SAMHITA

  • Location:  Rewa, Madhya Pradesh, India
  • Started microfinance operations:  December 2007
  • Unitus Partnership Start Date:  January 2008
  • Current clients served:  30,348


Background: Samhita Community Development Services was founded by Praseeda Kunam in December of 2007 with the vision of addressing the core requirements for a life with dignity and quality for underprivileged communities. Currently, Samhita provides economic services to women in the harder to reach segments of the Rewa district of Madhya Pradesh.  Madhya Pradesh is one of the poorest, most remote, and hardest to serve states in India with over 37% of the population living below the poverty line. Towns in Madhya Pradesh have a 25% slum population, significantly higher than the all-India average of 14%.

Leadership: Praseeda Kunam brings a wealth of experience into her role as Founder and CEO of Samhita. In addition to working at ABN AMRO Foundation India and at SKS Microfinance as the Director of Operations, she holds an MBA and Master’s Degree in Information Management from the University of Washington in St. Louis. In February 2009, Praseeda was honored with an Indian Women Achievers Award for her role in providing economic and health services to disadvantaged women.

Product offerings and clientele: In addition to microfinance services, Samhita aims to be an incubator for other specialized development initiatives, including micro-enterprise development, health and education. Their current offerings focus of microfinance loans and micro-entrepreneur development training for women.

Highlights and growth strategy: Samhita’s mission is to develop a network of sustainable and scalable community initiatives that deliver positive economic, health, educational and environmental impact to disadvantaged communities. Since partnering with Unitus in February 2008, Samhita has greatly increased their services; currently, they reach over 20,000 clients through 21 branches (as of 2/28/09). They also received the “Most Promising Business Idea - I” award at the prestigious Srijan 2008 Microfinance Business Plan Competition in July 2008. By December 2010, Samhita aims to expand their services to reach over 143,500 clients.

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