Exclusive Interview with Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE

Helene Gayle, president and CEO of CARE ( Right)

By  Casey Conzett,

Microfinance Focus, April 15, 2010: Nairobi, Kenya: Dr. Helene Gayle, President and CEO of CARE USA discusses the Village Savings and Loan Association program in an interview with Microfinance Focus.

Here are Excerpts :

Microfinance Focus: When did CARE begin incorporating microsavings and loan services into their activities and why?

Dr. Gayle: It would be hard to say exactly when because ever since the very beginning when we first started our Village Savings and Loan (VSLA) work in 1991 in Niger the ability to take out [a loan] and be able to save and to provide the people within the group small loans allowed them to do other things that had to do with health, education, businesses, so from the very beginning it has been a platform that has allowed us to incorporate and integrate other parts of our work that help improve people’s lives.

Microfinance Focus: And before 1991 was CARE more focused on health or education or other services more than microsavings and loans?

Dr. Gayle: In 1991 is when we first started the VSLA approach and we are really the first organization to do that on that scale. We’ve been involved in a whole range of activities: health, education, agriculture, water, and emergency relief. Our roots are in emergency relief with the care package after World War II, so we’ve been involved in a wide range of things. But in 1991 is when we started the VSLA approach.

Microfinance Focus: Where in Africa has CARE had the most success with these kinds of services?

Dr. Gayle: They have been very successful – we are now in 29 countries here in Africa and have reached some 1.6 million clients with our microsavings approach and are now building on that. We’ve also got a lot of work in Asia and Latin America and in some parts of transitional Europe, so it’s something we’ve been involved in for a long time.

Microfinance Focus: How many of the 1.6 million clients do you feel are below the $1 a day [poverty] threshold?

Dr. Gayle: Our work is primarily with reaching the poorest of the poor, with people who are living on less than $1 a day or $2 a day. Most of our clients would be people that are living on less than $2 a day and many of them less than $1 a day.

Microfinance Focus: Does CARE have any restrictions on how much a person has to save before asking for a loan?

Dr. Gayle: It really depends, the groups are very much self-managing, and they come up with decisions on their own about much interest they charge and how much they have to save before they give loans to each other, but they also replenish on a regular basis so they are not accumulating a huge amount, they aren’t trying to become a bank themselves, but they really are self-managing and they come up with a lot of the rules themselves.

Microfinance Focus: What challenges has CARE faced in the African development sector in the recent years?

Dr. Gayle: We’re facing a lot of the same challenges that most people have faced – this has been tough economic times and when there are tough economic times around the world it also hits the poorest of the poor, but I also think we’ve also had a lot of success here in Africa. Our work has reached many people, we know that it has made a difference in the lives in those who participate in our Village Savings and Loans Association, and we have many stories about how their lives have changed. For us, that is what is so encouraging about this approach, it really does make a difference in the lives of poor people, many of them women because our programs reach out primarily to women because they do not normally have access to capital and their ability to use resources to start businesses, being able to send their children to school, having greater access to health services, so we know its making a difference and that is what we keep focused on.

Microfinance Focus: With the VSLA program, has there been a shift in focus from aid services like health and education to more sustainable products?

Dr. Gayle: We’ve always had a focus on sustainability. With the VSLA program, it’s an approach where we don’t put money in, people are able to make loans to each other, that is a very sustainable way, but we are integrating other parts of our work in so that we can look at a wide range of how we can make our work sustainable, but we’ve always had a focus on sustainability.

Microfinance Focus: Are there places in Africa where CARE feels there should be greater penetration levels?

Dr. Gayle: We have a goal of reaching 30 million people over the next 10 years, clearly the very poor and the rural poor have not been penetrated and that’s where our we primarily have our focus.

Microfinance Focus: What is your strategy to reach that goal?

Dr. Gayle: Continuing to build on what we’ve done with the VSLA approach and continuing to build that platform and for those that have some capital, look at how you can use that platform to include them in the formal banking system.

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