Freedom from Hunger Shows How Banking and Healthcare Can Work Together for the World's Poor

Freedom from Hunger has successfully completed a US$6 million project funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. The four-year grant enabled Freedom from Hunger and five microfinance banks in Africa, Asia and Latin America to add health protection options to their financial offerings, reaching more than 1.5 million of the world's rural poor in five countries: Benin, Bolivia, Burkina Faso, India and the Philippines.

"Microfinance is succeeding at putting money into the hands of poor people but too often ill health causes them to slip back down the ladder into poverty again," said Chris Dunford, President of Freedom from Hunger. "Our solution is to bring together the economic development and health sectors to develop practical and coordinated tools that have more power to create lasting change." The health programs included health savings, health loans, health insurance, health education, group discounts with health providers, mobile healthcare in rural villages, distribution of insecticide-treated mosquito nets, and more.

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