This year I spent time working with two umbrella Micro Finance related organations Bankers Without Borders and also Access Development Services in India. Through these organisations I worked with Belghoria Janakalyan Samity (BJS) a Micro Finance Institutions in West Bengal dealing with women in rural areas.

Belgharia Janakalyan Samity works with people, especially women, whose lives are dominated by extreme poverty. The Samity strives to bring about positive changes in the quality of life of the poor people in India. Our main challenge is to establish a society free from hunger, poverty and all forms of exploitation based on age, sex, religion and ethnicity. The organization started its journey in 2006 with a vision to reach the poor people especially for women of the society with its microfinance program for poverty alleviation and empowerment.BJS is based in two districts in West Bengal, It has just over 6000 loans.

The village and the local BJS branch I visited was called Basirhat, NE of Kolkata approximately 50 miles from the Bangladesh border. The photographs on exhibition are a photo essay of BJS and its clients. Including Josna Biswas, 42 years old, with 2 children, her business is producing and selling Sweet Candy. I also visited with Mithu Biswas, 35 years old, with 2 children, her business is a tea shop. I can quite honestly say she served the Best Tea in India.

Grameen Foundation – Website

Grameen Foundation helps the world’s poorest, especially women, improve their lives and escape poverty through access to small loans, new ways to generate income, and important information about their health, crops and finances.

Bankers without Borders® is Grameen Foundation’s volunteer program that connects individuals and companies with opportunities to mobilize their skill sets and use their industry expertise to offer Grameen Foundation innovative solutions to help break the cycle of poverty. It is a global reserve corps of business professionals from a variety of fields – from finance and technology to human resources and marketing. These professionals volunteer their time, knowledge, and experience to support microfinance and technology developments in the many areas where we work around the world

Access Development Services – Website

ACCESS is a not-for-profit company that offers specialised technical assistance under two verticals: microfinance and livelihoods. ACCESS assists the growing microfinance sector through streamlined and structured services to emerging MFIs and supports the enabling environment through the Microfinance India platform. Under the Livelihoods Programme Unit, ACCESS impacts the lives of the poor by developing sustainable solutions for upscaling their income generation activities.

We were privileged to have Francis to capture our collaboration and work with MFIs through his wonderful photography. His photographs brought out the essence of our work and his interests in social issues is commendable. We were able to visualise our activities and work, through his photographs. His sense of photography coupled with social interests, set him aside from his peers. We, at ACCESS, wish him luck for all his future endeavours and it was a pleasure having him in our organisation.

Sudipto Saha, Senior Manager Access Assist