Amal Foundation

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Amal Foundation is another impressive organization that I have connected with while in Dhaka. They were founded in 2014 with the focus of education, emergency response, health and women's empowerment. They were one of the first organizations to assist with the recent Rohingya Refugee Crisis. Since 2016 more than 700,000 refugees from the Rakhine State of Myanmar have fled to Bangladesh to escape the never ending genocide happening in Myanmar. Amal was there to provide food and medical attention while the larger organizations were still strategizing.

I was specifically interested to meet with Amal Foundation because they just started a pilot program providing micro loans in rural villages to prevent girls entering into child marriage.

First, let me take a moment to brag on the founder of this organization. After attending college at the University of Colorado, Esrat has returned to Bangladesh with the intention to help her country. In 8 years she has grown the organization to have over 40 employees. In 2020 she was named to the Forbes (Asia) list of 30 under 30 social entrepreneurs. I have learned so much from her about the changing culture in BD. She is pioneer for her generation to move away from traditional expectations of women.

The Child Marriage Prevention Loan is a conditional zero-interest microfinance loan that helps poor parents to start sustainable businesses if they meet the following three criteria.

1. The loan applicants must be parents of a 12 to 18-year-old girl child.

2. The girl (daughter) can not be married before the legal age of 18.

3. The girl (daughter) must be educated until the end of high school.

Amal Foundation plans to aid the parents in establishing sustainable businesses. They will also give business management training. This is an area that Amal is still working to develop so I am going to meet with their team to help structure their training.

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Comments

[Elizabeth A Baergen]

Inspiring!
What a great organization! No interest loans to help prevent child marriage. Wow.