Dear Friends of Shanti Microfinance,

There has been a lot of interest in microfinance in the news lately and a healthy debate about how best to deliver the best model for the recipients on the ground. There are many factors to consider including local government regulations, indebtedness, profit vs not profit, the role of banks and MFIs and sustainability.

Our values and mission are closely aligned with Mohammed Yunus. Our mission is to provide finance, and skills training to people in slums and villages in India so that they can build sustainable businesses and become bankable – in other words we want to enable them to have choices.
We ensure that the loans we provide do not place the recipient in a dependency model – rather they are encouraged to scale their businesses and become role models for their own communities. We partner with local organisations on the ground and ensure that interest rates are capped at an acceptable level 10-12% overall. Upon repayment, the interest is used for further loans and for local administration.

We work with individual men, women, family run business all of whom follow various religions.

Our loans are approximately 100 GBP / 160 USD  and payback is 99%. Generally we provide these loans in a group plan of four so that each recipient can guarantee their fellow loan recipient(s) and this process is preferable because it promotes community unity.

Mentoring and training is an important to our relationship with the loan recipients so that we can all learn from each other.

To date, we have focussed on Gujarat India and worked in three areas: funding of rickshaw wallahs so that they can put a downpayment on their vehicles; funding of artisans in rural and urban communities so that they can design and develop their textiles for sale; and funding of eco-sanitiation facilities so that women farmers can promote health and focus on their work at hand. All of these initiatives are grass roots, where each recipient is known and case studies are available.

Our new initiative Shanti Life,  ensures that artisans can scale their businesses. We provide mentoring  for the design and sale of new products globally.

We obtain funding from banks, corporations, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists, foundations and individuals globally. We also partner with universities in order to explore and promote sustainability.

We hope you will participate in our mission.

Sheetal M Mehta
Founder Shanti Microfinance