grows, so does the knowledge about designing effective savings products. Learn more. 45 Million Indians Rise Out of Deep Poverty According to a report released by the Microcredit Summit Campaign, nearly 9 million Indian households involved in microfinance – including approximately 45 million family members, on net – rose above the $1.25 a day threshold between 1990 and 2010. Chris Dunford, Freedom from Hunger's president, a featured speaker at the November Microcredit Summit in Spain, gives his take on an important indicator of the impact of microfinance. Read More A New Way to Provide Inexpensive, Accessible Healthcare Microfinance and health institutions often struggle to get affordable medication into the hands of poor families. But at a recent conference in India, organized in part by Freedom from Hunger, two organizations shared their success with a new model. By working with pharmaceutical companies, they were able to get a direct supply of less-expensive generic drugs to sell at easily accessible Civil Hospital shops. Read More Microfinance and Health Leaders Explore Integrated Programs for India Microfinance and health leaders will explore opportunities for greater collaboration between the health and microfinance sectors to improve economic productivity, health practices and access to health services for millions of the Indian poor. Read More Freedom from Hunger Celebrates 65 Years On July 5, Freedom from Hunger proudly commemorates 65 years in the fight against global hunger. Our organization has amassed a long list of accomplishments over the decades—most notably, equipping millions of families with the knowledge, skills and resources they need to end their hunger. Read More Chris Dunford's Article Published in Monday Developments Magazine The carefully crafted commentary on the state of microfinance today, "A Failure to Communicate: Microfinance Confused," authored by Chris Dunford, recently appeared in Monday Developments magazine. Read More Freedom from Hunger Receives Best Practices in Global Health Award Freedom from Hunger's President, Chris Dunford, is honored to receive the 2011 Best Practices in Global Health Award. The Council's award recognizes a program that effectively demonstrates the link between health, poverty and development. Read More Freedom from Hunger Announces New President and CEO The Board of Trustees for Freedom from Hunger has announced that Steve Hollingworth has been selected as the organization's new president and CEO to begin in mid-September. Read More Reevaluating Microfinance at the World Affairs Council on June 7 You are invited to an informative evening at the World Affairs Council in San Francisco with Dean Karlan, author and professor of Economics, Yale University; Sean Foote, founder of Principled Capital; and Christopher Dunford, president of Freedom from Hunger to discuss the state of microfinance and what it may mean for the future of poverty alleviation. Read More Human Faces of Microfinance Impact Offering insightful results and a distinctive contribution to the narrative about the impact of microfinance, Freedom from Hunger's breakthrough white paper, "Human Faces of Microfinance Impact," highlights the importance of relying on multiple research methods to understand the full range of possible benefits of a value-added microfinance program. Learn More Two Steps Backward for Innovation to End Poverty The deed is done. On May 5th the appellate division of the Bangladesh Supreme Court agreed that the Bangladesh Bank, the nation's central bank, was justified in firing Nobel Peace Prize Laureate Muhammad Yunus from his post as Managing Director of Grameen Bank, the institution he founded more than three decades ago. Learn More Benefits of Integrating Microfinance and Health Protection Services Published Oxford Journals' Health Policy and Planning has published a paper on the benefits of integrating microfinance and health protection services for very poor families and says the program should be expanded. Learn More For World Malaria Day, You Can Help Send a Thief Away Women participating in Freedom from Hunger's education sessions quickly learn that malaria is a thief. This terrible disease steals children from their families and wages from their parents' pockets. That's why we combine microfinance with health education and linkages to healthcare services to empower families in their efforts to overcome malaria. Learn More An Open Letter in Support of Dr. Muhammad Yunus Freedom from Hunger, along with other high-profile microfinance-supporting agencies, have come together to show support for Dr. Muhammad Yunus, Nobel laureate, founder of Grameen Bank, and Co-Chair of Freedom from Hunger's Ambassadors Council. Learn More Benefits of Integrating Microfinance and Health Protection Services Published Oxford Journals' Health Policy and Planning has published a paper on the benefits of integrating microfinance and health protection services for very poor families and says the program should be expanded. Learn More Financial Education to Protect and Empower Women For the poorest families, any financial decision — borrowing money, buying insurance, even setting up a savings account — comes with risk. Learn how Freedom from Hunger brings financial knowledge and skills to microfinance clients. Learn More Johnson & Johnson Funds Expansion of Microfinance and Health Protection in Southeast Asia Demand for Freedom from Hunger's Microfinance and Health Protection (MAHP) initiative is growing. In June 2010, Freedom from Hunger completed a four-year project funded by the Gates Foundation and now Johnson & Johnson is helping to bring it to more microfinance clients in Southeast Asia. Learn More New Curriculum will Help Village Women Educate Each Other on Malaria Freedom from Hunger is developing special curriculum that will train women