WWB has a vision that one day all women will have access to a secure financial future for themselves and their families. We work with our 39 network member institutions, including CECM in Burundi, to help them create sustainable financial solutions for women and girls. Microfinance is about much more than credit, and has the capacity to help more than entrepreneurs. Our network reaches more than 26 million clients, 80 percent of whom are women. The key economic priorities for poor women continue to be health care, the education of their children, and housing. All MFI clients, women in particular, seek a safe place to save the assets they have created and the means to protect them from catastrophic loss. WWB helps MFIs move away from a strictly credit-led approach toward providing a broader array of financial products and services, including savings and insurance that help the poor build financial safety nets.
Thank you for your support throughout the year. From the entire team at Women’s World Banking, we hope that you have a wonderful holiday season and a happy new year.
Watch our video to learn more about microfinance in Burundi:
Many women struggled during Burundi’s 12-year civil war between the Hutu and Tutsi tribes. CECM, a microfinance institution in Burundi and part of the Women’s World Banking (WWB) network, is committed to supporting women from both ethnic groups to help them rebuild their lives in the wake of the war’s devastation. Among CECM’s clients are a group of 25 Hutu and Tutsi women from a rural, lakeside fishing village who banded together in 1998 and took out a loan that allowed them to produce and sell smoked and dried fish. “After our community saw how we were united, neither Tutsis nor Hutus were afraid to join us. And we started to spread the spirit, and people started to come to loving each other again,” says Rebecca, a long-time client.CECM offers women support and a sense of community in times of war and peace, providing the opportunity for economic stability. WWB works with 39 institutions like CECM to help them create financial products that work for women, including savings and insurance. We create innovative financial solutions that make business sense for our network institutions because we recognize that women-focused microfinance is the soul of sustainability.
