Microcredit Customer of the week = Ecopra Caffungi , growing mushrooms on coffee residue

Less than a year ago, Ecopra knocked on our door for a micro loan. They were crazy enthusiast for bringing their new product to the market. The idea was to collect coffee residue from local bars with a bike and produce mushrooms by using the coffee residue. The owners were so enthusiast, that I could only accept support their project. Off course their financial plan was also well developed but at microStart we first look at the person. In this case, the owners were/ are very trustworthy and their project was very good. The first idea was to conduct only B2B. However, the first half a year was a bumpy road. They were forced to take a second microcredit due to liquidity issues. The team proved to be resilient and changed the focus to B2C. Ecopra, under the label Caffungi now produces mushroom kit. This kit holds coffee residue and the mushroom can grow easily in your home. I had the chance to taste these mushrooms and I must say, they were delicious! This weekend Ecopra launches Caffungi in Carrefour Schoten, one of the largest retailers in Belgium. We wish them a lot of success and I can’t wait to purchase one of this kits myself! Watch the video (in Dutch) here: http://atv.be/nieuws/antwerpse-chefs-prijzen-zelfgekweekte-oesterzwammen-aan-20191#.VjkLmkbF4Fw.facebook

Starterslabo, Start

Toets aan de markt, is een workshop in het project Start van Starterslabo. Kandidaten stellen hun project voor. Ik mocht zetelen in de jury samen met Wilfied Marien van PMV Vlaanderen, de organisatie die startersleningen geeft aan (aspirant) ondernemers met zeer gunstige interestvoeten die niet bij de bank terecht kunnen. Net zoals microStart maar zonder begeleiding, sociale inslag en hogere bedragen. Een microkrediet van microStart telt als eigen inbreng bij PMV. Hierdoor kunnen starters met meer middelen opstarten en of uitbreiden indien het nodig is. microStart X PMV is een mooie samenwerking waar reeds vele klanten mee gediend zijn geweest.

Ideaal dat Wilfried en ik dan in de jury zaten. De cursisten van Starterslabo stelde zeer leuke projecten voor: veganistische catering, tentenverhuur, lokaal gidsen, financieel makelaar, crystal stenen verkoper, shiatsu massage en meubelstoffeerder. 6 van de 7 projecten had zeker potentieel. Hieronder enkel foto’s van de aspirant ondernemers. Ik hoop dat zij alle 6 hun ondernemersloon waarmaken want ik ben alvast toekomstige klant van een aantal producten!

Throwback Thursday for microStart Antwerp

In 2 weeks we are celebrating 1 year official opening of microStart Antwerp. I can’t believe that the official opening was 18 November 2014. So many things have happened ever since. I started setting up microStart Antwerp in March 2014. In the beginning I didn’t have an office and a lot of people came to my house. I saw other people in their own business or in restaurants and bars. It was difficult to work, yet I arrived at 40 micro credits before I hired a microcredit advisor. In August 2014, we both worked side by side to make sure that we could open the microcredit agency before the end of the year. Pieter Vermeyen, my first advisor of microStart and I worked on the average more than 12 hours a day. In the summer I remodelled an old BNP Paribas office and on November 18 2014 we opened our office officially. Here a few photos to what our office used to look like…

This is what the original BNP Paribas office looked like before we tore it all dozn to create microStart Antwerp. 

Tearing it all down….

Time Flies: It's Already Been a Year! →

Amanda Good has been working for one year with street children in Rwanda, for an organisation called Hope for Life Ministries. In order to continue this project and achieve results 12,000 US dollars need to be raised. Read her story and decide. You can make a tax deductible contribution by mailing a check to “Breakthrough Partners”, Breakthrough Partners, 110 Third Avenue N., Ste. 101 
 Edmonds, WA 98020 *Make sure to note “HFLM: Amanda Good”. Or you can use a credit card online at: http://www.hopeforlifeministry.org/donate.html.

