Laos’ forgotten women - micro-credit in action

The women are provided with small loans, from between $50 - $175, at a low rate of interest, that they invest in buying the materials and equipment needed for weaving en masse. Alongside the loans, the women are provided with financial management training, including how to write and execute a business plan, how to market their products and how to manage a household budget: educating and empowering the women to run their businesses profitably.

And SEDA’s involvement does not end there. With so many villages and women involved in the scheme, they are able to connect small producers to potential large scale buyers - using the collective power of the villagers to demand fair prices.

Achieving empowerment

The energy surrounding the women in Ban Hai is electric. The excitement is not simply due to the prospect of making money, although that certainly helps, but from a sense of purpose, an outpouring of creativity and new found optimism for the future. As my translator hurriedly explains as she tries to keep up, the women are discussing different products and designs, international versus domestic markets, and sales and pricing strategies.

Souly QuachAngkham, the founder of SEDA, explained to me why micro-credit schemes are so much more effective than simply donating money:

For these women, starting their own businesses isn’t simply about making money. For the first time they feel like they have the power to change their own lives. The skills they have, which have been taken for granted for so long, are finally being recognized and for they feel like their opinions and knowledge actually count. Micro-credit offers them the chance to make their own decisions about their futures.

Will their businesses succeed? Sometimes they don’t, but for the most part, yes. These women have the passion and determination to succeed; SEDA simply provide them with the means to start and a helping hand to get off the ground.

The afternoon wears on, and it is time to leave the village - the women, as always, have to get back to work. But this time it’s not the endless drudgery of housework and subsistence farming, it’s working towards empowerment - its work they want to do.

About Laos (poverty)

• Laos has the lowest UNDP human development index of all South East Asia;
• 50 per cent of children suffer from malnourishment, and 40 per cent exhibit stunted growth;
• 27 per cent of people live below $1 a day; 75 per cent of people live with less than $2;
• education remains poor; the Laos government allocation for education is among the lowest in the world;
• in rural areas, almost two fifths of people have no access to safe drinking water;
• Laos is the most bombed country in the world, and unexploded ordinance remains a huge threat. The Mines Advisory Group suggests that more than 78 million unexploded sub-munitions remain in Laos.

About micro-credit

• micro-credit began in Bangladesh, founded by Nobel Prize winner Muhammed Younis;
• micro-credit provides small loans to individuals in poverty. The loans are used to encourage small enterprises and empower people to work generate sustainable incomes;
• the loans are usually given to groups of women who enter into co-operatives that are jointly responsible for paying back the loans at a rate that they all agree they can afford;
• the loan recipients are enrolled in business training programs, teaching them to create business plans, market and sell their products, budget effectively, and save money for emergencies;
• in Bangladesh, micro-credit has successfully helped some of the poorest people to generate wealth and exit poverty. The United Nations declared 2005 the “Year of Micro-credit”.