JEDDAH, 1 October 2004 — ALJ Fund for Small Business has organized a workshop in collaboration with the Association of Businessmen in Alexandria, on ways of implementing micro-credit programs to develop communities and finance small projects.
This initiative came as part of the fund’s efforts to change the way charity is being provided and to convert it from a lump-sum assistance into micro-credits that are linked to productive projects that would help in upgrading the financial and social standard of the poor and needy individual.
The workshop was attended by 27 participants from various charitable organizations in the Kingdom, in addition to representatives of Poverty Charitable Fund.
The workshop lasted three days, where the first day covered an introductory program for familiarizing the participants with the Association of Businessmen in Alexandria, as well as the micro-credit programs and projects and ways of converting grants given by charitable organizations into productive loans that are renewable in accordance with the size and line of activity being carried out.
On the second day, field visits to some branches of the association were organized to familiarize participants with the role of each person in these branches. Visits were also made to some beneficiaries to get first-hand knowledge of the impact of the loans on their social and financial lives and the extent of benefit drawn from such loans.
On Day 3, the participants held a workshop to discuss ways of program implementation and the idea of micro-credit in charitable organizations. At the conclusion of the workshop many good recommendations were presented.
Before leaving Alexandria, the participants met with Mohammed Jameel, chairman of the board of directors of ALJ Programs for Community Services, who emphasized his keen interest to develop the methods of charitable work. ALJ Fund for Small Business is offering micro-credit currently, through the Program for Productive Families. The experiment comprised 250 female participants, through whom job opportunities and self-managed private projects were created.
