ESAF History

From Mustard Seed to Mighty Tree: The Inspiring Journey of ESAF

The story of ESAF is akin to the growth of a mustard seed. A humble beginning that flourishes to be impactful and provides shelter to many. The seeds were sown in the early 1990s. Burning issues of the day like unemployment of the educated youth and abject poverty in the rural households stirred Mr. Paul Thomas, his wife Mrs. Mereena Paul, and Dr. Jacob Samuel – who were members of the Kerala Evangelical Graduates’ Fellowship (EGF) – to think radically about the relevance of their faith in addressing the social issues around them. Based on the conviction that the command of Jesus Christ, “Love your neighbor as yourself’’ has a social dimension, they brainstormed for several months on how to translate their conviction into action. Their mustard seed-like faith put into action resulted in the formation of the Evangelical Social Action Forum (ESAF) in 1992 to serve the poor and the marginalized and create opportunities for their holistic development.

ESAF’s humble beginning is best captured from the house where it started its operations ‘Little’ – the rented house of Mr Paul Thomas & family. ESAF started its operations by organising neighbourhood woman self-help groups(SHGs) as early as 1994, and other community-led development activities in kerala’s Thrissur district. The commitment towards the poor and underprivileged made ESAF expand its operations to several remote districts of Maharashtra, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh, and Tamil Nadu in the initial years itself.

Career guidance for youths, providing micro-credit and micro-enterprise promotions to SHGs, community-based health interventions including mental health, counseling, home-based care and livelihood interventions for people living with HIV /AIDS, disaster response, etc., were some of ESAF’s earlier areas of intervention. Over the years, ESAF has partnered with several government agencies, national and international organizations, and has received several national and international recognition. ESAF’s social-business model helped start 18 social enterprises in various sectors and the mustard tree is impacting more than 3.5 million lives across 16 states in India.

ESAF Founders

Mr. Paul Thomas

Founder- ESAF Group of Social Enterprises

K. Paul Thomas is the Founder of the ESAF Group of Social Enterprises, which includes the ESAF Society and ESAF Small Finance Bank. He founded ESAF as a non-profit organisation in 1992 by organizing neighbourhood women into self-help groups (SHGs).
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Mrs. Mereena Paul

Director

Mereena Paul is a renowned social entrepreneur and co-founder of ESAF. She is the Chairperson of AMCOS (Association of Multistate Cooperative Societies in Kerala) and serves on the board of various organisations and associations.

Dr. Jacob Samuel

Director

Dr Jacob Samuel is the co-founder of ESAF. He started his career in the medical field and transitioned to the development sector after cofounding ESAF. He has acted as a mentor to Paul Thomas and continues to provide thought leadership to the organisation.

Awards & Recognitions For ESAF India

ESAF has gained public recognition by receiving awards from both National and International organizations for their accomplishments in providing innovative solutions to develop communities.

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IKEA, the furniture giant, selected ESAF as one of their partners to provide craft-based furnishing materials. Through this project, ESAF created thousands of jobs for otherwise unemployed tribal youths and women.

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ESAF Small Finance bank (A group institution) has won the prestigious European Microfinance Award in 2018.

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ESAF graded as NGO 2A by CARE. This grade indicates high delivery capability and high organizational capability.

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ESAF was recently empaneled by UNDP and graded as “Low risk and High sustainability “.

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ESAF’s master Craft man selected as the best craft man by JHARCRAFT, Jharkhand government initiative.

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Walking Visionary Award 2015 by Walk 21 Vienna.

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Trusted Partner of Development Commissioner of Handicrafts (DCH) under the Ministry of textiles for last 10 years in Promotion of Traditional Craft (Bell metal, wood, Screw pine)

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ESAF microfinance is Rated mfR 4 by CRISIL which recognizes quality in the aspects of Management, Institutional arrangements, Capital Adequacy and Asset Quality, Resources and asset-liability management, Operational effectiveness, and Scalability and sustainability.

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Selected for implementing Sanchar Sakthi project by Ministry of Tele Communication, Government of India

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Mix Market silver category Social performance award consecutively for two years

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ESAF Microfinance, another group institution, won the European Microfinance Award 2014 AND 2017 (only MFI from India) by the Government of Luxemburg

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ESAF Microfinance is Ranked as the top aggregator of the National Pension Scheme of the Government of India

ESAF India Impact – Map

29

Projects Undertaken

10

States influence

557,000

Directly Benefited

336,000

People directly reached through flood relief & rehabilitation

55,705

Acres of land used for agriculture

38,384+

Farmers Empowered

8,693KG

of Agri produce from 21 schools

4,760+

Rural women receive health awareness

4,873

Underprivileged youth and children get skill training and education

2,127+

Indigenous people get better livelihood opportunities

312,000

Reduced tonnes of carbon emissions

37

Public Spaces made inclusive