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Whole Planet Foundation Board Approves New Partnerships in Nicaragua, Honduras, and India
$2.1 million investment will fund microcredit projects that will be implemented by Pro Mujer, Fundacion Adelante and Grameen Trust - Jan. 15, 2007
The Whole Planet Foundation is a Whole Foods Market Foundation whose mission is to create economic partnerships with the poor in those developing-world communities that supply our stores with product. Through innovative assistance for entrepreneurship including direct microcredit loans and tangible support for other community partnership projects we seek to unleash the energy and creativity of every human being we work with in order to create wealth and prosperity in emerging economies.
We are pleased to announce that we recently won approval from the Whole Planet Foundation Board for four new projects; that will invest over $2.1 million in microcredit to approximately 15,721 women entrepreneurs in Honduras, Nicaragua and India. These new projects will be implemented by three partner organizations, Grameen Trust, Pro Mujer,and Fundacion Adelante. Here is a brief overview of the new projects:
- In India, Whole Planet Foundation will provide a $1.33million grant to Grameen Trust, with whom we are currently partnered in Costa Rica and Guatemala, to open a BOT (BOT stands for Build Operate and Transfer) in the state of the tea growing region of Assam. While biologically rich, Assam is a relatively economically disadvantaged region in India and a large number of people are unable to access credit from formal organizations. Grameen Trust has developed these BOT programs in several countries around the world and the principle is to build, operate and then transfer the program to local organizations with host country nationals completely running the operations.
Grameen Trust (GT), a sister organization to Grameen Bank, is a registered non-profit, NGO in Bangladesh that was setup in 1989 by Nobel Peace Prize laureate and father of microcredit Professor Muhammad Yunus to promote the Grameen principles of extending collateral free microcredit to the poor to alleviate poverty. GT provides technical assistance, training, funding and other support to 138 partners in 37 countries, including directly implemented BOT projects in 7 countries. Through this project, Grameen Trust would open three branches in the first year with a target goal of reaching 9,000 households through women entrepreneurs in the three year period of the grant. Whole Foods Market buys tea from the Assam region of India. - In Nicaragua, Whole Planet Foundation is providing a three-year $290,000 grant to Pro Mujer Nicaragua, a member of the Pro Mujer microfinance network. Pro Mujer's mission is to provide Latin America's poorest women with the means to build livelihoods for themselves and futures for their families through micro-lending, business training, and healthcare support. In addition to providing loans to poor women entrepreneurs, the network supports the health of its clients and their families. It has operations in Argentina, Bolivia, Mexico, Nicaragua and Peru. Pro Mujer Nicaragua currently operates in four regions-Managua, Masaya, Leon and Chinandega, and will use the grant to continue its expansion to Esteli in the northern part of the country, where Whole Foods Market sources coffee. Esteli and Chinandega are areas of significant commercial and agricultural activity and yet many women have little to no access to financial capital, health education and basic business training. Pro Mujer Nicaragua will also offer savings programs and community training to women entrepreneurs in the region. One of the objectives of the project is to create a team of trainers who can independently replicate health training programs within their communities.
- In Honduras, Whole Planet Foundation is partnering with Fundacion Adelante, a Grameen replicator micro-finance institution, who has been operating in Honduras since 1999. Adelante focuses their microcredit efforts on women, providing extremely small loans, approximately $85 a loan and also concentrates lending to borrowers living in rural areas. Our support to Adelante will be for two projects, one in the departments of Atlntida and Colon, where Whole Foods Market sources bananas on the North Coast of Honduras. Our $321,100 grant in this region will aim to increase the number of borrowers from 2,600 to 5,000 over the next three years. In the department of Choluteca, our $411,716 grant will enable Adelante to open a branch office, reaching an entirely new clientele and bring microcredit to the more economically disadvantaged region in the Southern part of Honduras, where Whole Foods Market buys coffee. Our target number of clients in Choluteca is 2,000 at the conclusion of the three-year project.
With this new slate of projects, Whole Planet Foundation, brings its level of commitment to microcredit to over $5,000,000 in about a year of operations. We are honored to partner with these amazing organizations, Pro Mujer, Fundacion Adelante and Grameen Trust, to help economically disadvantaged individuals access credit and create small businesses. Creation of these businesses helps lift families out of poverty, contributes to peace and prosperity and is consistent with Whole Foods Market's belief in entrepreneurship and free markets.
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