RISA CHARITABLE TRUST
email:info@risafund.org
web: www.risafund.org
TEL: 774.276.0202
9120 173rd Ave SE
Snohomish, WA 98290 USA
"Building Houses in South Africa"
Peulwana Financial Services - Helping Families Build Homes
RISA's investment program culminated in an exciting partnership with the woman-owned housing finance company Peulwana Financial Services.
Based just north of Johannesburg, Peulwana provided mortgages to low-income earners living in some of South Africa's poorest township communities. Loans typically ranged from R1,000 ($125) to R25,000 ($3,125) and provided low-income, employed individuals with a way to move their families out of cramped, sub-standard housing. Peulwana enabled borrowers to move from small crowded shacks that often lack basic necessities such as access to clean water and sewage systems, into safe, secure homes with running water, solid doors that lock and heavy roofs that keep out the cold winter winds.
In August 2002, RISA provided Peulwana with a loan guarantee that gave them access to an R8 million (approximately $1 million) loan from the international development organization Oiko Credit (formerly known as The Ecumenical Cooperative Development Society). In an environment where it was difficult at best for low-income black South Africans to receive housing finance from the traditional larger banks, RISA, Oiko Credit and Peulwana provided individuals with the tools to build safe, secure homes for their families.
Over the life of the investment, RISA, Peulwana and Oiko Credit provided over 1,500 housing loans to low-income South African workers. RISA exited from our investment partnership with Oiko Credit and Peulwana in early 2006 after helping low-income families build safe, solid homes. Thank you to the RISA supporters who helped grow this important partnership over three years!
RISA continues to expand its impact within South Africa's growing small business community through the Small Business Capacity Building Program. We look forward to involving more and more partners in South Africa as well as in the US in our efforts to alleviate poverty and unemployment through job creation and economic opportunity in South Africa's most impoverished areas. For more information about RISA's growing work, please send us email at elena@risafund.org
or call (774) 276-0202.
