Leveling a Mountain

A New Partnership Will Help Microfinance Clients in the Andes Overcome a Major Health Barrier.

One of the biggest obstacles a poor family faces in their steep climb out of poverty, is illness. Not only are people living in poverty more likely to become sick; a disproportionate amount of their meager income is required to pay for healthcare. Money that could be invested in education, a home-based business, or even a new roof, must often be diverted to pay for medical care.

And when a health shock comes–when a child falls desperately ill or when a wage-earner suffers an injury and cannot work–many families fall backward into a valley of debt and despair.

Freedom from Hunger, which has pioneered a strategy to combine health protection services with microfinance, is now partnering with Oikocredit to level this daunting peak in the Andes.

Microfinance has taken off in the Andean region, where Freedom from Hunger has been working since 1989. Many regional and international organizations, such as Oikocredit, have begun their own microfinance operations in the area and, as a result, hundreds of thousands of poor families now have access to microloans and savings opportunities.

Freedom from Hunger established that it is not only possible and beneficial to incorporate health protection services into microfinance programs, but also cost-efficient. And now the demand for our approach is growing throughout the world.

Beginning in 2012, Freedom from Hunger will work with six local Oikocredit microfinance partners to integrate health education, health financing (such as health loans, health savings and health micro-insurance) and linkages to private and public health providers into ongoing microfinance programs.

The combination of services will protect family health but will also protect the health of these families' finances. Instead of diverting money or selling precious business assets to pay for medical care, families can preserve their financial standing and continue their climb out of poverty.

By the end of 2014, the partnership between Freedom from Hunger and Oikocredit is likely to triple the number of families getting both microfinance and health protection services in the Andes.

Learn more about our combination of microfinance and health protection.