The School of Applied Microfinance, in conjunction with the MasterCard Foundation is pleased to announce the awardees of the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program for 2008.
The MasterCard Foundation is an independent, private charitable foundation, based in Toronto, Canada. The foundation provides funds for programming in the areas of microfinance and youth education.  Their goal is to help create opportunities for people to harness their own skills and resources. The MasterCard Foundation works to broaden access to the global economy through establishing, funding and supporting innovative microfinance programs, and by increasing access to quality educational opportunities. This includes the provision of scholarships, bursaries and grants for educational purposes, in accordance with its focus on microfinance capacity building.

More specifically, The MasterCard Foundation has created the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program. The main purpose of this program is to provide scholarship funds for people who are active in micro-finance and who are seeking further training, but who could not otherwise afford to attend courses at leading microfinance training institutions. The scholarship fund is administered through selected institutions, one of them being the School of Applied Microfinance.

Through sam, the program had a record number of strong applicants from 25 countries across the world.  We congratulate the scholarship recipients, who will attend sam 2008 from 8th - 19th September 2008.

The awards were in 3 categories, and the winners are as follows:

Level 1 - $ 5,000

 Name
 Institution
 Country
 
1.  Mona Shady,  MF and Capacity Building Consultant, Egypt
 
2. S. P. Premaratne, University of Colombo,  Sri Lanka
 
3. Anne Gathuku, K-Rep Development Agency,  Kenya
 

Level 2 - $ 4,500

 Name
 Institution
 Country
 
1. Bassey Ndon Daniel, Venture Vanguard Ltd, Nigeria
 
2. Stephen Olesogun Obadan, Succesory Nigeria Ltd, Nigeria
 
3. Rosette Nsonga, Organization for Capacity Building Initiative, Uganda
 
4. Abbas Abdul Razaq Al-Saedy, Al-Thiqa Org. for Microfinance, Iraq
 
5. Ugyen Lham, Druk Associates, Bhutan
 
6. Btissam Derdari, Zakoura Foundation, Morocco
 
7. Merere Mwambene, Enterprise &Microfinance Advisory Services, Tanzania
 
8. Specioza Mashauri, Tanzania Chamber of Commerce Industry and Agriculture
 Tanzania
 

 Level 3 - $ 3,000

 Name
 Institution
 Country
 
1. Martins G. O. Uriah, Lavunkpan Microfinance Bank, Nigeria
 
2. Muqqaddas Pulotova, ISIDA LLC, Tajikistan
 
3. Peter Kahunyo Njuguna, World Council of Credit Unions, Kenya
 
4. R. Thirunavakurasu, Mimo Finance, India
 
5. Mark Nyerere, Sudan Microfinance Institution, Sudan
 
6. Joseph Omoding, PRIDE Uganda, Uganda
 
7. Ruhi Das, BASTOB Initiative for Self Development, Bangladesh
 
8. Dyson Chavula, PRIDE Malawi, Malawi
 
9. Rose Wambua, Association for the Physically Disabled, Kenya
 
10. Ngwatom Jacinta Shirri Fumukong, Cameroon Co-Op Credit Union, Cameroon
 
11. Tombola Ildephonse, Turame Community Bank, Burundi
 
12. Ahmed N. Mokhtar Ebrahim, Alexander Business Association, Egypt
 
13. Abilabonga Rodriguez Nkeze, Oasis Microfinance, Cameroon
 
14. Jacqueline Nyaga, FAULU, Kenya
 
15. George Maina, FAULU, Kenya
 
16. Dave Odigie, USAID Markets Project, Nigeria
 

Thank you for your interest in the School of Applied Microfinance and the MasterCard Foundation Scholars Program.

For more details on our next program, log on to www.samtrinaing.org or write to info@samtraining.org.

Best Regards,

Mutuo Mbilla
Course Coordinator, School of Applied Microfinance
www.samtraining.org
____________________________________________________

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