Peter Apps
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/ 21 December 2007

Citigroup sees microfinance growth

Microfinance services for the world’s very poor will likely continue to grow despite any global downturn, Citigroup says, but said the sector must diversify beyond small loans to saving and insurance schemes. Citigroup is seen as one of the leaders in the microfinance sector amongst major global banks.

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/ 18 December 2007

Microcredit helps half a billion, problems remain

Microcredit, tiny loans to the world’s poorest, is booming and now benefits more than half a billion people but Africa and Latin America lag behind Asia and unscrupulous lenders are cashing in. The Microcredit Summit Campaign surveyed more than 3 000 microcredit bodies around the world and found they reported reaching 133-million people by the end of 2006.

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/ 16 October 2007

Cost of food aid soars as need rises

A ”perfect storm” of drought, conflict and rising costs has increased the ranks of the chronically hungry by millions of people, and forced aid workers to find and fund longer-term solutions to the food crisis. The United Nations says the number of hungry people worldwide rises by an average of four million each year.

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/ 19 September 2007

Zim kids endure harrowing trip to SA

Economic crisis, hunger and the impact of Aids are pushing Zimbabwean children as young as seven to risk exploitation and walk alone or in small groups into South Africa, aid group Save the Children said on Wednesday. Hungry, tired and often orphaned, the children come in hope of food, work or schooling.

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/ 31 July 2007

World battles to halt use of child soldiers

The end of brutal wars in West Africa and global efforts to halt recruitment have cut the number of child soldiers, but experts say vulnerable children are still forced into battle from Latin American to Asia. Armed with Kalashnikovs and machetes, traumatised children were at the heart of wars in the 1990s in Sierra Leone and the Democratic Republic of Congo.