Economic Development
This program consists of:
A. Micro-finance
B. Capacity building
Micro-Finance
This part of the program is implemented through the Development Organizations (DO), which are community based, volunteer organizations or men and women. They are given training in both community and business management skills.
Micro-credit
Micro-credit is based on the premise that people who really need access to financial resources are the very people who are denied that access by large financial institutions. The notion that these people are high risk in terms of recovery of loans has been proven wrong by many such programs run all across the world. This is partly due to the fact that the loans are administered and managed by the people in the community. The salient features of the program are:
1. DO passes a resolution and approves credit for one or more of its members through an agreement of 80% of its members.
2. HDF Social Organizer appraises the request. The following points are closely observed:
a. Whether the potential borrower is skilled enough to run the enterprise.
b. Whether the potential borrower has a business plan or not. This includes market survey and market analysis to find out the exact demand for the product or services that will be provided by the proposed business.
c. Whether the borrower has a financial plan for the business or not.
d. Whether there is a management plan in place.
e. Whether there is a production plan in place or not, in cases where a product has to be produced.
f. In many cases some skills training is provided to ensure the success of the proposed business
3. The required product is purchased from the vendor by HDF.
4. The product is sold to the borrower at a mutually agreed upon price.
5. All the required legal paper work is completed.
6. A recovery schedule is handed to the borrower and the DO.
7. The recovery process starts.
8. Another very important aspect of these DOs is that they encourage saving by the community member. These savings are then used for internal lending. This is another way of reducing dependency on the outside sources
Skills Training
HDF conducts training workshops to develop skills or enhance existing skills of the community members who show an interest to acquire these skills for income generation. So far, these work shops have been carried out in the following areas:
1. Garment sewing
2. Embroidery
3. Welding
4. Food preservation
5. Live stock training
6. Enterprise management training
7. Computer skills
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