SKI Charities

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Microfinance, the Perfect Fit for SKI Charities

When Shyam K. Iyer first began SKI Charities three years ago, there was no question that microfinance would be the best method for him to execute his vision. Though the effectiveness of the approach has been speculated, Shyam stands by microfinance as a powerful way to provide people with a sense of autonomy, responsibility and self-initiative.

Listen in to hear Shyam’s take on why microfinance has been an ideal choice for SKI Charities.

A Word with our SKImfi Zimbabwe Field Officer

Our field officer for SKImfi-Zimbabwe discusses his work with SKI Charities and the path that led him to develop a passion for woman and child development.

Causemore Samanga, SKImfi Zimbabwe field officer

Causemore Samanga, SKImfi Zimbabwe field officer

What is your role in SKI Charities? 

My role is to identify prospective loan beneficiaries, those who are struggling to make ends meet and need a boost to increase business profits. Once women are accepted to the SKImfi program, I give them a two-hour training on how to select and plan their businesses. I also assist the project officer with distributing loans. During the loan period, I make monitoring visits to check on their businesses, take pictures and to advise on better ways of doing a particular business.

How have you seen microfinance improve women’s lives? 

A small loan of just $100.00 can tremendously change the life of a household, especially when it is given to a woman, the one who usually manages the household economy in Zimbabwe. I have seen women begin meaningful businesses and position themselves to provide basic needs for their households such as food, school fees, medication, farming inputs and social capital. Women no longer depend solely on their husbands, and husbands see them as equally important. Women’s social status has improved, as they are now able to make financial contributions to their churches, to extended family and to community programs.

What path brought you to this work?

I have worked for community development organizations for 12 years after spending time with Dr. Abigail Bar of Oxford University in research programs on african economics. Through that work and all that has followed, I developed a passion for the development of women and children. By fostering the opportunities for women in Zimbabwe, I am helping to shape the future of a lot of children.

What about your job inspires and motivates you?

I am inspired by the possibility for women to free themselves from the bondage of extreme poverty through engaging in income-generating businesses. Through the 12 years I have been in development work, I have seen those with whom I work transform into successful business women who also have managed to send their children to universities. Among a host of development initiatives in Zimbabwe, I believe microfinance is one of the best ways to transform lives. I enjoy seeing the benefits that this has for community members. I cannot see myself doing a different job in my life.

Happy 3rd Birthday SKIC! – Zimbabwe Photo Journal

SKIC beneficiary, Mutare, Zimbabwe

SKIC beneficiary, Mutare, Zimbabwe

In October of 2010, Shyam K. Iyer began SKI Charities. Two countries, three projects, and hundreds of beneficiaries later, the organization is now celebrating it’s 3rd birthday. And we are just getting started.

To celebrate the occasion we commissioned a photojournal of our very first project, the SKImfi Microfinance Institute in Mutare, Zimbabwe. To view the portraits of our beneficiaries and team, click here.

As we continue on our journey, please stay in touch:
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A Conversation with Shyam: Inspiration Found in Local Mapuche Craft-Making and Cuisine

Hand-made Mapuche Jewelry

Shyam returned from his most recent trip to Lebu, Chile inspired by the crafts, textiles, and food being created by SKImfi microfinance beneficiaries of indigenous Mapuche heritage. SKI Charities aims to give women a path to start and grow sustainable businesses that encourage them to utilize their culturally-embedded skillset.

Listen in to hear more about the progress we are making in Lebu to preserve the traditional Mapuche culture.

Why Focus on Women?

SKI project manager, Anita, with beneficiaries in Lebu, Chile

SKI Charities founder Shyam has been asked why it is that the charity focuses exclusively on women. When he visits town halls and communities to tell them about SKIC, plenty of men attend. Some of them jokingly (and others more aggressively) ask him, “Why are we not included? Why do you just focus on women? Is this reverse sexism or reverse discrimination?”

Shyam reasons that it is an effort to level the playing field. He tells these men, “We’ve had our opportunity and continue to receive so many chances. You see what our women do, what our mothers, sisters, and daughters do for us. They add to the community. They will add even more to your own life!”

Though SKIC would ultimately love to reach out to beneficiaries regardless of gender, some of the choice to work exclusively with females comes from having to carefully manage its resources. “We want to optimise our reach, in as many socially constructive areas as possible,” Shyam says.

“By no means am I saying that boys don’t deserve the same scholarships or men the same capital. But the communities we work in are very traditional, impoverished communities. Our observation has been that more men control the household finances and more boys than girls are given the opportunity to get an education and are encouraged to strive for something more. So when we think about our broader goal, it’s not about favoring females or choosing sides through microfinance or scholarships, but simply leveling the playing field.”

Shyam also points out that microfinance, in its most successful incarnation, was directed at females. Muhammad Yunus, the Nobel Prize Winner from Bangladesh, pioneered microfinance on a large scale and chose to focus on women. “He did this for a reason,” Shyam says.

