Company Profile
Freedom from Hunger
Company Overview
Founded in 1946, Freedom from Hunger is a pioneer in the integration of microfinance, adult education, training and health protection services to achieve family food security. Hunger is the most extreme form of poverty. Families who are not food-secure cannot afford to meet their most basic need for food. People who are poor — so poor they are at constant risk of hunger — are eager to help themselves and their families. Microfinance, especially for groups of women, can support their self-help efforts. But the poor need more than money to transform their lives. Freedom from Hunger is an international development organization working in nineteen countries across the globe. Freedom from Hunger is a nonprofit, nongovernmental, nonsectarian organization.
“Freedom from Hunger brings innovative and sustainable self-help solutions to the fight against chronic hunger and poverty. Together with local partners, we equip families with resources they need to build futures of health, hope and dignity.”
Company History
Value-Added Microfinance
A Proven Self-Help Solution
At least one billion people live on an average income of a dollar a day per person — on good days, they may earn two dollars-on bad days, nothing. This is a grim existence, filled with anxiety about the next meal and heartbreaking choices.
Freedom from Hunger's self-help programs invest in women and their determination to feed their children, safeguard their health and send them to school. Our combination of microfinance, practical education and access to health care, helps women earn and save more money, buy more and better food, and pay for health care. We share our proven programs by training and collaborating with local partners who expand our reach and ensure that services are delivered effectively and sustainably.
Microfinance Puts Women in Control of Money
Families living in poverty face staggering obstacles. Yet they survive-because of their individual resilience and resourcefulness and because they have each other. To build on their capacity and determination to help themselves and each other, Freedom from Hunger.
partners with local organizations to give the poor access to microfinance loans and saving services, and
combines the microfinance with practical education and access to health care.
Microfinance is one of the most powerful self-help support services ever created. It provides credit and saving services that are affordable, flexible and reliable enough to allow the very poor to reduce the day-to-day uncertainties of cash management, to save money over time, and to borrow for vital needs and opportunities, such as starting or growing a tiny business to earn more money. Benefits for chronically hungry families, especially the children, are greater when microfinance is offered to the women of these families, when they come together in their own saving and credit groups that meet regularly in their own villages or neighborhoods and when they reinforce each other's loan repayment and saving discipline. Recognizing this potential of microfinance since 1988, Freedom from Hunger is one of the pioneers of microfinance for groups of women in very poor rural areas of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
Microfinance programs have now helped tens of millions of very poor families, worldwide, to meet their immediate financial service needs. Billions of dollars have been loaned and repaid-on time-with enough interest to support the costs of lending. Individual microfinance organizations have grown to serve tens of thousands, even millions of poor clients-and they continue to grow.
Money isn't the Only Problem-or Solution
Microfinance alone is not enough for the very poor to climb out of poverty. Knowing this from the start of our commitment to microfinance, Freedom from Hunger designed practical adult education that engages women at their microfinance group meetings-for better health, nutrition, business and money management. To further add value to microfinance, we are now developing new ways to offer the women access to health-care services and medicines, when these are locally available and of good quality. This latest innovation recognizes that illness and injury are among the leading reasons people cannot escape poverty and chronic hunger. Learn more about Credit with Education, Saving for Change and Microfinance and Health Protection.
Proof that We're Making a Difference
Rigorous studies have documented that women who participate in Freedom from Hunger's value-added microfinance programs have more money and assets available in the household, a greater sense of personal empowerment to take action in the family and community, better business practices, better health practices, and better nourished, healthier children. Learn more about the studies that confirm our effectiveness.
Partnership to Expand Our Reach
Freedom from Hunger does not act alone. We teach local organizations to provide value-added microfinance to groups of women. This leverage through collaboration allows our staff of 47 professionals to offer our programs to 3.2 million women in 19 developing countries of Africa, Asia and Latin America.
We offer other organizations two types of value-added microfinance-Credit with Education for microfinance institutions and credit unions and Saving for Change for non-financial service organizations that help women form their own independent savings and credit groups. Learn more about how we collaborate with other organizations around the world.
Learn More
We invite you to explore this site to learn more about how Freedom from Hunger's value-added microfinance strengthens the collective courage of women in chronically hungry communities to help themselves and their families move toward futures of health, dignity and self-reliance.