- SKIC founder Shyam K. Iyer visiting a site in Myanmar
SKI Charities’ founder Shyam K. Iyer discusses the path that brought him to work for women’s empowerment and the impact that this work has made on him.
In your own words, what is your role in SKI Charities?
My role is to make sure we have the best people in place to run the foundation and achieve our goal to empower the economically excluded, both operationally in the near-term and strategically in the long-term. I constantly communicate with and connect our project managers on the ground, our social media experts back home, and our robust network of like-minded individuals who will go above and beyond to make sure we are on the right track.
How have you seen microfinance improve women’s lives?
I’ve seen microfinance have an unbelievable impact on real lives. Women who had no jobs or hope are now creating wealth through hard work for themselves and their community. People look up to them, and they have become leaders. They take better care of their health and their family’s health. They put their newfound wealth towards the education of their children– many go back to school themselves to improve their skills.
What path brought you to this work?
Through my career in international finance it was clear how many talented but excluded people were out there. I’ve been given every opportunity in life, but others are barely surviving each day due to no fault of their own. There are a lot of dark places in the world where good people struggle with no hope. I thought inclusive finance could be the answer to give them an opportunity to take control of their destiny.
What about your job inspires and motivates you?
I’m most inspired by our SKIC team. They level of skills and local knowledge necessary to keep us going is amazing. They deal with all types of people: beneficiaries, unsuccessful applicants, politicians, bankers, and anyone else who may or may not understand how we are trying to change the way people live. My job is to oversee the overall health of SKIC, but the day-to-day exercise and maintenance is where it all starts. And that is why I’m so lucky to have such a great and dedicated team. They care about SKIC and it shows.
Through your work with SKI Charities, is there any one story, event or person that sticks in your mind as meaningful to you?
I recently visited a SKImfi Zimbabwe beneficiary in Mutare. She had only recently joined, and when I saw her she was quite impressive. Standing tall behind her vegetable stall with a huge smile, her friends scurried around to assist her, and the locals looked at her with pure admiration. I was glad for her and assumed she had been doing good business for a while. Instead I heard that before she joined a few months prior, she had been widowed with six children and nowhere to go. She sat at home crying and lived off of handouts from neighbors. The kids had to leave school, and their futures looked bleak. Somehow our field officer heard about her through our network and the local SKImfi team decided she deserved a shot, at least for the hope she would have. The day she joined she took off like a rocket ship. This is why we do what we do.
