One idea that had been brought up earlier was www.kiva.org. The 'Patan Business and Professional Women' Organisation is supporting microfinancing in Nepal with the capital of online donors through this website. Unfortunately Sabina could not get hold of them yet: there is only an email address on the website under which they didn't reply and she couldn't find their phone number :(

a little surfing did me came up with this number

CONTACT INFORMATION
Address : 3180 18th St
Suite 201
San Francisco
California
94110
United States
Phone : +1 (415) 358 7524
Fax : +1 (415) 552 5780
Email : partherships@kiva.org
Website address : http://www.kiva.org/about/pic

Fund Name Kiva Microfunds
Inception year 2005
Legal status Non-profit public benefit corporation registered in the state of California.
Country of incorporation : United States
Fund objectives / Philosophy Named as one of the top ideas in 2006 by the New York Times Magazine, Kiva (www.kiva.org) is enables MFIs to raise debt capital directly from social investors via the internet. Kiva provides MFIs 0% interest US dollar debt capital in exchange for client impact transparency on the internet. MFIs on-lend this capital at prevailing interest rates and keep all the interest income. Losses arising from client default are borne by Kiva?s social investor.

Since launching in October 2005, over 80 MFIs in over 40 countries have raised 0% interest debt capital from over 250,000 social investors via Kiva.org. Some of the worlds most reputable MFIs have raised hundreds of thousands of dollars within months, including MFIs affiliated with ACCION, Grameen, Unitus and Pro Mujer. Smaller, less established MFIs, also use Kiva?s online platform as a source of growth capital and a way to prove their legitimacy to larger funders over time. All MFIs benefit from significantly reducing their cost of capital and exhibiting their work and impact to an international audience (Kiva is the most trafficked website in microfinance with hundreds of thousands of site visitors each month).
OTHER AFFILIATION
Organization/Company
Address Comment Contact Info
No affiliation
FUND DESCRIPTION
Type of Fund Private Investor
Type of Instruments Loans and Debt Securities
# Eligible Partners Bank
# Non Bank financial institution
# Cooperative/Credit Union
# Non profit (NGO)
# Region(s) of Investment
Fund Assets USD 22,000,000 ( as of 2008-02-11)
Fund Assets allocated to MF Investments USD 22,000,000 ( as of 2008-02-11)
Fund Assets invested in or committed to MF Investments, but not yet disbursed USD 0 ( as of 2008-02-11)
Number of Active MF Investments 80 ( as of 2008-02-11)
New Funds allocated to MF Investments projected in the next 12 months USD 50,000,000 ( as of 2008-02-11)
Countries with MF Investments Afghanistan, Azerbaijan, Benin, Bolivia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Cambodia, Cameroon, Cote D'Ivoire (Ivory Coast), Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Ghana, Guatemala, Honduras, Indonesia, Iraq, Kenya, Lebanon, Mali, Mexico, Moldova, Mozambique, Nepal, Nicaragua, Nigeria, Pakistan, Paraguay, Peru, Samoa, Senegal, Sierra Leone, Sudan, Tajikistan, Tanzania, Togo, Uganda, Ukraine, Vietnam
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Dear Maya,
First let me welcome you to Nabuur and Yoshinkhel! If you have any questions about any tasks, don't hesitate to contact me :)

Thanks for the contact info you found - I think it really might be best to try to contact the organisation in general if the Nepalese partner doesn't respond...although I wonder if it shouldn't be "partnerships" instead of "partherships" in the email address ;)

Sabina, do you want to try that? If that also doesn't bring any response maybe one of our neighbours in the States could call there? It really does sound like a worthwhile option...
Best, Angelika

Tks Maya for providing detail.

Of course, please let neighbour try to contact directly and see the outcome. Obviously it is worthwhile option.

Tks again.
Sabina

After trying several time, I finally got contact no of 'Patan Business and Professional Women' and had talked to President Urmila Shrestha. According to her, they provide loan interest rate @ 10% p.a. withour any collatoral but in group guarantee. Currently they are working for Patan areas and certain places in Kathmandu but not Bhaktapur areas.However, for detail information and possibiltiies, I will be meeting her tomorrow. Let's see , if it works.

Sabina

Sabina, good on you for persevering with this! I am hoping that a few kilometers is not going to come between you and the women getting a loan. I thought Bhaktapur was part of kathmandu anyway! Let us know how you go.
Best regards Carolyn

I had a good meeting . They agreed to give loan to our knitting women group but still it takes time as they told me that they have to get approval from Central bank here which may take time to extend their working area i.e. for Bhaktapur area.

We have to search another option to get seed money to set up for women business.

regards
Sabina

Hi Sabina- that is wonderful news indeed! Yay- finally some progress on the funding side of things.

Is the seed funding you mentioned in addition to the Kiva loan? Or is it money you need NOW and can't really wait for the Kiva process.

Yeah, the seed money is besides the kiva loan. We cannot wait for kiva process. So we keep up searching for organization who provide grants for such program.

sabina

How much money are you hoping to to find? is the seed funding to expand the knitting business or do something else?

We are hoping seed funding to expand the knitting business. It is approximately $2500.

Sabina

Wow! It is great that you managed to establish contact finally, even though money might not be forthcoming immediately - of course it is worth to keep on searching for other grant possibilities, but at least there is a perspective! Let's see what we might be able to get together with the calendar as well...
Best regards, Angelika