Terms of use

1. About the fund

A group of Yemeni professionals who came to the Netherlands kept seeing the same thing: someone they knew hit by a sudden bill, with nowhere dignified to turn. Rather than help case by case, they chose to organise it. Each member contributes a small amount every month; when a member faces an urgent need, the group lends from that shared pool without interest, and the repayments make the next loan possible.

Because there is no legal entity, there is no institution standing behind the arrangement. The money is the members’ own, held and administered by volunteers among them. Nobody is paid, there are no offices, and the only rules are the ones the members agreed between themselves (النظام الأساسي). Any member may ask for a copy of those rules, and for the accounts, at any time.

Where this page differs from the rules the members agreed, or from a loan agreement you have signed, those documents decide. If the group ever registers as a formal organisation, members will be told before it happens.

2. Using this website

This site describes the fund and lets you write to it. Everything on it is general information, not financial or legal advice, and nothing here is an offer to lend to anyone. We keep the site accurate, but we cannot promise it is complete or always available.

The text, design and logo belong to the fund. You are welcome to link to the site or print a page for your own use; please ask before republishing it. Use the forms only to write to the fund about membership or support — not to send advertising, and not to attempt to disrupt the site.

3. Membership

• Membership means committing to a monthly contribution, starting at €5. You choose the amount.
• There is no joining fee and no charge for being a member.
• You may raise, lower, pause or stop your contribution at any time by telling the board. If you have a loan outstanding, its repayment schedule continues as agreed.
• Contributions build a shared pool that the group lends from. They are not a deposit, not a savings account, not held for you individually, and not protected by any guarantee scheme.
• What happens to contributions if you leave the fund is set out in the statutes. Ask the board before you join if this matters to you.
• Every member has the same right to ask for support, whatever they contribute.

4. Asking for support

• Support is for members whose contributions are up to date. The statutes set out how long someone must have been contributing before a first request.
• You ask through the form on this site or by writing to the board.
• The board decides. It weighs how urgent the need is and what the fund can afford at that moment while staying able to help others. A request is not a right, and the board may refuse one.
• Requests are confidential to the board. They are not discussed with the membership, and reports to members show totals, never names.

5. The loan itself

• No interest and no fees. You repay exactly the amount you received.
• The amount is agreed between you and the board, within what the fund can safely lend at the time.
• A two-month grace period runs from the day the money reaches you, during which nothing is due.
• Repayment in full within twelve months of receiving the money, in equal monthly instalments after the grace period.
• Agreed in writing before the money is transferred: the amount, the instalments and the dates.

6. Repaying, and when you cannot

Repaying is what allows the fund to help the next member, so the obligation is real. But the fund exists because life is unpredictable.

If you cannot pay an instalment, tell the board before it falls due. A schedule can be rearranged. What the fund asks is that you talk to it rather than go quiet. If repayments stop without contact, the board follows the steps in the statutes, which may include ending membership and recovering what is owed.

7. Honest information

The board decides on the strength of what you tell it. Information that turns out to be knowingly false is grounds to refuse a request, to call in a loan, or to end membership under the statutes.

8. What the fund is not

To be as clear as we can, in one place:

• Not a registered organisation. No company, no foundation, no association entered in any register, and no charity status — so contributions are not tax-deductible donations and no receipt for tax purposes can be issued.
• Not a bank or a credit provider. It takes no deposits, pays no return on contributions, charges no interest and makes no profit.
• Not supervised. No financial authority oversees it and no deposit guarantee applies. What protects a member is the group’s own rules and open books.
• Not an investment. Contributions buy no share of anything and earn nothing. They are a commitment to a common pool.

What it is: a group of people who know each other, lending their own money to one another without interest, and keeping honest records of it.

9. Liability

The members who organise the fund act in good faith, in their own time and without payment. To the extent the law allows, neither they nor the group are liable for loss arising from the use of this website, from a decision to refuse a request, or from a delay caused by circumstances outside their control. Nothing here limits liability for intent or deliberate recklessness.

Because the initiative has no legal personality, agreements are between members personally. That is the honest position, and it is one more reason the group keeps its rules written down and its accounts open to every member.

10. Law and disputes

These terms are governed by Dutch law. If something cannot be settled by talking to the board — which is how the fund would always rather resolve it — the dispute goes to the competent court in the district of Midden-Nederland, Utrecht, unless the statutes provide otherwise.

We may update these terms; the date at the top shows when they last changed. How we handle your information is described in our privacy policy.

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