Additional advice to applicants of Micro-finance volunteer programme

The VPWA Micro-finance programme's aim is to support hardworking individuals to help them to help themselves out of poverty. With just one Ghanaian permanent staff (Comfort) supported by the Director of VPWA and volunteers from around the world, the programme which first started in 2009, has made a significant impact in the communities in which it operates.

This brief is aimed at encouraging the right volunteers to apply for this project. We need volunteers who can demonstrate initiative and are able to work independently, as well as in a team. We want people who will fully understand the micro-finance programme and it's context and help find innovative ways to develop it.

The idea behind micro-finance is quite simple. We provide loans or particular financial products to individuals who may not be able to access these from a traditional bank. These loans are repaid in full over an agreed time period. This simple process has several additional aspects in which self-motivated volunteers with the right skill set can be a great help. For example, volunteers might be assigned to perform specific tasks such as risk analysis, accounting, auditing and budgeting.  Otherwise volunteers can assist the programme by reviewing loan application forms, completing the daily ledger, conducting exit interviews with those who have completed their repayments, updating the beneficiary profiles and visiting the beneficiaries to monitor their growth and receive repayments.

In any free time we'd also like to see Micro-finance volunteers complete some of the following tasks on our behalf:

• • Conduct research and analyse the growth patterns of beneficiary businesses 

  • Provide business advice to beneficiaries through translation by the programme's Ghanaian staff

  • Discuss programme ideas and implementation with VPWA Director 

  • Write about the project and research case studies for publication in the media

  • Research different funding and grant opportunities that the organisation could apply to in order to help the beneficiaries in different forms and not only in giving them loans. 

  • Draft grant applications based on research and give these for review by VPWA Director before submitting

  • Research potential strategic partners for the programme

If you think you have what it takes and understand how our Micro-finance programme can fight poverty we would love to work with you.