WHAT IS THE TOWNSHIPS PROJECT?

MISSION    
Poverty can be eradicated. Microfinance is a proven
technology in the global fight against it.
Since May 1999 The Townships Projecthas been supporting South African microfinance institutions (MFIs) in township areas in South Africa. These MFIs make repayable, interest-bearing loans to entrepreneurs, primarily women, to operate a range of small businesses, to become self-sustaining and to break the cycle of poverty. As of February 2011, The Townships Project has changed the lives of more than 100,000 people with an investment of about $50 per person. Our goal is to ensure that every South African who needs such a loan has access to it and to ensure that our South African partners become self-sustaining.

VISION
The Townships Project is tackling a difficult job - raising the infrastructure funds needed to build an early stage MFI. There are many NGOs (e.g. kiva.org), banks and government institutions that provide loan money for micro loans once an MFI is up and functioning, but finding the infrastructure and training support necessary to build the institution to that viable stage is a huge challenge.  We use a “made in South Africa” approach to this task, which takes into consideration the challenges posed by the highest HIV/AIDs infection rate in the world and a poor education and skills base. Despite South Africa’s highly-developed infrastructure and first world economy, 20 million, out of a population of 50 million, struggle to survive on $2 or less per day.

During 2011, The Townships Project developed an approach to poverty eradication that addresses the main limitations of microfinance.  This initiative is called Four Wheel Drive Mobile and is aimed at making microfinance more effective by using it together with other poverty alleviation methods.  The first “wheel” is Asset-Based Community Development, which asks the question “What do we have?” rather than “What do we need?” This focuses a community on using what it has to get what it wants.  Microfinance, the second “wheel”, supports the resulting commercial initiatives.  Corporate social investment, mandated in South Africa, is the third “wheel”, sought from local companies to support community initiatives.  The fourth “wheel” is microfranchising and other commercial solutions to systematize, replicate and brand a business.  “Mobile” technology increases efficiency.

The Townships Project is leading a first rate team of professionals from all four “wheels” in holding the first MicroFranchising Launch:  Trade Show and Workshops, in Khayelitsha, Cape Town, South Africa from 31 August to 2 September, 2011.  This initiative is intended to jumpstart a microfranchising sector, and is supported by Standard Bank and LegalWise in South Africa.

VALUES
The Townships Project is a registered charity in Canada and is authorized to issue charitable donation receipts for income tax purposes.  The United Nations Development Programme has recognized micro-lending as the single most effective mechanism in the front-line struggle against poverty in developing countries. In the words of Muhammad Yunus, winner of the 2006 Nobel Peace Prize, "I have come to believe, deeply and firmly, that we can create a poverty free world if we want to. I came to this conclusion not as a product of a pious dream, but as a concrete result of experience gained in the work of the Grameen Bank." The Townships Project shares this belief and will continue working to eradicate poverty in the townships of South Africa.  It believes that microfinance is one “wheel” of the Four Wheel Drive Mobile that is required to eradicate poverty, and is dedicated to bringing all aspects of Four Wheel Drive Mobile to bear on the challenge of poverty eradication.

FACES OF HOPE - Your funds really do make a real difference.

	Sesana Mbata, Spaza Shop Owner Sesana (26), a single mother of one, sat at home wondering how to find food for herself, her child and three adult brothers – none of whom could find a job. Then Phakamani (a foundation supported by the Townships Project) arrived and for the first time she had the hope of changing her life and those of her family.   With her first two loans she set up a spaza, or mini market, outside her home, where she sold fruit and vegetables, bread, chips etc. With the third loan, she bought a frying machine, which she uses to make potato chips and fries to sell to her customers. Sesana speaks shyly though proudly of what she has been able to do. As with most other people in her position, her family had relied on the kindness of others to feed them - there was never enough to eat.  She smiles when she says they have more food to eat and life has become bearable for them. At the start of her 3rd loan, the value of her business was R2490 ($355), starting from nothing.  (1$Cdn = approx. 7 Rand)
	Nozakhe Jacobs, Butcher Nozakhe is a butcher at an open-air table outside the Site B Train Station in Khayelitsha. Every morning she buys sheep lungs, cow lung pieces, sheep offal and intestines from the wholesaler. She then washes them thoroughly, cuts them all up, grades them and displays them and sells them. Nozakhe supports 7 of her 8 children from her butcher shop. She is on her fourth loan, having repaid three loans already, and has invested close to $800 in her business. Nozakhe dreams of buying a car so that she can restock her own table more easily and provide transport for others at a profit.

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