“When you empower women, you truly support the entire community, not just an individual. When a woman is empowered and starts to earn wealth, what will she do?  She will grow her business, which will then hire more people, which will in turn support more suppliers. When she makes money, she will put her kids back in school, which of course increases the overall education of a community. And she will start to tithe more consistently to her church, which will further strengthen the community. As she becomes more prominent to society, she becomes respected as a leader and a role model for younger people. It’s all textbook spillover effects. The point I’m trying to make is, if you want finance go further, there are studies and initiatives and our own experience demonstrating that the best way is through women.”

Though the men in Lebu and Mutare are an important part of SKIC – “their support for their wives and daughters is integral to our efforts,” Shyam notes – the goal of the charity is to use the resources available to reach as many people as possible. As women gain more strength in these communities, it becomes more and more clear, through simple observation, that they put their energy and their earnings back into their communities and their families. So while on the surface our mission is directed at individual women, communities at large are the true beneficiaries.

A Conversation with Shyam: Where We Are and Where We’re Going

For our fourth SKI Charities podcast, founder Shyam K. Iyer sits down to discuss why he chose to begin the charity in Mutare, Zimbabwe. He goes on to talk about how he chose the second charity site (Lebu, Chile) and what the similarities are between the two.

Listen in on the discussion, and hear Shyam’s thoughts on potential future locations for SKIC!

Our Project Managers: The Heart of SKIC

SKIC Project Managers

SKIC Project Managers

Based in New York City, SKI Charities founder Shyam K. Iyer relies heavily on his project managers and field officers in Mutare, Zimbabwe and Lebu, Chile to monitor and maintain the charity on a day-to-day basis. Though he travels to both locations frequently, Shyam emphasizes that it is the project managers who make the decisions that keep SKIC moving forward.

“I make it very clear that every decision is made by our local project manager. She is in charge, she’s the quarterback, the chief executive,” Shyam says.

It is critical to Shyam that the project managers are all locals – and are all women. “They are daughters of the community we operate in,” he says.

“I want our project managers to know their way around, to be confident in their environment, but most importantly, they are the face of our organization. The beneficiaries need to respect the project manager, they need to listen to her, they need to want to please her. They need to understand that she’s in charge. That’s why it’s so important that she’s a local person – and that she’s a she! Because she’s also a role model for these women. It inspires our beneficiaries and their families to work harder because they know that we respect them, that they are our equals, and that we believe it’s a community project. This is not a top-down structure, but very much a bottom-up organization.”

Our project managers are both female and local to the community – but the they also must be able to handle the finances, share and analyze best practices with Shyam, and communicate at the grassroots level. Beyond this technical skillset, SKIC also looks for confidence and leadership in its managers. “If they’re challenged by local people, perhaps someone asking why they weren’t chosen for a project (especially in a place like Zimbabwe, which can be politically sensitive), they need to have that confidence to resolve the situation,” Shyam notes.

Having a strong network in both Zimbabwe and Chile helps Shyam determine who would be an ideal candidate for the role of project manager, and he relies on his trusted local associates to recommend nominees to SKIC. In addition to competence and the ability to handle administrative duties, SKIC project managers are women who are part of the same demographic as SKIC participants. In this way, beneficiaries can relate to their managers, see them as a source of support and advice, and aspire to similar modes of leadership and empowerment.

For more on SKI Charities project managers, click here and stay tuned for individual project manager bios!

Why Zimbabwe?

When he first began SKIC, Shyam was asked countless times why he didn’t start it in India: “You’re of Indian origin, everybody is already there – why not go there too?” And that’s exactly why he didn’t. Shyam reasoned that, while there is plenty of demand in India, there’s also plenty of supply. He wanted to go somewhere where the supply was not meeting the demand, a place where he could truly help.

The place on his mind was Zimbabwe. In going to the London School of Economics, Shyam became good friends with a number of people from Zimbabwe, which was where he first became familiar with some of the country’s characteristics. “There’s a huge Zimbabwean contingent in London, mainly because of the political problems in their home country. But also because it’s a culture that values education and entrepreneurism a great deal. I learned all of this by studying in London with a number of people from Zimbabwe – and I was always impressed by them as students, and as people.”

Zimbabwe earned a special place in Shyam’s heart then, but it wasn’t until later that he thought to make it such a big part of the charity – and of his life. His previous job required him to do a lot of work in southern Africa and through that he got back in touch with his close friends whom he had met in London. They told him not the believe the headlines about Zimbabwe and encouraged him to go there. Shyam had always told them,

“I’m happy to do something positive, but where can we, with our limited resources, make the greatest impact? Whether financial resources or intellectual resources or energy, we want the most bang for buck. That’s the way to maximize your impact. So I went to Zimbabwe because I had a feeling we could make a positive and unique impact there. And that’s exactly what I found; these are people who are English speaking; they’ll get an education if it bankrupts them, very smart entrepreneurs, very globalized. They understood what it takes to make something from nothing.”

When Shyam made his initial visits, he realized how isolated Zimbabwe was – the entire world had turned their back on them because of an old ossified governing elite, who had no idea what was happening at the grassroots level. And the people were punished for the transgressions of that elite. “I knew that it would be the perfect place for us to go working, at least for us to do our development work,” says Shyam.

