[ad_1]
Essma Ben Hamida is the co-founder and CEO of enda inter-arabe in Tunisia. When she was a younger lady, her dream was to be a singer like ‘Umm Kulthum’. However because of the limitations imposed by traditions and tradition, she was not capable of make her dream come true. She ended up learning historical past and geography. She started her profession as a secondary faculty trainer and a TV journalist reporter in Tunisia. And later, she grew to become one of many girls leaders in her nation.
Essma opened the primary bureau of the Tunisian Press Company in New York on the United Nations. There she gained a whole lot of expertise. As a part of her work, she was uncovered to the troubles all over the world whereas writing on political points. Following her journalism profession, she moved to Rome to work in Inter Press Service, a worldwide world press company overlaying third world international locations points. Throughout that point she went to international locations the place there have been wars comparable to Palestine and Lebanon; and the place there was injustice and exploitation. She was shocked by the extent of poverty when she went to Mauritania, Senegal, some Latin and Asian international locations, some Arab international locations, and particularly, Palestine the place she noticed poverty blended with political occupation. She cherished her work however all the time had the sensation that she was lacking one thing. In 1988, Essma had to return to Tunisia after a number of years of absence from the nation to put in writing an article. She was shocked by the poverty stage and the inequalities in her personal nation the place she was raised. She came upon that ladies didn’t have entry to credit score and so they weren’t resolution makers. “After telling everybody how proud I’m to be Tunisian with all of the rights we now have as girls because the first yr of Tunisia’s independence in 1956, I used to be shocked and speechless with the gender inequality I’ve witnessed in my very own nation,” she stated.
Essma needed to admit that she can not contribute to growth by way of journalism and determined to do it by way of concrete motion. In a convention in Geneva, she met Jacques Bugnicourt, the founding father of Enda Third World, a Dakar-based worldwide NGO, and requested him if she may open an Enda workplace in Tunisia her residence nation. Essma needed Enda to be a bridge between Arab Nations and Sub-Saharan Africa and Asia. “I found I can’t change the world, however let’s begin with my nation,” she stated.
In 1989, Essma went again to Tunisia with Michael Cracknell, her husband and accomplice, having no concept what they might do with enda and not using a penny. However for her, it was all the time to emulate the Grameen Financial institution and Muhammad Yunus (whom she met throughout one of many conferences). “We determined to launch into micro-credit, however Michael and I had no expertise on this. Because of a grant from the Ford basis Cairo workplace we went to Egypt to go to and study from the Alexandria Businessmen’s Affiliation and different NGOs providing micro-credit”.
“Originally we began with 5 loans that we financed from our assets. It was incorrect to try this however we had no funds for this on the time,” she stated. Essma and Michael began with a staff of 5 and acquired 20,000 {dollars} from a French NGO, Emaus Worldwide, to start out disbursing the primary loans within the largest poor neighborhood in Tunis.
Till 2005, Enda confronted fairly just a few challenges resulting from lack of funding. “Nobody believed in us – not the funders, the federal government, even buddies besides our girls shoppers. It was solely when shoppers began to take repeat loans that authorities officers, funders, and buddies began to imagine in us”. Then we acquired help from the Spanish authorities, the EU and a few European NGOs like ICCO and Intermon.
“The story of Enda is just like the story of a consumer who was very poor and grew little by little. It took us just a few years to develop into greater. We began with nothing however the enterprise grew strongly and we grew to become self-reliant. Microfinance helps to carry again your dignity, each for the shoppers and for the establishment. If we had not reached self-sufficiency we couldn’t have completed practically as a lot as we did.”
From Essma’s perspective, microfinance is a strong instrument. When you don’t give girls entry to finance, there might be no empowerment. Now they’re resolution makers of their lives and the lives of their youngsters. Some even assist their husbands and unemployed youngsters to start out a enterprise. After we began, Tunisian girls have been very busy inside their properties. They may not exit. They used center males to promote their merchandise. “My mom used to weave carpets however by no means went to the market to promote them: there was a center man who got here to take the carpets and promote it. She knew nothing about negotiating or about how a lot he really offered the carpet for.”