participating in Saving for Change to spread the word on how to avoid and manage malaria. Learn More HealthKeepers Program Continues to Grow in Ghana Freedom from Hunger is pleased to announce that HealthKeepers, an innovative program that bridges the gap between rural villagers and much-needed consumer health products, continues to grow as a vital and independent organization. Read More Freedom from Hunger's Microfinance and Health Protection Continues to Help World's Poor Freedom from Hunger completed a four-year, $6 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, enabling the international nonprofit organization and five microfinance institutions (MFIs) in Africa, Asia and Latin America to collaborate on designing, testing, piloting and evaluating the impact of adding health protection services to their microfinance offerings. Read More Freedom from Hunger Wins Best Practices and Innovations Award Freedom from Hunger is pleased to have won InterAction's Best Practices and Innovations award for Health and Microfinance: Leveraging the Strengths of Two Sectors to Improve Food Security. Read More Consumer Protection: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities Freedom from Hunger has released a financial education module, Consumer Protection: Balancing Rights and Responsibilities, the latest addition to a growing library of modules developed in collaboration with Microfinance Opportunities with support from Citi Foundation. Freedom from Hunger and Microfinance Opportunities foresaw the need for consumer education and protection and began to develop a core financial education curriculum with the focus on micro-entrepreneurs and clients of microfinance programs in developing countries. Read more and see the report. Saving for Change Freedom from Hunger's Saving for Change program in Mali currently reaches more than 300,000 women and has generated over US$7,500,000 in accumulated funds. Click here to get a glimpse of how one of these groups of women, from the rural village of Koniobila, runs their program to generate money and improve the lives of everyone in their families... Learn more about how Freedom from Hunger co-developed and expands the Saving for Change program with Oxfam America and the Strømme Foundation of Norway. Freedom from Hunger Announces Search for New CEO Dr. Chris Dunford of Freedom from Hunger has announced that he will retire after nearly 20 years as the organization's President and Chief Executive Officer. It is anticipated that the new President will take office on July 1, 2011, with Dr. Dunford staying on in a new role in research, communications, and advocacy for an additional two years during the transition. Grover Thomas, Chair of Freedom from Hunger's Board of Trustees, praised Dr. Dunford's 26 years of dedicated service to Freedom from Hunger. "As a result of Chris' leadership, Freedom from Hunger is recognized worldwide as a leader in the effort to eradicate hunger by assisting the self-help efforts of the chronically hungry poor. He will leave his successor an organization that has a solid financial base of support and a revenue surplus." Dr. Dunford remarked, "I've been with Freedom from Hunger for so long because I've never known another organization that offers so much opportunity to do great good in the world. I'll do my best to continue to seize that opportunity but, more importantly, to help my colleagues, our overseas partners, and our donors to seize that opportunity." Commenting on the search, Mr. Thomas said, "We are seeking a new CEO with excellent leadership skills and the ability to inspire the organization's staff, our many partners worldwide, and our donors to work even harder to help the very poorest women achieve economic self-sufficiency in meeting the needs of their families." For information about the search process, please contact Holly Bowers, Manager, Human Resources, at hbowers@freedomfromhunger.org. Read More Freedom from Hunger Shows How Banking and Healthcare Can Work Together for the World's Poor Freedom from Hunger has successfully completed a $6 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The four-year grant enabled Freedom from Hunger and five microfinance banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America to add health protection options to their financial offerings, reaching more than 1.5 million of the world's rural poor in five countries: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines. "Microfinance is succeeding at putting money into the hands of poor people but too often ill health causes them to slip back down the ladder into poverty again," said Chris Dunford, President of Freedom from Hunger. "Our solution is to bring together the economic development and health sectors to develop practical and coordinated tools that have more power to create lasting change." The health programs included health savings, health loans, health insurance, health education, group discounts with health providers, mobile healthcare in rural villages, distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and more. Freedom from Hunger conducted careful research and evaluation to determine the impacts of these innovative combinations of microfinance services and health programs. In Bolivia, for example, 24 percent of clients said that they had never seen a doctor before participating in the program, and in India, the life-saving use of oral rehydration solution increased by 47 percent to treat children with diarrhea (a leading cause of death in local children). In Benin, families in the program were 23 percent more likely to own an anti-malarial net. "These are incredible outcomes after only a brief intervention period and they show that this work is having impact," said Marcia Metcalfe, Director of Microfinance and Health Protection at Freedom from Hunger and former CEO of a U.S.