Phil is in Liberia documenting the work of Foundation for Women (FFW), an organization that strives to continually support and encourage impoverished women, both globally and locally, by funding and creating microcredit programs. A longtime supporter of Phil and his work, Kevin Castner is traveling with him and reporting back to us from the field.

Below are some examples of the women and small businesses that FFW serves.

“Nothing is easy; especially the beginning of everything.”  Martha Parotor, head of COSEO (Community Sustainable Educational Organization-Empowerment).

Amazing Grace

One of the first businesses we visit is Amazing Grace (AG).  Grace has a loan from FFW and her business is taking old bottles that boys pick up from the sides of streets and pulverizing them into powder and melting that in molds to create unique bracelets and necklaces.  The bracelets sell for $5, the necklaces from $15 on up.  I need one immediately and love the constituent parts of the concept: she makes beautiful art pieces out of dangerous environmental waste, she makes a profit, and she provides jobs.  AG’s office is an abandoned shipping container.  To the right and behind the container are two small, improbable kilns, cobbled together out of some bricks/cinder blocks and cement.  In one they make their molds and in the other they melt the glass fragments.  It is primitive but the end results are terrific.

Jewelry for Sale at Amazing Grace

Sidenote: You can also find Amazing Grace jewelry at FFW’s website.

Then we head with Emily Peal, FFW CEO, thru Congo Town out to Paynesville to visit COSEO.  This is Emily’s first visit.  Here we are greeted by Martha Parotor, and I hear for the first time Emily referred to as ‘Mommy’, an affectionate and respectful title.  I get a palpable sense of what her help will mean to these women.  With FFW money they can buy equipment to help them grow a small business preserving local foods like cassava leaf, which is used in restaurants as a flavoring.  Cassava leaf powder, the making of which is very labor-intensive, sells for $2US per 7 ounce bag.

Phil Documenting Women with Cassava Leafs Outside COSEO

With FFW loans there are 30 women and they will get loans in groups of 5.  So, there will be 6 loans.  All 30 women will fill out an FFW questionnaire.  FFW wants to know what they are doing now, what they want to do, their aspirations and fears, and more.  Once granted, all 5 women in each group, individually and jointly, will be responsible for paying the loan back.  FFW knows they will support each other and push each other.  The knowledge FFW has about each woman, and the group structure of the loans, is a good reason why their payback rate is 96-98%.  Sophisticated first world banks with their off balance sheet securitization and ‘liar’ loans could learn something from this ‘basic’ approach.

The average FFW loan is $100, but while the amount is minor the change to these women’s lives will not be commensurate.  With these loans and the profits they make their children can go to private schools and they can builds homes.  They can build a future.  They can regain pride and self-respect.  The impact is immeasurable.

We will have the chance to visit a few more businesses that are supported by FFW’s microcredit programs before we meet some of the women taking part in FFW upcoming leadership conference and training.  Stay tuned!