In 1992 earlier than we started, no girls have been promoting within the markets or streets. Cafés have been just for males, by no means girls. They labored nearly as servants in their very own properties. After we began offering loans, it was like an explosion. Ladies began their very own companies, realized to barter and promote. They received coaching. They generate their very own earnings. The TV and training additionally contributed. “Ladies in Tunisia are lively; they wish to work and personal a enterprise; they’ve Phoenician blood from Dido and the Queen of Carthage,” stated Essma; including “Cash empowers girls and lets them contribute in decision-making. After 20 years I can see the adjustments. Every little thing modified fully for these entrepreneurial girls.”
Originally, Enda was focusing solely on girls however after Essma went to a gender coaching course in New York, she modified her perspective. She did some focus teams with shoppers and what stunned her was that ladies shoppers cherished the concept, saying males are our husbands, brothers; allow them to work and have their very own enterprise. With the assistance of Ladies’s World Banking, Enda carried out gender analysis . The gender evaluation of Enda’s buyer base helped Enda perceive the differentiated wants of its female and male shoppers. Now enda has 30% males shoppers.
Enda began in city areas however with the assistance of the French Improvement Company, it was capable of empower girls in rural areas since 2007.
In the course of the Tunisian Revolution from December 2010 which began the Arab Spring Revolution, Enda closed its branches and companies to shoppers for simply 2 days. And the shoppers understood the state of affairs and so they even, technically, protected their branches. The PAR went from 0.33% to six% and now it’s again to below 2%. Essma and several other senior workers visited branches and shoppers to know their wants. Enda launched mortgage rescheduling to ease reimbursement issues and refinanced just a few shoppers who had misplaced all or a part of their enterprise. Enda additionally wrote off money owed in just a few circumstances. They opened new branches within the remotest and poorest areas to assist extra shoppers who have been in want. Essma proudly mentions that Enda got here by way of this tough interval pretty unscathed. The truth that the group remained out there and current for his or her shoppers strengthened the connection. What was spectacular, says Essma, was the speedy progress of civil society that after the revolution, so many new NGOs have been created by younger ladies and men.
Because the revolution, Enda’s portfolio has grown by 186% to 250 million TND (about 140 million USD), reaching to 250,000 shoppers by way of 79 branches. 35% of the shoppers are younger individuals below 35; a lot of them have been among the many 800,000 unemployed within the nation. After the Revolution and due to a beneficiant help from the Swiss Cooperation, Enda launched a particular product for startups by younger girls and boys from the poorest areas of the nation.
Enda now faces a whole lot of challenges resulting from what’s going on within the area. “Microfinance can not go together with battle – we want safety. Everybody in his/her nation ought to make a distinction in his/her work.” The opposite large problem that Enda is dealing with is that fairly just a few individuals who know nothing concerning the sector nor have ever met a micro-entrepreneur reject micro-finance out of precept.
The innovation that Enda is engaged on is in micro-insurance and cellular banking, “I’m proud to see the response of girls after they began utilizing expertise”. Essma sees the long run in expertise to enhance Enda’s work and the companies and lives of its shoppers.
The most important dream and problem now for Essma is for Enda to develop into the primary micro-finance financial institution in Tunisia. However they nonetheless have an extended technique to go till the regulators permit MFIs to take deposits.
Essma has some recommendation for ladies leaders. “Preserve a stability between your personal life and your work. Do what you might be captivated with so that you can provide extra. I’m glad and passionate even when I work lots. Care for your well being so it is possible for you to to see the outcomes of your arduous work.” Essma is now making it occur by empowering girls and youth in Tunisia. She can be fulfilling her outdated dream by taking singing courses.
*In December 2008, Ladies’s World Banking’s market analysis staff, in collaboration with enda, carried out buyer analysis to enhance our understanding of how gender relations impression the event and progress of microenterprises in Tunisia. The analysis was additionally designed to supply buyer perception and suggestions on two of enda’s microlending merchandise.
Publish Script from Ujjivan CEO, Samit Ghosh
It’s my pleasure to introduce my charming & completed good friend Essma Ben Hamida from ENDA in Tunisia because the Ladies Chief who has made Excellent Contribution to Monetary Inclusion. She is a pioneer in Tunisia. I’m so glad for her that the one nation the ‘Arab Spring’ within the Arab world was capable of carry the political adjustments the individuals had been aspiring for – democracy & freedom from oppression. Beneath this atmosphere ENDA & Essma continues to flourish. Right here is {photograph} in Valladolid, Spain with Essma & Professor Yunus.
Cross-posted on Ujjivan as a part of their on-going collection on girls leaders in monetary inclusion
[ad_2]