-based health insurance company. "Microfinance has enormous potential as a financially viable mechanism for reaching poor, rural people with simple but life-saving health protection services." Locally owned microfinance banks see increased returns when their clients are healthier and have more knowledge and options to protect their health. Microfinance banks are typically commercial entities with a social mission, so they must earn enough profit in order to continue serving their clientele. Freedom from Hunger, with the support of grant funds, can help microfinance banks improve efficiency as well as the impact of their products to better achieve their social and financial goals. "Our experience has shown that well-established microfinance banks can offer valuable health-related options to their clients at low or no cost to the bank itself. In fact, our research results indicate that, in some cases, the resulting increase in client attraction and loyalty may lead to a net financial gain for the banks," said Myka Reinsch, Special Advisor at Freedom from Hunger. Daouda Sawadogo, leader of one of the participating microfinance providers, RCPB in Burkina Faso, pointed out, "These services go a long way to addressing the needs of our clients and helping them overcome poverty-and if they can be offered at low or no marginal cost, then that is a double win." Participating microfinance institutions include Bandhan (India), CARD (Center for Agriculture and Rural Development, Philippines), CRECER (Crédito con Educación Rural, Bolivia), PADME (Projet d'Appui au Développement des Microentreprises, Bénin), and RCPB (Réseau des Caisses Populaires du Burkina, Burkina Faso). Freedom from Hunger has documented the processes and results of this innovative project in a series of white papers and how-to guides, and will be continuing to share them broadly. Please click here to learn more about microfinance and health protection programs. A 12-minute video is available here on YouTube illustrating the success of this project with captions available in English, Spanish, and French. Read More The Sights and Sounds of the People of Mali Freedom from Hunger staff have just returned from Mali where they gathered testimonies and gave witness to Freedom from Hunger's impact in the region through microfinance. Watch this two-minute video to get an inside look at the beautiful culture of Mali and a glimpse into the vibrant lives of the women involved with Freedom from Hunger's programs! Christian Loupeda Appointed Director of the Imp-Act Consortium Christian Loupeda, Freedom from Hunger's Director of Social Performance Management, is now also Director of the Imp-Act Consortium of ten organizations, including Freedom from Hunger. The Consortium members are developing and promoting Social Performance Management (SPM) to provide microfinance practitioners the systems and tools to manage their services with equal attention to financial and social goals that result in sustainable support for the self-help efforts of the poor. Originally from Benin in West Africa and educated in France as an economist, Christian has worked for Freedom from Hunger for over ten years. He now facilitates collaboration and experience-sharing to enable Consortium members to effectively assist microfinance organizations in adopting the full practice of SPM-setting clear social goals, monitoring progress toward those goals, and using the information to improve organizational performance. "I am excited about this new responsibility and the opportunity of taking Social Performance Management practice to the next level in the microfinance industry," says Christian. "I would like to thank Freedom from Hunger for its support in the process, which is an indication of the organization's strong commitment to the SPM work and to ensuring greater social impacts in microfinance." Read More Facebook with Us Follow our team of delegates as they travel through West Africa to gather testimonies and give witness to Freedom from Hunger's impact in the region. Take a look at some stories, images and video here. Different Levels of “Knowing” the Impact of Microfinance An article in The New York Times (April 14, 2010) has sparked a discussion in the blogosphere about recent research studies that show only modest impacts of microfinance. Freedom from Hunger's Chris Dunford, Megan Gash and Bobbi Gray Kotara weigh in with their expert observations on this controversy. Read their contribution to our Hunger Blog. Four Freedom from Hunger staff to Speak and Teach at the Microcredit Summit for Africa and the Middle East Participants from 61 countries will attend the Africa–Middle East Regional Microcredit Summit, April 7–10 in Nairobi, Kenya, sponsored in part by Freedom from Hunger. Chris Dunford and colleague Christian Loupeda will chair workshops on Microfinance and Health and on Social Performance Management, respectively. Christian, Myka Reinsch Sinclair and Mahamadi Cissé, will teach two day–long courses on the same topics. Listen: Chris Dunford talks about Haiti, the nature of giving and Freedom from Hunger's work. On January 25, Freedom from Hunger's president, Chris Dunford, was interviewed by Bill Buchanan for KDRT, a radio station in Davis CA. In this wide ranging, 30-minute interview, Chris talks about our special fundraising effort on behalf of ACLAM in Haiti as well as the vital service an organization provides when it delivers effective assistance and acts as a reliable conduit for people who want to relieve suffering through giving. Chris also talks about the distinction between relief and development, how Freedom from Hunger is getting at some of poverty's most intractable problems, and how on earth this 63-year-old organization ended up in the little town of Davis CA. Click here to listen
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