On August 9, 1956, approximately 20,000 women marched to the Union buildings in Pretoria, South Africa protesting the apartheid pass laws that restricted South Africans. These special identification documents further segregated the population and infringed on the free movement of black Africans during the apartheid era. Any white person could ask a black person to show it, and those caught without passes could be arrested.

Women’s Day in South Africa falls on August 9th of every year and commemorates the march and the impact women had in the fight against apartheid government. To honor Women’s Day, Shared Interest, a U.S.-based nonprofit dedicated to socioeconomic development in South Africa, held a reception full of South African women entrepreneurs and their products at the Kaia Wine Bar in downtown Manhattan on August 7th.

Every aspect of the event displayed South African women entrepreneurship, including South African entrepreneur-owned Kaia Bar. Wine at the event came from women-owned vineyards in South Africa, and the custom bead jewelry being auctioned was created by a South African artist.

Shared Interest strives to showcase the potential in South Africa, which according to the nonprofit does not suffer from a shortage of capital, but rather from unequal access to capital for the majority of the population.

AFKInsider spoke with Donna Katzin, Shared Interest’s founding director, to discuss the organization’s impact in the South African banking and finance sector, how the social investment fund uses partial loan guarantees to encourage commercial bank lending as well as its special work with South African women.

AFKInsider: What exactly is Shared Interest?

Donna Katzin: We do not lend money. We are a nonprofit social investment fund and our goal is to move South African financial institutions to lend to the 80 percent of their country that should be a market. We started back in 1994, right around when Nelson Mandela was elected. We try and help people make the reality of economic and commercial growth their own. We focus on helping black African entrepreneur farmers, homeowners…get access to credit from the country’s leading banks and financial institutions.

We do this with money that we borrow from people in the United States. In the same way like when a student cannot afford tuition. They can get a scholarship or loan because somebody has cosigned for their loan. We are basically cosigning these loans for these individuals in South Africa so that they can launch their businesses, build their homes etc.

We do not do this alone; we have a partner with an organization in South Africa, the Thembani International Guarantee Fund. Thembani organizes and provides the technical support that these borrowers need. Sometimes they are individuals and sometimes they’re cooperatives: a women’s, agricultural or cultural cooperative. So, individually and also at the community level, we are committed to helping South Africans and the next generation.

AFKInsider: Tell me more about the reception event

Donna Katzin: It was really a star-studded event celebrating South African women and particularly their struggles and vibrancy. Many other women have come together to make this event special. The entertainment, the woman who sang is Vuyelwa Booi, a really well known South African singer. She has helped produced programs on women speaking out in South Africa and Civil Rights.

AFKInsider: How do these guarantees work and what type of risk do you open yourself to?

Donna Katzin: We move on the idea of leverage. We want the institutions of the country to serve their own people. We guarantee up to 75 percent of the loan that we move the banks to make. There is risk. If people should default in South Africa, our guarantee would be called off and we would have to pay 75 percent of the loan. Our entrepreneurs are particularly good borrowers, however. In over 20 years, our guarantee losses have only been around 3 percent.