Credit with Education

Women whose families endure chronic hunger need more than credit to solve their problems. Ill health, malnutrition, lack of confidence, lack of education and often rural isolation hinder their efforts to feed their children. Credit with Education recognizes these staggering obstacles and helps women overcome them.

Combining Microfinance and Education

Women living in rural poverty must overcome numerous hardships to earn money and feed their children. Many live on $1/day or less, have suffered malnutrition their entire lives, and cannot read or write. Yet they do their best with what they have. And what they have in abundance is determination.

When a woman joins a Credit with Education program in her village, she links arms with other women she probably knows well. Together, the women receive loans and jointly guarantee repayment. Each woman saves a little money each week. They support and encourage one another to do their best.

At regular meetings, the women's group gathers to make repayments and deposit their savings. The women also participate in a lively and joyful learning session led by a local staff person who speaks their language and knows their culture and customs.

Freedom from Hunger created a curriculum for Credit with Education that directly addresses women's most pressing needs. The learning sessions are dialogue-based, incorporating new information with the knowledge and experience of the group members. The women don't need to read or write to learn. In story, role-play, demonstration, discussion and song, they explore new ideas, share what they know, and help each other find the courage to try new things that improve their lives.

Development and Impact of Credit with Education

Freedom from Hunger launched Credit with Education in 1989 with 50 women in Mali and 50 women in Thailand. In the following years, we designed multiple education topics for health, nutrition, business and money management, using our research on the root causes of hunger and poverty and the effectiveness of various adult learning techniques. Next, we field-tested, redesigned and finalized the education content, methods and materials and then conducted multi-year evaluations to measure impact.

In a number of rigorous, scientifically conducted research studies in Bolivia, Ghana, Mali, Peru and Thailand, Freedom from Hunger and independent investigators have documented that women participating in Credit with Education, when compared to similar women not participating, have more income and assets, a greater sense of personal empowerment to make decisions, and better nourished and healthier children. And their whole families have better access to good-quality food throughout the year. Moreover, participating women also manage their businesses better and earn more money (especially during slow seasons) as compared with non-participants.

Local Organizations Adding Value to Microfinance

Confident of the positive impacts of Credit with Education, Freedom from Hunger has developed a strategy of working with and through in-country partners to reach greater numbers of the one billion chronically hungry people in the world. In the past year, our staff of fewer than 50 professionals has worked with dozens of local financial service organizations (microfinance institutions, credit unions and rural banks) in 14 countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America to offer Credit with Education to hundreds of thousands of women of poor, mostly rural families. The women engage in education on a variety of topics, including:

  • Child and infant health and nutrition
  • Breastfeeding
  • Women's health and nutrition
  • Family planning
  • Fighting and managing common diseases, including malaria in some countries
  • How to grow a business with better sales and customer service practices
  • How to diversify entrepreneurial activities
  • Basic accounting (that can be done without knowing how to write numbers)
  • How to manage a household budget
  • How to use a loan wisely
  • Savings strategies

Freedom from Hunger and its partners in developing countries have shown over the past 20 years that Credit with Education is an effective, practical and financially self-sustaining way for financial service organizations to provide value-added microfinance that supports the self-help efforts of poor women and families, even those so poor they are chronically hungry.