Hand In Hand Sweden

Look at poverty differrently and you’ll see grassroots entrepreneurs, full of energy and ideas. We help turn that potential into jobs, and they discover a way up, and out of poverty. Hand in Hand is a public charitable trust operating in India, Kenya, Zimbabwe and Afghanistan. Our mission is to reduce poverty and child labour through sustainable job creation that raises family income. We do so through social and economic empowerment of some of the poorest and most marginalised people and we focus particularly on women. Raising family income contributes to greater food security, better education for children, better housing and increased access to medicines and healthcare. By focusing on strengthening women, their children and the entire family are benefitted and gain a better life. Our work model is based on a help to self-help approach by equipping poor people with the knowledge and skills needed to gain better livelihoods in order to lift themselves out of poverty. We work in four key stages. First we create community groups, mainly women, who support each other, save together and learn together. Then we train them to discover and develop small businesses that make use of their skills and potential. Next we provide access to safe microloans and the support across the group ensures they are paid back. Finally we help scale up members’ businesses and take them to bigger markets, which in turn benefits their families and communities. In India we have also broadened our work to include civic information, education, the environment and health initiatives. Hand in Hand Sweden is a non-profit NGO accredited with account number 90 00 91-0. 90-series accounts are granted to not-for-profit fundraising bodies and comply with strict auditing standards.