Mennonite Weekly Review

WATERLOO, Ont. — A $200 micro-loan changed the lives of Sharifa and her daughter.

A carpet weaver in Afghanistan demonstrates her work. MEDA is helping Afghan women, many of whom are widows, and their families by providing microfinance loans and basic business training. — Photo provided by MEDA

The villager in Afghanistan, struggling to survive in this war-torn area, used the loan to invest in a rug loom and weaving supplies. She was soon able to hire other women weavers, freeing her young daughter to attend school.

As Sharifa pays back her loan — microfinance repayment rates are nearly 100 percent — she can borrow more to expand her business. She now advises other women in the region, with a long tradition of rug weaving, to take control of their lives, too.

Mennonite Economic Development Associates is partnering with the Canadian International Development Agency and three other organizations to help rebuilding efforts in Afghanistan with the Afghanistan Challenge.

Through Afghanistan Challenge, small donations allow four Canadian organizations already in Afghanistan to make a real and sustained difference.

MEDA is focused on helping Afghan women, many of whom are widows, and their families by providing microfinance loans and basic business training.

Economic empowerment will not only help them feed and clothe their families, but also send their children to school, earning respect both within their families and in the community.

“Hope is far too rare a commodity, yet I see hope in the eyes of these women,” said Kim Pityn, MEDA vice president of international operations. “A good future for themselves and their children is now a possibility.”

Every dollar donated to MEDA for the Afghanistan Challenge will be matched by CIDA until 2012.

“MEDA and the Afghanistan Challenge will enable women to help other women, to build communities and networks of trust,” Pityn said.

Donors to the project have the option of creating a portfolio and and following a loan for an Afghan woman as she repays it. As the loan is repaid, that money is credited to the donor’s portfolio so it can be reinvested with other women.