Focus Areas

Investing in people is a long-term effort, but the benefits are immense in terms of promoting opportunities, possibilities, and social mobility.

Within the grants programme, we collaborate in education projects, either through the construction of schools or through sponsorships.  These sponsorships include paying for the school fees, uniforms, school materials, meals, health coverage, and in the case of vulnerable children, mentoring support.

Similarly, we provide bicycles to children living in remote areas so that they can go to school.

Within our social investment programme, we fund companies that improve access to quality education in low-income communities and provide students with affordable loans to enable them to maximise their career potential.

Poverty and poor health are closely related. The life expectancy of the 5 poorest countries in the world is, on average, 20 years less than that of the 5 richest countries. A huge percentage of deaths in developing countries are due to a lack of basic health services.

Within the grants programme, we make contributions aimed at battling malnutrition and at offering basic health care to communities that do not have access to these services.

Within our social investment programme, we grant loans to companies whose mission is to provide quality health care, at affordable prices, to underserved communities, reducing the incidence of preventable diseases and human suffering.

Billions of people depend on agriculture as their main source of food and income. Many of these farmers, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa, cannot produce enough to feed their families.

We provide grants and loans to entities that offer small farmers solutions that improve their productivity. We also support entities that help increase and diversify farmers’ incomes and provide market access at fair prices for their crops.

Housing is a basic human right which, unfortunately, is beyond the reach of many.

Netri Foundation provides grants to build houses for the most vulnerable and the homeless.

Financial inclusion plays a vital role in reducing poverty and inequality. While the financial inclusion of the poorest may not have the miraculous transformative impact that some claimed in the early days of the growing microfinance industry, empirical studies have repeatedly shown that access to credit and other financial services has a positive impact in business creation and economic development.

These studies also reveal that the ability of households to access credit to deal with temporary periods of difficulty or emergencies, generates positive impact, strengthening their resilience and increasing their chances to prosper and follow a path out poverty.

We provide loans and guarantees to microfinance institutions (MFIs) focused on supporting entrepreneurs, mostly in rural areas, with microloans and financial services.

Today, more than a billion people worldwide do not have access to electricity. They spend a large portion of their income on kerosene, candles, and batteries. The vast majority of households living without electricity use kerosene for lighting, which produces toxic fumes.

We finance manufacturers and distributors of high quality and low-cost solar energy and home systems. These affordable solutions aim to improve the quality of life for households living off-grid.

This means:

• More hours of light at home for study, leisure, or productive activities.
• Better economic conditions, as kerosene is typically more expensive than basic solar alternatives.
• Improved health, due to less indoor pollution and less risk of fire.
• Greater connectivity, as solar lighting solutions often come with radio and phone charging facilities.

There are countless communities in the developing world that do not have access to drinking water, or if they do, their residents need to walk for hours to access it. Poor hygiene and unsafe water
consumption are some of the main causes of illness and malnutrition, contributing significantly to high infant mortality rates.

Spending time collecting water causes many girls to be unable to go to school, and their mothers to be unable to engage in more productive activities.

We offer help for the construction of water wells and other development projects related to clean water supply.