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Who Supports Us
Funders
Overbrook Foundation (www.overbrook.org)
The Overbrook Foundation strives to improve the lives of people by supporting projects that protect human and civil rights, advance the self-sufficiency and well being of individuals and their communities, and conserve the natural environment. PARWAZ would not have been able to begin its operations in Afghanistan without the seed grant provided by Overbrook Foundation and relatives of Warren Buffet.
CGAP (http://www.cgap.org/projects/RPPIC.html)
The CGAP-IFAD RPPIC was born out of CGAP's Pro-Poor Innovation Challenge (PPIC), which provided similar grants to innovative Microfinance providers. To date, CGAP has funded 25 leading-edge Microfinance organizations through four PPIC funding rounds. In early 2003, CGAP partnered with IFAD to create the Rural PPIC, which awarded 10 grants to organizations that have broken new ground in providing financial services to rural clients. To learn more about winners of the PPIC and RPPIC, please visit their Web site. PARWAZ is proud to have been chosen as one of 2004’s recipients of this grant to provide Microfinance to the rural poor of Afghanistan.
Flora Family Foundation (http://www.florafamily.org/)
The purpose of the Flora Family Foundation is to promote selected activities of charitable organizations and institutions as determined by members of the Board and Family Council. It is predicated on the belief that each individual has an obligation to go beyond the narrow confines of his or her personal interests and be mindful of the broader concerns of humanity. The Foundation pursues these goals in order to provide the descendants of William and Flora Hewlett with a vehicle for philanthropic activity. The Flora Family Foundation, incorporated as a private foundation in the State of California late in 1998, was established by the family of William and Flora Lamson Hewlett, for whom the Foundation is named.
United Nations Development Fund for Women, UNIFEM, Afghanistan (www.unifem.org)
UNIFEM is the women's fund at the United Nations. It provides financial and technical assistance to innovative programmes and strategies to foster women's empowerment and gender equality. Placing the advancement of women's human rights at the centre of all of its efforts, UNIFEM focuses its activities on four strategic areas: (1) reducing feminized poverty, (2) ending violence against women, (3) reversing the spread of HIV/AIDS among women and girls, and (4) achieving gender equality in democratic governance in times of peace as well as war
MISFA & Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation (www.misfa.org and www.mrrd.gov.af)
The Microfinance Investment Support Facility for Afghanistan (MISFA) works with the Ministry of Rural Rehabilitation to provide investment funds to a wide range of micro finance institutions committed to providing large scale financial services to the poor and vulnerable of Afghanistan. MISFA also provides institution-building support and funds for on-lending to poor clients. By December 2004 (only 18 months from its founding), MISFA’s partner Micro Finance Institutions were serving over 80,000 clients, including borrowers and savers. It is expected that by the end of 2005 that number will be 125,000 clients. These figures far exceed original targets, illustrating the exceptionally strong demand for credit in the informal sector. It is hoped that MISFA can provide a model of public-private collaboration in rebuilding the Afghan economy, with both the government and donors participating in its governance.
Supporters
Global Exchange (www.globalexchnage.org)
Global Exchange support was instrumental in the formation of PARWAZ as a Microfinance Institution. Global Exchange began to concentrate on Afghanistan shortly after 9/11 and the beginning of the war in Afghanistan. Working with the 60,000 strong local Northern California Afghan community, Global Exchange sponsored numerous charity and educational events and to help rebuild a country suffering from the trauma of over two decades of war, began educational “Reality Tours” to Afghanistan. After securing funding from Overbrook Foundation, Global Exchange sent Katrin Fakiri, Managing Director of PARWAZ accompanied by members of the advisory committee that was established to guide the program in Afghanistan. They conducted a preliminary study and made vital initial contacts. Global Exchange Kabul office has since provided vital support to help launch PARWAZ.
Women’s World Banking (http://www.swwb.org)
The Women's World Banking network aims to have a major impact on expanding the economic assets, participation and power of low income women as entrepreneurs and economic agents by opening their access to finance, knowledge and markets. PARWAZ is fortunate to have WWB’s Nicola Armacost as a consultant and hopes to become a member in the future.