Olexandra is a microcredit client of Anisia Credit Union, funded by Whole Planet Foundation and supported by Ukraine Key Initiative. Olexandra started her childcare business 13 years ago with 3 children and now cares for 10-12 children every day. She was inspired to start the business because of her desire to work with children with disabilities. She employs two regular staff and additional specialists who come periodically to teach music, art and other topics.
Olexandra joined Anisia Credit Union in 2019 and used her first loan of 35,000 UAH (≈$1,300 USD) to purchase equipment. Her second loan of 43,000 UAH (≈$1,600 USD) was used to make repairs to the property. The current, larger third loan helped her construct an outdoor veranda with covering and heat. In the future, she wants to add an additional building on the property. Currently, she has a garden where the children help grow the food for their lunches and several outdoor and indoor play spaces.
Microfinance Partner: Anisia Credit Union
Anisia Credit Union was formed in the Western Ukrainian town of Lviv in 1995 as a civic institution in the years after the Central Moscow regulatory authority ceased to control Ukrainian financial sector. In 2002, Ukraine created and approved a Credit Union law and Anisia became the first Credit Union to meet the requirements and register under this law. In order to encourage access to their enterprise loan services, Anisia decided to move away from the high deposit requirements to access a loan (only a symbolic membership contribution is required to be a member) and instead relied on voluntary deposits and external capital to build a basis of capital to finance member businesses. Anisia currently operates through 11 branches in the Western part of Ukraine. In 2018 Anisia partnered with a new organization called Ukraine Key Initiative (UKI) which is promoting the collateral-free group loan methodology based on the Grameen Bank framework in Bangladesh. Anisia and UKI are launching this methodology to make it even easier for poor entrepreneurs and farmers to access enterprise credit.