Vision Fund

VisionFund focuses its financial services on the families and communities where World Vision works. As part of the World Vision partnership, VFI serves people in need regardless of race, religion, gender or ethnicity. World Vision predominantly focuses its attention in poor rural areas, because they are often more neglected and unable to get financial help.

In addition, VisionFund’s preferred target groups include:

• The hardworking poor who have a desire to be microentrepreneurs, but have never been given a chance. Helping them truly portrays VisionFund. This practice helps the community to lift itself out of poverty more quickly than would otherwise occur.
• Microentrepreneurs with prior business skills. They are more likely to repay their loans and are a natural fit to be mentors and help implement best practices to new microentrepreneurs.
• Women Entrepreneurs. Many studies have verified that female entrepreneurs use their business income more for the needs of their children than male clients, and thus more readily help communities lift themselves out of poverty.

VisionFund provides the poor with financial choices at reasonable interest rates. Through their work, a family is able to accumulate assets and build up their small businesses one step at a time. Their aim is to provide the necessary training and resources for each family to maintain the provision of food for their children, create savings for emergency needs, afford medical care for their family, build up their businesses and send their children to school.

As their financial prospects grow, families will have more options and can even access more advanced credit markets through VisionFund. VisionFund's partner microfinance institutions may also offer access to other financial services such as micro-savings or micro-insurance.