Program areas at Grameen Foundation
Financial services: in fy22, Grameen led 14 digital financial services projects. We onboarded nearly 2,000 new mittras, Grameen community agents in india, who provide critical financial inclusion and health services. All of our mittras reached nearly 100,000 clients in remote areas of india this year. They also earn transaction fees to improve their own lives. An additional 90 last-mile agents in the philippines were trained on the valora app in fy22, which provided cryptocurrency-based loans to aspiring entrepreneurs, and an additional 87 digital financial services agents in ghana were trained to operate their businesses; they are now able to serve 100 to 150 clients in their (continued on schedule o) neighborhoods. In eswatini, we launched an innovation prize for organizations that promote digital financial literacy among women. The winners, imbita and digimage, were able to grow their platforms with the prize money. Imbita can now offer digital payments, emergency loans, and savings accounts to 37,000 customers, and digimage onboarded an additional 500 women to their epaynet platform.they have also been trained on gender-based violence mitigation resources, and together we're addressing harmful cultural practices that result in gender-based violence.
Health & agricultural solutions: in fy22, Grameen Foundation continued its work to help smallholder farmers reduce their vulnerability to shocks such as climate change, extreme weather events, crop disease, pests, and market vulnerability. We launched a project that will connect 25,000 coconut farmers in the philippines to digital advisory services and financial products to help them generate a sustainable supply of coconut oil, improve their livelihoods, and create a positive environmental impact. We also connected 169 carabao farmers in the philippines with digital extension services. Farmers learned to diagnose diseases in their carabao, keep them healthy, and increase their milk production. In india, we trained more than 1,000 women farmers to diversify their crops, manage soil (continued on schedule o) health, and use biofortified zinc wheat seeds to grow a more nutritious and drought-resistant crop. In india, Grameen strengthened 24 farmer-producer organizations to better support smallholder farmers, using digital technology to connect them to extension services, markets, and financial products. We also helped fpos improve membership and leadership by women. All 24 of the farmer-producer organizations can now boast at least 40% women's membership and, overall, 2,200 women farmers were added as members.
Strengthening organizations: Grameen Foundation builds up the international development ecosystems that support millions of women and girls as they work their way out of poverty. We focus on equipping local organizations, stakeholders, and financial providers with accessible technology and gender equity training to help them service marginalized families at the last mile. We do this through programmatic work as well as through our wholly owned subsidiary, taroworks, which provides offline mobile data collection and analysis to last-mile communities. In sri lanka, we worked with 16 women's entrepreneur groups, called will clubs, to help them access loans, provide credit, found microbusinesses, and connect with local politicians and businesses. In 2022, through our bankers (continued on schedule o) without borders program, we mobilized the time and talent of our volunteers to contribute 894 hours, worth more than $101,000, in in-kind services to farming cooperatives and other small businesses.
Public education: in fy22, Grameen Foundation raised public awareness about successful poverty efforts through its 25th anniversary celebration, as well as through webinars, blogs, social media posts, and print and email publications.
Regional programs: Grameen Foundation USA (with freedom from hunger as a supporting organization) serves poor communities in asia, latin america, and sub-saharan africa. In india, we work through our wholly owned subsidiary, Grameen Foundation india private limited. In addition, we are partners in a joint venture, Grameen capital india. In fy22, we had active projects in el salvador, eswatini, ghana, guatemala, honduras, india, philippines, senegal, sri lanka, timor leste, uganda, Palau, nauru, tuvalu, and the marshall islands.