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In over twenty countries, we provide poor people with the tools they need to fight poverty themselves.
SCC offers training to smallscale farmers, which makes it possible for them to earn a living from their farming. Our support to local housing cooperatives means that the members can build their homes together, and our microfinance projects offer poor people the chance to save and borrow. Poverty is not only about lack of money, but also lack of opportunity and influence. This is why we are also involved in campaigning work to increase people’s power.
Results our work
Our work during 2009 has, for example, led to:
• Over a thousand farmers in Honduras increasing their vegetable harvests by 42 percent over three years.
• Farmers in nine districts in Malawi being trained in their rights, for example the right to agricultural guidance, and launching negotiations with local authorities on better support.
• Study circle material, including seven books, being produced and distributed in Africa.
• The establishment of an inter-regional programme for housing issues in Africa
• The approval by the Nicaragua Congress of a housing act making it easier for cooperatives to gain access to cheap municipal land and state grants. The decision was made following persistent lobbying from the housing movement.
• Ten poor families from the slum areas in Asunción, Paraguay, forming a cooperative and completing their homes. It was a pilot project that was such a success that the state has now come on board to finance a further 300 homes according to our model.
• An increase in membership numbers in savings groups in Uganda to 43,000, a third of whom are women.
• Basic financial training for 6,000 members of savings groups in northern Tanzania.
• An additional 11,000 poor people in Kenya taking out microinsurance policies covering health and accidents.
• SCC carrying out a study in Latin America on the best way | 
