Community Development -
Due to changes in Indonesian's microcredit law, YUM's Microcredit Project in Central Kalimantan was suspended at the start of 2009. Since then, with the help of Australian Volunteer Alison Collier, considerable work has gone into the re-design and improvement of the Microcredit project.
To re-launch the program, YUM will establish and manage a Women's Cooperative, which will invite women from the local community to join as cooperative members and apply for micro-loans to assist their small businesses.
Access to the formal credit market remains largely unobtainable to poor women in the local area and, as such, YUM's cooperative will bridge an important gap in the market. YUM wishes to support the growth of women's small businesses, leading to higher output and improved income security for women and their families.
In November Microcredit Project YUM staff member Lili Karlina and Volunteer Alison Collier were fortunate to spend a week at Tanaoba Lais Manekat Foundation (TLM) in Kupang, West Timor, where they learned about implementing and running a large microcredit project first-hand.
TLM was created as a non-government organization in 1995 in order to supply microcredit and business-related services within the province of Nusa Tenggara Timur (NTT). TLM now has over 11,000 clients who benefit from their microcredit project.
In future, YUM hopes to adopt a similar method in order to replicate TLM's successful standards.
