Submitted by crinadmin on
Summary: World Vision Georgia recently launched a Business Development Initiative (BDI) to enable participants of its youth-oriented programs to receive micro-enterprise and non-financial services to start and develop small businesses.Funded by World Vision Canada, the program provides participants of World Vision-supported Youth Centres, established through the Human Rights and Learners for Life projects, with the necessary training, know-how and technical support to develop micro and small businesses and to give them access to loans provided by Vision Fund CREDO, World Vision Georgia’s affiliated microfinance institution.
"Georgia is the first country to start this component in World Vision’s Middle East & Eastern Europe Region area of operation," said Nino Kapanadze, BDI Manager.
She added, "This new initiative will provide loans to vulnerable youth who are not often eligible for loans from other agencies, but have a high probability of success in starting their own micro-enterprises."
Many youth from the ‘Learners for Life’ project have spent their childhoods in children’s institutions and have not received the life skills needed to gain employment and live independently, while those involved in the Human Rights program come from different ethnic backgrounds and live in rural areas with few employment opportunities.
Life skills training and interventions like BDI are giving youth the opportunity to channel their entrepreneurship and ideas into constructive projects that will give them a positive start. Group loans available through BDI will enable youth from different backgrounds to join together and start common businesses that will promote their integration.
A credit without collateral requirement and other special conditions will be granted to individuals that have economically viable business plans and have successfully completed business training provided by the project.
Some 80 young people from seven youth centres across the country have so far been trained according to a specially designed program and are now working on business plans that will be reviewed by the credit committee comprised of project management and CREDO staff.
"This is a very interesting initiative that provides great empowerment possibilities for people, especially the young people that we serve through our programming," said Kapanadze.
"It enables them to practically use skills and experiences obtained during their involvement in our centres."
In addition to providing access to capital for business start-ups, BDI will also facilitate lending to existing businesses that are willing to employ World Vision project beneficiaries.
The BDI staff will work closely to identify work placements and permanent employment opportunities for project beneficiaries within local businesses.
Owner: Tamuna Kvaratskhelia