Columban, Fr. Sean Connaughton established the *Kazama Grameen Inc (KGI) bank in 1991. It is a project aimed to provide small loans, which helps to start small businesses and provide families with effective microcredit operations for the purpose of income-generation and livelihood projects.
Dear St Columbans Mission Society,
I hope you are all well. Here autumn is shifting into winter, sunny days melt into little showers and animals in fields begin to look across the fence at the sheds.
On Kazama Grameen as you know, this is minus-positive weather, flood like they never had. Our Kazama office, that some of the Columban Mission Centre staff visited was under ten feet of water - a sad stuation.
As usual I throw my hand up when I see the hard earned Grameen history lost. I don't mean to distress you, but the August statement reported 3000 member houses under water - some completely submerged. So too, of course hens, pigs, carabaos etc.
It's not annual good news, but please pass it on to our Columban benefactors and thank them for their generosity.
Best wishes now in all your great work.
Fr Sean Connaughton
Fr Sean Connaughton has returned to Ireland and stilll continues to monitor and support the Filipino-led KGI from afar.
* Kazama Grameen is a project aimed at the rural poor that provides loans to help kickstart small businesses and provide families with livelihood projects. The word Kazama is a combination of Grameen groups in Kalaookan, Zambales and Manilla, in the Philippines .
Read another article by Fr Sean Connaughton: 'Credit for the poor'
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