![]() The added burden of perpetual debt is inevitable.Ĭommunity-based organizations (CBOs) supported by Outreach in the Philippines have devised a solution: a community-managed loan initiative in which communities purchase rice in bulk at affordable prices and then allow household members to borrow that rice during lean periods at low-interest rates. Families have no choice but to take out loans or borrow rice at interest rates as high as 10% per month. Although this is often a sign of an improving economy with higher quality living, there is much unnecessary suffering without adequate education opportunities, training, and capital. Further, with the increasing usage of tractors, many households have had their incomes reduced or had to goįurther from home to find work. During drought and the lean months between planting and harvest, families face rice shortages. But this dependency is also the Achilles’ heel for many families. Some context: In the Philippines, up to 80% of rural households look to rice growing as a primary source of income (through both labor and sale of excess production) and, of course, food. These loan programs exemplify what people can do if they put the principle of community-led development into practice. ![]() For me, there is no better example of such united action than the rice loan programs of organized groups in the Philippines. Even more impressive, this approach has evolved from food supply solutions into self-sustaining entrepreneurial undertakings. ![]() For many households, such challenges pertain to food shortages, and it is through processes that are community-led, driven, and owned that we have seen families overcome such difficulties.
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