Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status update — March 25, 2021

GHAPE stopped fundraising and suspended repayments to Kiva in 2018 during a period of violent civil conflict in northern Cameroon. Since then, the organization has been unresponsive to communication from Kiva. We are aware that the organization is operating and are glad that they are continuing to serve their community, but we do not think further repayment from GHAPE is likely. We are therefore defaulting their remaining loans and closing the partnership.

Status update — October 8, 2018

GHAPE has suspended operations due to ongoing violent conflict in the areas of northwest and southwest Cameroon that it serves. Since GHAPE is unable to contact many borrowers or hold meetings out of concern for staff and borrower safety, the organization is unable to collect repayments at this time. For the time being, Kiva is suspending repayments from GHAPE until they can resume normal operations. Thank you for your understanding and compassion.

Original Partner Description:

Grounded and Holistic Approach to People's Empowerment (GHAPE) is a registered non-governmental, not-for-profit and apolitical organization dedicated to poverty alleviation in Cameroon, West Africa. GHAPE believes poverty is one of the oldest diseases known to mankind, and that it is a "germ" caused by the vast greed of this world. Bernadette A. Ngoh founded GHAPE in October 1998 in order to help fight this disease and improve the plight of the world's unfortunate class, "the poor."

GHAPE’s mission is to make credit accessible to the bottom fifty percent (50%) of those living below the poverty line. By providing credit that can be used for investment in income-generating activities, GHAPE works to improve its client's quality of life and, in doing so, make the world a better place. All of GHAPE's activities are geared towards sustainable poverty alleviation.

Client Assessment: Targeting the poor remains a central issue in poverty alleviation policies and programs. In seeking to serve the poorest of the poor, GHAPE has developed the Basic Needs Test (BNT), a poverty measurement and targeting tool used for screening eligibility into GHAPE's programs. The BNT is constructed under the premise that the basic needs of life - food, water, shelter, clothing, lighting, health and education - are universal. The BNT is adaptable to the realities of each community GHAPE serves, and it is designed to reflect the gravity of each basic need component. The application of the BNT is also participatory.

Program Design: The problems facing the poor, especially poor women and young people, are multiple and interrelated. Because of this, GHAPE has developed an innovative poverty alleviation package, Empowerment Credit (EC), which contains the fundamental empowerment resources required to fight abject poverty. Included in EC are trainings (business development service), credit and social education. To guarantee sustainability and maximize GHAPE's scarce resources, this package is administered sequentially, and it simultaneously meets the current and emerging needs of borrowers.

The attributes of GHAPE's EC program design are simple and straightforward:

1) The BNT is used to determine eligibility.

2) Five self-chosen eligible individuals form a group.

3) Eight groups form a center.

4) Individuals within groups are given loans for self-chosen activities for which they have received training.

Program Reach: GHAPE Loans have been disbursed to over 1160 borrowers, and amounts range from $30 to $800. Repayment rate has remained 100% since inception. Loans have been invested in groceries, food cultivation, vegetable gardening, poultry, pig and goat farming, tailoring, embroidery, restaurants and mobile snacks vendors.

A unique approach to lending:

The demand for GHAPE services has continued to increase. Today GHAPE is faced with many challenges such as inadequate credit funds, training materials and computers, poor accounting software. GHAPE's partnership with Kiva, however, is a powerful step towards becoming a stronger and more sustainable organization.

You can contact GHAPE at info@ghape.org

Status update - October 22, 2013

Kiva has changed the due diligence type attributed to GHAPE from Full to Basic to reflect the level of due diligence that we have been able to perform at the organization. Though Kiva staff have visited GHAPE several times -- as is standard with our full due diligence process -- due to the organization's size and systems, it does not meet our minimum requirements for a full due diligence. However, GHAPE does meet our requirements for a basic due diligence, and has been a loyal Kiva partner working hard to bolster livelihoods among its vulnerable clients since 2007.