“Love yourself enough to surround yourself with people who respect you. The company you keep is a reflection of how you feel about yourself.”
— Unknown (via deeplifequotes)

BNP Paribas x Incofin

Benevolab, the volunteer organisation of BNP organised a walking dinner presenting ‘Investing in Microfinance’ by Fadoua Boudiba, invest manager MENA at Incofin. This presentation was very interesting laying out the key aspects on why an investment management firm would invest in a Microfinance agency. She took us through the entire due diligence process. This gives me ideas that should use her due diligence process on our own microStart Antwerp agency. Fadoua Boudiba, presented us the case of Faten, a Palestian Microfinance institution. She also presented the tools that can be used and checked in a MFI. A few are listed below:
PiiF principles for investors in inclusive finance ( principles for responsible investment )
Social performance task force (sptf)
Smart Campaign.
Mftransparency
Responsible lending
(AML check)
Echos tool
Mixmarket.com
Planet finance

The event continued by BNP Paribas Benevolab presenting a few volunteers that have completed missions abroad. These were Jan Populaire whom completed a mission at ADSJ in Lome, Togo and Magali Henry who completed a mission in Rwanda, Gitarama. There was a large turn up of potential volunteers for Benevolab and funny enough these volunteers are also microStart volunteers. The microStart x BNP volunteers are also Exchange volunteers! Well everyone contributes and gives back. Every good event should always come with a free goodie so we received a book 'La course de Microfinance’. An eventing can never go wrong with s free book!!

Vrijwilligersbeurs in Merksem 

 Momenteel staan Jente en ik op de Vrijwilligersbeurs in Merksem. Zoals ik vorige week reeds schreef vrijwilligt 1 op 8 in Vlaanderen. Wij zijn steeds op zoek naar meer vrijwilligers om onze organisatie te steunen. Onze ondernemers hebben extra begeleiding nodig voor de opstart en/of uitbreiding van hun zaak. Via vrijwilligers kunnen wij de gratis cursussen Bedrijfsbeheer, KickStart, boekhouden, sociale media marketing, projectmontage en coaching. Momenteel zoeken wij mensen die kunnen begeleiden maar ook een vrijwilliger gespecialiseerd in wordpress. Bij ons krijg je een immersie in de wereld van microkredieten. In Merksem zijn we specifiek op zoek naar vrijwilligers en mensen die ons kunnen helpen om meer ondernemers in Antwerpen op te starten. Welke cursussen bieden we ? Even enkele info: Wat is Bedrijfsbeheer? Deze cursus overloopt alle kennis die je nodig hebt om het examen Bedrijfsbeheer van het Agentschap Ondernemen te slagen. In 6 sessies overlopen we met jou een aantal type vragen en verhogen jouw slaagkansen op het examen. De deelname is volledig gratis. Inschrijven op het MicroStart kantoor is wel verplicht. KickStart? Ben je opstart klaar maar heb je nood om je project te evalueren en te structureren? Dan is Kickstart iets voor jou! In 3 weken en 8 sessies overlopen we alle aspecten van het ondernemersplan, alsook de praktische stappen die je moet doorlopen om als ondernemer te starten. Boekhouden? Deze cursus helpt je om de taken van je boekhouder beter te begrijpen en om op een eenvoudige manier uw administratie en financiële opvolging op orde te krijgen. Aan de hand van praktische oefeningen leer je de voornaamste boekhoudkundige regels en leer je een efficiënt documentenbeheer. Vanaf 6 kandidaten kan de cursus worden ingepland. Projectmontage ? In een individuele afspraak van 1 uur overloopt een expert uw ondernemers -of financieel plan. Hij analyseert, overdenkt en structureert met jou de verschillende aspecten van uw idee en toetst de haalbaarheid. Contacteer ons: francine.carron@microstart.be

Virunga the movie Stealing resources and de-stabling regions. Writing all that stuff about colonisation made me think about the movie I just watched. Virunga the movie which is about the protected Virunga National Park in East Congo. Again the bottom line of the movie was an international British company undermining the national park. The national park’s director is a Belgian Prince who like Dian Fossey cares very much about the faith of the mountain gorillas. The director slash prince is called Emmanuel de Merode. A very famous royal last name. The company that is attempting to undermine Virunga is called SOCO and they want to drill oil in the Virunga National Park. The Virunga National Park is home to many mountain gorillas on the Congo side. The park has been infiltrated by poachers for quite some time. Gorilla meat seems to be a delicatessen in international markets such as London and in Asia the hand of a mountain gorilla is used by the wealthy as a cigar ashtray. In the park you will find gorillas with an amputated hand, rescued by park rangers. Soco couldn’t care less about mountain gorillas and is now financing the rebels M23 in East Congo in order to get control over the national park. Deals have been closed with the Rebels through a British subcontractor slash mercenary. The construction is to keep SOCO so called clean. The Belgian Director of the park is doing everything in its power for this not to happen! They even tried to kill him. He got shot multiple times but he survived. How much more can I say, dark forces are always present trying to destabilise and extract resources out of Africa? Certain sources say that Socco has halted its operations but others say they are continuing with the help of the rebels. This movie is a must see movie; currently available on Netflix. It’s not a movie; it’s a real life documentary. http://virungamovie.com