The Grameen Foundation, a nonprofit microfinance group, announced that it has awarded more than $2.2 million in microloans to Indonesian women affected by tsunamis that swept the island nation five years ago.
Loans went to more than 16,000 women in Banda Acech, the region hit hardest by the 2004 tsunami, according to the organization. The loans are designed to help Acechenese woman and their families start new, sustainable businesses.
"The scale of the devastation and suffering was overwhelming, but we knew that microfinance had a crucial role to play in the long-term economic recovery of the families and communities," said Grameen Foundation president Alex Counts.
Grameen delivered the loans in association with local microfinance institution Mitra Dhuafa, and with financial backing from a number of major businesses and nonprofit groups, including the American Red Cross, Nokia, Deutsche Bank Americas Foundation and Saudi transport and financial services company Abdul Latif Jameel Group.
Bamda Acech, one of Idonesia’s poorest regions, had little microfinance activity before international tsunami relief efforts began in 2005. Grameen Foundation activities in Indonesia have therefore focused on providing technical assistance and expanding staff for local microloan firms, in addition to direct lending.
"Our goal was to help give the people of Banda Aceh access to the financial resources they would need to reignite their lives and the local economy," said Counts.
Nearly 230,000 people in 13 countries died as a result of earthquakes and tsunamis in the Indian Ocean on December 26, 2004. Approximately 166,000 of those victims lived in Indonesia’s Acech province, where 100-foot waves washed ashore and devastated the region’s infrastructure. Governments, businesses and nonprofit groups worldwide have donated almost $6.7 billion to victims since the disaster, but damages caused by earthquakes and flooding remain.
