A Decade of Microfinance and Improved Child Well-being in Kosovo
Tuesday, November 22, 2011
Ten years after microfinance institution (MFI) KosInvest began work in Kosovo, its clients, staff and partners are celebrating improved child well-being thanks to loans for poor rural families and the peacebuilding work of World Vision in Kosovo.
Since its inception, KosInvest has impacted the lives of 40,000 children through 12,000 loans totaling US$24 million and 16,000 jobs, which have been created or sustained through microfinance.
KosInvest was established in 2001, two years after World Vision launched an emergency response during the brutal conflict. KosInvest was mandated to help World Vision programmes in reviving the struggling agricultural industry and helping establish and expand small family businesses.
’Loans from KosInvest enabled a gradual increase of my income which I used to support my children’s schooling’, said Ms. Zejnije Dedushaj at the recent anniversary celebration. ’As a female bread winner it meant so much to me’, added Zejnije whose daughter Ardita is a graduated member of World Vision’s Kids for Peace Club in Kraishta and today studies medicine at the University of Prishtina.
’My children have benefited from both World Vision programmes and from the added income which would not be possible without loans from KosInvest’, said Mr. Zoran Spasic, a father of three children of which two were involved in World Vision’s Civil Society Programme. Zoran is also a teacher volunteer that claims that members of the Kids for Peace club in Rabovce are more open minded and have a positive impact on the learning process of their class mates.
