SKS Site Visit

I had so many great photos today it was really hard choosing the best one. The photo on the left is from our site visit to SKS this morning. By site visit I don't mean a tour of company HQ or a branch office, rather I mean a two and half hour bus ride to a small rural village (300 people) near the center of Andhra Pradesh State.

SKS is a microfinance organization that operates on many of the same principles as the Grameen Bank, which was founded by recent Nobel Laureate and Vanderbilt alum Muhammad Yunus. SKS makes small loans from $20 to several hundred dollars to small groups of women in villages that are generally poor and rural. The loans are put on a fixed payback plan and each member of the woman's small cohort is responsible for all of the loans outstanding to the other members of her group. These principles use existing village social support networks to help give individuals at the poverty level (defined here as living on under $2/day) access to resources that can help them improve their condition. SKS staff makes a weekly site visit to each village in order to collect loan payments and ensure adherence to the programs requirements. We were able to accompany a SKS employee today on one of these visits.
Of course, this all sounds great on paper or as part of a well layed out business case, but it's much different to actually see it all happen before your eyes in person. After the 30 minute meeting where payments were made and general business was discussed, we made a trip deeper into the village to see where some of the SKS money had gone.

One SKS loan helped a lady open a small (20 square feet) store in the middle of the village. Thanks to the store, she was bringing in roughly $10 per day in profit. Her daughter worked with her in the store and her son was able to go to school where he was studying engineering. Another participant had use the money to purchase a water buffalo. The buffalo produced milk which would then be sold daily within the village for a profit.

There were several other incredible stories like these that we heard today. All the people we met within the village were friendly, proud, and even a little bewildered by our presence. It was an amazing opportunity to see one of the most practical and effective BOP principles in action and it definitely left a mark on everyone on the trip.Make sure to check out my india flickr gallery for more great photos from the visit.