News and Updates

July 18,2013

Freedom from Hunger is proud to announce that it is one of five recipients of a Visa Innovation Grant.  Visa Inc, in partnership with NetHope, today announced grants to development organizations that are helping modernize the disbursement of funds in the fields of microfinance, agriculture, health and emergency relief. Freedom from Hunger will use the grant to improve access to health services in rural Ecuador by integrating electronic payments for health services through local microfinance institutions that provide health savings and credit accounts.

July 16,2013

MicroCredit Enterprises (MCE) and Freedom from Hunger, have formed a strategic partnership that combines Freedom from Hunger’s leadership in the field of microfinance and health integration with MCE’s unique guarantor model for facilitating loans to microfinance institutions (MFIs). A new loan offering from the MCE/Freedom from the Hunger partnership will leverage health-related education, loans, savings, insurance and linkages to local healthcare providers. Both MCE and Freedom from Hunger have experienced first-hand the impacts that ill health can have on MFI operations. Unexpected health events (health shocks) are the most common reason for loan defaults and can derail the efforts of poor clients to build and sustain successful income-generating activities.

June 24,2013

Freedom from Hunger consultant, Eden Rock reflects on the commitment and profound gratitude of the women that we at Freedom from Hunger serve. More importantly they are passing it on to the next generation.

"When I stayed at home -- even when in school and college -- my vision and perspective was limited," a young female staffer named Ashima told me. "After joining this work I have learned and gained many experiences and I feel useful. I'm happy I'm making a difference." Ashima, who was working as a trainer for community health workers at Bandhan, was little more than 25 years old and only six years into her career in rural India. By contrast, I am an American woman over 50, well-established in the international development field. And yet Ashima's words gave voice to an emotion familiar to me: how profoundly grateful I am for the opportunity to pursue a career which enables me to contribute to change for the better.

Read the full article at the Huffington Post

June 14,2013

As Reported in The Davis Enterprise by By Maggie McManis

Textbooks have closed for the summer, backpacks are stored in closets to collect dust for the next couple of months and most students are willingly taking a break from all things school-related.

But students in one high school club — the Freedom From Hunger Club — are hard at work organizing their primary event of the year: the Race to End Hunger, which takes place Saturday, June 22, at Davis High School.

June 11,2013

Freedom from Hunger is reaching more than 2 million borrowers at 25 MFIs in 10 countries with “microfinance health protection innovations:” – health education, health financing, links to health care providers and access to health products – which are the four critical need areas in health care, as articulated by borrowers. In the biggest conference this decade focusing on girls’ and women’s health and rights, Women Deliver brought together more than 4,500 leaders and advocates – representing more than 2,200 organizations and 149 countries – in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Freedom from Hunger was there. Read the full article at http://www.nextbillion.net/blogpost.aspx?blogid=3338

June 03,2013

Lima, Peru: At a May 30th event in Lima, Peru Freedom from Hunger presented a new report titled, Integrated Health and Microfinance: Harnessing the Strength of Two Sectors to Improve Health and Alleviate Poverty in the Andes at an event organized in collaboration with Oikocredit, a worldwide cooperative and social investor that provides funding to the microfinance and other sectors. The report was jointly produced by Freedom from Hunger, the Microcredit Summit Campaign and the Center for Health Market Innovations (CHMI) with support from the Rockefeller Foundation.

Pages