Promising Futures for Burmese Children through Integrated Microfinance Programmes

by Christine Goh & Joachim Quah

Transforming a community through Sustainable Giving

World Vision through Visionfund (Taikkyi Branch) targets underserved client segments, specifically women in rural areas who have much greater difficulty accessing financial services. The branch is over 70% rural and nearly 90% of clients are women.

Taikkyi is a largely rural area located 68 km from Yangon.  The people mainly live off the land, eking out a meagre living through farming, fishing and other subsistence activities.  There are few job opportunities in this township of 277,268 people, so the unemployment rate is high.  Also, since most of the schools are situated in the urban areas, children have limited access to education.

Myanmar is the poorest country in Southeast Asia and the bottom 40% of the population is poor or vulnerable to falling into poverty.  Eighty-seven percent of the poor live in rural areas, in farms and villages.  Access to basic services such as electricity, healthcare, water and sanitation facilities is limited. 

Also limited is access to financial services.

Myanmar’s financial sector is underdeveloped.  Around 95% of private sector lending is to big business.  A man who needs to buy seed for his farm or a woman who wants to set up a cottage industry in her home to earn some money to feed her family is unlikely to be able to get a regular loan.  In desperation, many turn to moneylenders and loan sharks who charge exorbitant interest rates, which many borrowers cannot repay and some end up losing their land.  The borrowers end up falling deeper and deeper into debt, mired in poverty.

“The poor stay poor not because they are lazy, but because they have no access to capital.”

Milton Friedman, on receiving the Nobel Prize for Economics in 1976 

The VisionFund Myanmar (”VFM”) microfinance programme seeks to help them improve their economic situation.  Simply, instead of giving them a fish (i.e. a handout), WV and VF have committed to teaching the community how to fish, and to enabling them to do so.  By funding their fledging businesses through small loans, the microfinance programme enables the largely female borrowers to better feed, clothe and educate their children, and gives them hope of breaking the poverty cycle.

In January 2017, VFM began working with WV Myanmar to enable vulnerable families in Taikkyi to improve their economic situation.  Initially, financial services were offered through the nearby VFM Hmawbi branch.  In February 2018, VFM set up a branch in Taikkyi to make the financial services more accessible to families in the township.

Since the Taikkyi branch opened, VFM has given out more than 6,000 loans to support income generating activities.   This has stimulated job creation and enabled parents to provide for their families better.  To date, the branch has served 2,545 clients, 89% of whom are women.  This has in turn benefitted more than 3,600 children.

VFM does more than give poor families loans; it also encourages them to save and enables them to grow their savings.  The response has been encouraging.  Families in Taikkyi have opened more than 5,300 interest bearing deposit accounts.

With your support, we can give hope to the people of Myanmar. 

Your donation to VisionFund’s microfinance programme can enable thousands of families to live lives of dignity and break the cycle of poverty.  Here’s how the microloans are multiplying impact:

Click the button DONATE NOW to donate online through MyVision or if you would like to contribute to this campaign with a cheque:

Kindly ensure that the cheque is crossed and made out to World Vision International. On the back of your cheque, please state:

• VFM-Taikkyi
• Full name
• Mobile number
• E-mail address
• Postal address (if you would like to receive a hard-copy receipt via mail)
• An indication of whether you would like your donation to be kept anonymous when the progress bar on this campaign page is updated with the value of your donation

Your cheque should be posted to:

World Vision Singapore  (Attn: Promising Futures for Burmese Children through Integrated Microfinance Programmes (MyVision)
World Vision Singapore
10 Tannery Lane
#06-01
Singapore 347773

Whoever is kind to the poor lends to the Lord, and he will reward them for what they have done. 

Proverbs 19:17 (NIV)

THANK YOU!