Planet Finance France

In 2005, following war and genocide in Congo, Eritrea and Sudan, a large number of African refugees began crossing the borders from Egypt into Israel, resulting in an estimated 28,000 refugees now residing in Israel and numbers increasing every day.

With limited infrastructure and resources, and access to health insurance and financial services, they are often forced into illegal and below minimum wage employment. Women, often arriving to Israel without their husbands, become sole breadwinners whilst also caring for their children, making them extremely vulnerable to exploitation and abuse with no one to turn to for support. Living in appalling conditions with little hope of improving their lives, refugees become increasingly despondent and are unable to move beyond their traumas, microfinance often being the only way out of extreme poverty.

Fayda (see picture besides) fled in 2006 from the Democratic Republic of Congo to escape the political repression that targeted her and her family. She acquired the status of refugee in 2008 in Israel, where, thanks to a microloan from Microfy, she started a nursery for refugee children.

Fayda's success story gained local and international recognition when she was honored best microentrepreneur in the field of education at PlaNet Finance's International Microfinance Awards 2010.

Through the Microfinance for African Refugees in Africa project, PlaNet Finance Israel aims at strengthening the microfinance program Microfy, which was established in 2009 as a response to the growing refugee crisis in Tel Aviv. By offering a platform for refugees to become financially independent, Microfy can greatly improve the quality of life for the refugee community in their host country.

The project aims:

• To strengthen the local microfinance initiative Microfy and their capacity to address Israeli refugees' needs by helping them develop a set of financial and non-financial services adapted to refugees in urban areas that can be adapted and replicated in other refugee communities

• To help the creation of new businesses by the refugees (e.g. nursery, tailor, cook, hairdresser, etc.).

 Download CN Microfinance for African Refugees in Israel