Grameen Foundation (GF) seeks to enable Indonesia’s poor & poorest to become self-sufficient by expanding an existing network of poor franchisees, mostly women, building out a portfolio of mobile phone-enabled microfranchise business opportunities that can increase their incomes, and employing market- based approaches that leverage the mobile phone's ability to create two-way information flows and
connect the poorest to the services and opportunities that will help them lift themselves out of poverty
* When first adopting the microfranchise business, most women do not have experience in the basics of running a business: marketing, cash flow and inventory management, customer service
* Face to face training is delivered byRuma field officers to the women when they enter the portfolio and at regular intervals
* Proposed solution is a private, secure mobile service that connects women in peer groups to ensure they feel comfortable asking questions, offers “in-the-moment” advice and assistance
* Indonesia has the #1 largest number of mobile Facebook users in the world, and the #2 largest number of overall Facebook users in the world behind the United States. There is a strong culture of community that Ruma taps into with its mobile connectivity philosophy and scaling model.
