Declining donations threaten Hösbacher Verein Global Micro Initiative projects in Southeast Asia

So far, the Global Micro Initiative has enabled nearly 2,000 people in the Philippines and Indonesia to find a way out of poverty: the non-profit association, founded in Hösbach in 2014, grants microloans that can be used by women and men of slums to create micro-enterprises and provide for their families. But now donations have plummeted, says board member Silvia Schuessler.

From around 90,000 euros in 2020 and 40,000 euros in 2021, donations have currently decreased by a third, reports the Hösbacherin, who works as a school secretary in Kahl. “Southeast Asia is far away, people are currently donating more to Ukraine or their region. And many have to save themselves,” says the 57-year-old, describing the situation.

His son Tobias Schüßler (29) founded Global Micro in 2014 after working in the Philippines for two years after graduating from high school. “I was deeply shocked that people have to live off garbage and sometimes have to sell their children,” the IT consultant writes on the website. The idea behind the association: to equip people living below the poverty line so that they can get out of need, live off their work and send their children to school. “In this way we break the vicious circle of poverty and poor education,” says Silvia Schuessler.

At four locations in Southeast Asia, the Schüßlers, together with co-founder Marion Schwierz and a team of volunteers, provide concrete help for self-help. The association has already granted around 550 microloans, most of them between 70 and 100 euros. People wouldn’t stand a chance in a bank.

Silvia Schuessler gives some examples: With this money, which can only be used for commercial purposes, a woman buys more and better quality vegetables and sells them door to door. Or the swineherd who fattens up animals for slaughter invests in better and healthier feed, which affects the success of the farm. Or the seamstress can get her own car and make a living by sewing.

Collaboration with on-site employees

Most of the people who participate in Global Micro’s projects can barely read and write and have insufficient business knowledge. The Hösbacher Verein therefore works with local employees who support the participants. In free training courses, they show, for example, how accounting and advertising work, why hygiene is important and how secure payments can be made even without a bank account. “Because we want our participants to be able to be financially successful even after their microloan has been repaid,” emphasizes Silvia Schüßler. The association also puts participants in contact with each other so they can help each other. “Now we are known locally, many people come to us and ask for a microloan,” says Schüßler.

But due to the collapse of donations, some projects are in jeopardy. “We can grant fewer loans, we have to reduce the number of training courses”. A sewing course designed to facilitate the exit of women from prostitution has also been suspended for the time being. Additionally, the cost of living in the Philippines and Indonesia has risen sharply. “Poverty is getting worse for people who have two or three euros a day at their disposal,” says Schuessler.

Cornelia Muller

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