Vijayawada: At first sight Gobhanu Sasankar Korisepati seems only another school child.
However, unlike most children of his age, the 16-year-old Telugu student who lives in Muscat running an initiative that provides interest-free loans to women from poor backgrounds in developing countries.
This initiative has so far helped change the life of more than 1,000 poor women in 77 countries.
Taking a signal from Grameen Bank founded by Nobel Laureate Mohammad Yunus in Bangladesh, Young Sasanankar raised around 10,000 Riyal Oman (Rs 19.8 lakh) through his classmates and their parents to finance poor women who live by running a business by running a business By running a small business.
All loans are flowered free with a recovery rate of 98.75%.
Most of the beneficiaries of women are farmers, weavers, small traders and craftsmen.
Sasannankar has been tied with Kiva, a non-profit organization based in San Francisco who conducts background checks and recommends beneficiaries.
After the recipient was identified, Sasanankar expanded assistance through Kiva.
The microfinance platform, supports women in financial chaos (Swift), was established in September 2020.
Since then, Sasanankar has helped women in India, Albania, the Philippines, Ecuador and Kyrgyzistan among other countries.
He told TII that rather than donating money, he believed to expand interest-free loans to recycle money and create impacts throughout the world.
Sasannankar, who came from Nellore at Andhra Pradesh, said he was first to know about interestless microfinances during his apprentice with Grameen Bank in Bangladesh.
He then chose to start something similar in Oman.
“I asked for a contribution from 19 my friends pursuing grade 8 to 10 from Aba Oman International School and established Swift.
Instead of spending funds in charity, I decided to expand interest-free loans to women and capture the interests of one-time donation,” he said , “Because we have launched loans, our payment level is very high.
Plus, they can withdraw their funds anytime,” Sasanankar added.
The payment rate is not surprising as the Kiva itself, which has given a loan to the song 1.61 billion US dollars, also has a level of payment of 96.3% among four million borrowers.
He praised his work to his parents and his teacher Aneesh Kumar Chellapnair, who guided the young man.
When asked why he specifically focused on ‘women in financial chaos’, he explained, “I was surprised when I found that the unemployment rate among women in Oman himself was 12% more than the world average of 8%.
I believe microfinance can play an important role in this direction.
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