Shyam deliberated about how to engage Zimbabwe. He wanted to help and they needed help – but how? He realized that microfinance was the ideal approach because it was a concept that tapped into their entrepreneurial spirit, and their community-mindedness as well. Shyam notes,

“They are very focused on local business, local economy, creating value locally. But it also was sensitive towards their pride. Zimbabwe people are very proud. Since their independence in 1980 until about 2000, they led Africa in literacy, economic productivity, and were revered as the breadbasket of Africa. They’ve always been productive people. They’re very proud of their culture and of their history. So I knew that they did not just want to be handed out money. I knew they wanted to be treated as equals, as members of the global community, because there was every reason saying that they were going to break out of this funk very soon. Micro-finance was so ideal for their situation. ”

He continues, “In Zimbabwe, as far as I could tell, we were the only people providing microfinance on a not-for-profit basis in the entire country. At least from a point of view of being registered as a proper not-for-profit. There are plenty of people making loans for profit, and there are people doing it informally in a not so organized way. When we started in 2010, nobody else was doing this.”

And so Shyam found his place – one where there was demand, but not much supply. And one in which the people didn’t want to be handed money, but wanted to work for it. Three years later, and SKImfi participants continue to astound Shyam with their innovation, drive, and entrepreneurial skills

A Conversation with Shyam: Back from Zimbabwe

SKIC micro-finance beneficiaries in Zimbabwe

SKIC micro-finance beneficiaries in Zimbabwe

After his most recent trip to Zimbabwe, SKI Charities founder Shyam was nothing short of inspired. Here, he recounts the stories of SKImfi participants who have invigorated their communities not just with new businesses but with hope. The spillover effect is definitely at play here, with just one woman inspiring everyone from her family, to her peers, to strangers. Click the link above to listen as Shyam talks about the highlights of his trip!

On the Right Track: Early Stage Scholarships in Zimbabwe

Shyam readily – and fondly – recalls observing young girls in Zimbabwe skipping their way to school at 4:30 in the morning. It’s a memory he can recount in vivid detail – and one that certainly left an impression on him. “There’s nothing like the sunsets and sunrises in Africa. The soil is blood red, the trees are the darkest of greens, the stars are fading. It is unbelievably peaceful. On this particular morning, these five or six young girls, their hair done up and their uniforms beautifully starched, skipped by me, so eager to go to school. It was just a regular day, but they were so excited – even despite having miles to go.”

Inspired by this enthusiasm, Shyam started SKIpgo, a SKI Charities program focusing on early stage scholarships. He believes that early-stage learning is the most important part of someone’s education, because it’s where you can make the greatest impact.

SKIpgo participants range from three to five years of age and are taught good study habits, and even simple things like hygiene, self-respect, and respect for others. The schools that these girls are placed in “are not just about teaching them English or history or math. It’s about teaching them how to be strong, independent women. And if they grow up with that idea, if we engrain that in them from the very beginning, they grow to become the leaders of their community, to be civic-minded women, and to prioritize education. They’re like sponges at that early stage. They absorb everything.”

The SKIpgo scholarship is also a preventative measure. A lot of women in developing countries go down a different path, where education isn’t prioritized. Some women get pregnant very early, or don’t have the confidence to say ‘I’ll have a husband later. I can do that when I’m in my later teens or 20s. Let me get an education first, because that will strengthen my family and my future, and the future of the community.’ The scholarship incentivizes education, something that many Zimbabweans already place a lot of value on.

Scholarship recipients are chosen by the SKI Charities’ local team. Elizabeth, our project manager in Zimbabwe “talks to trusted people in the community to get references on girls ages 3-5 who are needy, from a financial point of view, but who come from families and environments where they will be given the opportunity to maximize their educational potential.” Our local team makes sure that participants are supported by their families and encouraged by their parents to study and work hard.

Usually, the pool of potential SKIpgo scholars is 2-3 dozen. Elizabeth whittles that down to a short list of ten, by interviewing them and ensuring that the candidates will have the potential to grow into their educations. Because SKI Charities can only control the financial part of it, it’s important that we make sure the girls are coming from a home that encourages early stage education, studying, and female empowerment. “The home environment is something we don’t have control over,” Shyam contends, “So we try to gauge that in the interview process.”

After selecting candidates (so far, four per year), we choose the schools they attend. “We vet every school in the community,” Shyam asserts. “Some schools are run as businesses and try to make as much money as they can. Others have a history, have strong teachers, strong facilities, and we want to direct our girls towards those schools. That way, there’s no reason for them not to succeed in their education.”

Every term, the girls are monitored on their performance. We talk to their teachers and their parents. Ideally, we would continue to support these girls every single year, but it’s just not feasible. The idea is to get them off on the right foot, and to ensure, to the best of our ability, that their families will continue to support their education. SKI Charities is there for financial support, but ultimately, it is the girls’ home life that will determine their success.

The hope is that these girls will begin to value their own education from an early age, and from there, continue to push themselves. It will require self-initiative to do that, as well as a positive familial infrastructure. But the first step, providing the opportunity for growth and success, is just the open door that these young girls need.