Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation Board Members including Nobel Laureate Professor Muhammad Yunus, Her Royal Highness Maria Teresa, Grand Duchess of Luxembourg, Chairman Rene Carron with His Royal Highness Henri, Grand Duke of Luxembourg at the Royal Palace in Luxembourg.
Grameen Credit Agricole Microfinance Foundation (GCAMF) approved EUR 2 million to Kreditimi Rural i Kosoves (KRK) of Kosovo and USD 2 million to Hattha Kaksekar Limited (HKL) of Cambodia as loans in its meetings held on March 6, 2009 in Paris. GCAMF, a collaboration between Credit Agricole, a leading French bank and Grameen Trust, a global wholesale fund for microfinance, was established in 2008 to support microfinance programs and social business worldwide. The Foundation has an endowment of EUR 50 million.
Kreditimi Rural i Kosoves was registered in January 2004 as a Limited Liability Company with the purpose of offering credit to the poor who were hit by the war in Kosovo. KRK is supporting 5754 active borrowers. Hattha Kaksekar Limited which was established in 1996 as a non - government organization and registered as a limited liability company in 2001, is serving 41,000 members.
GCAMF is actively considering providing guarantee funding to Poverty Eradication & Community Empowerment (PEACE) in Ethiopia and the Lead Foundation in Egypt for their microfinance programs.
The next Board meeting of GCAMF is scheduled to be held in Dhaka, Bangladesh in September 2009.
Report by : Senti Chakma
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Grameen Trust (GT) held its 2009 Retreat on March 1, 2009, at the picturesque Padma Resort situated on the shoal of the mighty river Padma at Louhajang, Munshiganj, some 90 minutes drive South-West of Dhaka. The resort itself is reachable only via a 5-minute boat ride on a side-stream of the river Padma.
The day-long event was organized to review Grameen Trust's performance of 2008 and brainstorm effective strategies to realize the organizational goals set for 2009. All the staff of Grameen Trust participated in the retreat.
The aesthetically designed cottage huts with free-flowing air, bamboo bridges and small water-bodies of the Padma Resort acted as a muse during the performance review and brainstorming sessions.
Professor H. I. Latifee, Managing Director, Grameen Trust, made a brief inaugural speech as the chair of the sessions and congratulated the colleagues for their commitment, hard work and achievement in realizing the goal of Grameen Trust's vision of building a poverty free world with microcredit as a powerful tool. His speech was followed by presentations from all the departments of GT detailing the organizational and personal performance of 2008. The presentations highlighted the considerable achievement of Grameen Trust in 2008, as well as focused on what was learned from the challenges faced during the year.
At the Retreat all the staff of Grameen Trust selected the theme for 2009 as: "The Year of Attaining Self-Reliance" and vowed to realize the theme through their personal and collective efforts and performance.
Report by : Tamim Islam,
Faruq Al Banna and S. M. Nizam
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