Urgent Evoke

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Likelemba is an African system of solidarity savings mechanism where several members put a certain sum of money in a "pot" and every month, the total amount contained in the pot is then donated to one of the participating members(Wikipedia). Nowadays Likelemba is been harder to do due to poverty.


MY IDEA:


LIKELEMBA WITHOUT BORDERS is a new company that supports financial solidarity between America, Europe and Africa. The company just opened up this month in Luanda ( Angola ) and is already succesfull.


LIKELEMBA was a way to help people in financial difficulty or in poverty, through solidarity, the person could start a little business with the huge amount of money, but now it is been harder and harder for women and men to use LIKELEMBA so that they can help each other because everybody is in the same situation: no job, poverty, kids to feed, etc.....But thanks to Maria Pedro Miala who innovated the concept and added the help of technology to create: "Likelemba Without Borders" people can still do LIKELEMBA with somebody overseas: a friend, a stranger or a family member who has a job and is also able to participate, they can send each other the money in a couple of minutes.


Thanks to the company people in Africa will be able to start a a little business or actually finally buy the material they wanted to start their business. They will do this with the help of their mobile phones, people are able to send money overseas in a couple of minutes to somebody else and guess what? IT IS NOT A LOAN. LIKELEMBA WITHOUT BORDERS will provide you with the information of people who want to participate and the mobile numbers of the persons, then 5 to 6 persons wil be registered as a group and will have a code that only they can use, each month they will send a certain amount of money to the person's who's turn it is to receive the amount. The company will verify if every member of the group sent the amount of money to the right person and the circle will continue.....


The company is even thinking about creating little businesses in the villages too, it is important because most people in the villages that don't have access to internet do have access to mobile phones and most people don't have a bank account. So even those people will be able to participate in " LIKELEMBA WITHOUT BORDERS"..


When I interviewed Maria and asked her how she is helping the people and what impact does her company have she said: " We are here to help poor people being able to afford things they normally wouldn't be able to afford or achieve without this financial support". "Just imagine : a young woman in Africa wants to have an ICT training and she has to pay 1000$, but she only earns 200$ a month, she won't be able to pay this. If she does LIKELEMBA with four other women it can help her to pay for school and be left with enough money for herself. Another woman wants to start a business, she wants to sell hot dogs and beer at night ( this is a business with a lot of success in Sub-Saharan Africa ) but she doesn't have the capital to start this business, well with the help of LIKELEMBA she wiil be able to start her business and the best part is she will make profit that will be only for her and she won't have to get a credit for that because she never loaned any money since every woman will have also their turn and will get the same thing".


Well, this is surely a promising business.




Maria Pedro Miala



Views: 332

Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 4, 2010 at 12:34am
I'm curious as to what the difference between this and a loan is, if you eventually have to pay into the pot.
Comment by Maria Pedro Miala on April 5, 2010 at 9:41pm
when you have a loan from the bank you have to pay INTRESTS, here you don't have to pay intrests and you don't have to pay money back during years, when you have a loan from a bank you do have to pay the bank back during years THAT IS THE DIFFERENCE. Here you just put each 50 or 100 $ together in a pot and each month someone receives the entire pot. You don't owe anybody anything. Keep in mind that not being able to pay loans is one of the cause of the crisis we're in right now. THIS METHOD IS NOT A LOAN, it's helping each other through solidarity. I hope you understand the difference.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 5, 2010 at 10:45pm
If you have to pay it back, then it is a loan. But if you get to keep the money, and aren't required to put more money in, ever, then that's useful.
Comment by Maria Pedro Miala on April 7, 2010 at 10:58pm
Yiu don't have to pay it back since what you put in it, you will receive it back. I don't think you're understanding the method quite well. May be you have to read it again or ask for more explanation which I will be glad to give you. This method is been used in Africa for a long time and it has nothing to do with a loan.
Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 8, 2010 at 3:21am
OK, so to clarify, if I were participating in this, I put in $10, along with 10 other people, for a total of $100 collectively. Then some day I get that $100, and never have to pay it back? I don't think that's what is happening...
Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 8, 2010 at 3:22am
Sorry, make that 9 other people! :-)
Comment by Maria Pedro Miala on April 14, 2010 at 10:40am
commenting you're firdt post from 8 April: yes that is exactly what's happening. In Africa this method is being used for ages and people used to do that to help each other. Just like you said : you never have to pay it back.
Comment by Sarah Shaw Tatoun on April 14, 2010 at 11:34am
Here's the Wikipedia entry: likelema. I think it's essentially a savings club. The person who gets the first 'round' of money collected is usually chosen by lottery. I assume this usually works because the groups are small and everyone within it knows the others, so it would be very difficult to drop out after you 'won' your round-- without contributing any more to the pot -- without angering and alienating your friends and neighbors. My question, Maria, is how this would work in an international setting where people didn't know one another?

Of course I suppose you could have the people within the group changing-- so that after the first person 'won' a round they would drop out and another person would join the group in their place-- except that that would mean that the others might have a longer wait before they 'won'.
Comment by Maria Pedro Miala on April 15, 2010 at 2:11am
Hi Sarah, T

They will be registered as a group and the company will have all the information about the participants wherever they are in the world, bank accounts, adresses, etc.....this all will be verified by the company to make sure everybody gives his part and doesn't drop out after he or she won. Otherwise the company will have the rights to take money from this person's bank account ( each person that participates has to agree to this before beig accepted as a participant ).
Comment by Turil Cronburg on April 15, 2010 at 11:44am
"to make sure everybody gives his part and doesn't drop out after he or she won. Otherwise the company will have the rights to take money from this person's bank account ( each person that participates has to agree to this before being accepted as a participant )."

So you will have to pay it back. It is absolutely a loan. There is no question about that now that you've clarified it several times that people have to pay the money back. It's important to be clear about that, otherwise you might end up being called a scammer.

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