Press Room

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

NetHope’s Impact Goes Farther with the Addition of ACCION

November 02, 2009

Washington, DC—ACCION International, a private, nonprofit microfinance organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need to work their way out of poverty, has become the 28th member of NetHope, an information technology collaboration of leading non-governmental organizations (NGOs) specializing in humanitarian relief, emergency response, and conservation.

NetHope enables members to extend their communications infrastructure and Internet-based applications in developing countries around the world. Members share knowledge and collaborate on information and communications technology solutions, leveraging their power for capacity-building and creating best practices in the field.

ACCION CTO Chungli Tsai said, “NetHope offers ACCION a wonderful technology forum where we can collaborate with other NGO partners in helping to serve “bottom-of-the-pyramid” populations with advances in technology. NetHope’s resources and experiences in serving poor regions with innovative technology solutions should help us make significant strides in achieving our goals.”

NetHope CEO Bill Brindley said, “ACCION  fits nicely into the growing NetHope family of NGOs and senior technology professionals. Their addition increases our members’ collective capacity, notably in the financial services sphere, which will serve to enhance NetHope’s unique ability to deliver value to make the humanitarian sector more effective and productive as it serves those in greatest need.”

For more information about NetHope or ACCION International visit www.nethope.org or http://www.accion.org

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About NetHope

NetHope, Inc., which started in 2001, is a new-generation collaboration of technology professionals from 28 of the international community’s leading nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) representing over $33 billion (USD) of emergency relief, human development and conservation programs in more than 150 countries. Through member collaboration and by facilitating public-private partnerships with major technology companies, NetHope enables members to leverage their technology investments to better serve their end beneficiaries. For more information, visit www.nethope.org.

About ACCION International

ACCION International is a private, nonprofit organization with the mission of giving people the financial tools they need – microenterprise loans, business training and other financial services – to work their way out of poverty. A world pioneer in microfinance, ACCION was founded in 1961 and issued its first microloan in 1973 in Brazil. ACCION International’s partner microfinance institutions today are providing loans as low as $50 to poor men and women entrepreneurs in 23 countries in Latin America, Asia, Africa and the United States. In the last decade alone, ACCION partners have disbursed more than 28.5 million loans totaling $23.4 billion; 97 percent of the loans have been repaid.  For more information, visit www.accion.org.