Interest free micro loans
With the income from craft sales being irregular and frequently insufficient to sustain a family in Uganda, these women require a constant, reliable, and local source of revenue to manage their health needs and provide for their children. Many women have skills that can be applied in small local businesses, but they lack the formal education and collateral to acquire loans from local banks, which charge extremely high interest rates.
The AIDS Project for Women and Children-Uganda is launching this exciting new project to support WomenCrafters in their effort to provide these women with access to the financial resources that will enable their entrepreneurship. Each woman will apply to this new micro-loan initiative by participating in a workshop to develop a formal business plan, including a budget. This budget will describe the capital a woman needs to get her business off the ground--perhaps something as simple as a sewing machine to support a dressmaking business or several piglets to start a small-scale livestock tending operation. The women will also design a repayment schedule for their interest free loan and pledge to participate in ongoing assessment of the project’s outcomes.
The small revenues that these women will receive from their businesses will allow them to make scheduled repayments on their loan, which in turn will go into a pool of funds for future loans. Importantly, these revenues will also allow the women to buy basic necessities for their families, travel to the doctor, achieve an education and purchase food. Nutrition is an essential part of supporting a woman’s adherence to anti-retrovirals (ARVs)--the powerful drugs that help suppress HIV and keep these women healthy so that they can care for their children.
Your support will make a world of difference for these women and their children. Please consider a donation to the AIDS Project for Women and Children-Uganda. 100 percent of all tax-deductible donations go directly to the micro-loan initiative, administered locally by WomenCrafters. Each donation of $350 will provide enough start-up capital for one woman to support her family with an income-generating small business and move us closer to our goal of helping all 70 families become self-sufficient and healthy.
What you can do
Invest in the future -- make a loan today! (Loan money to a particular family and follow investment progress). You can directly choose a family or widow to help with the entrepreurship journey. You will receive updates on how your money has made a difference in someone’s life; you can choose to have the investment returned to you or repaid to a revolving fund to give another person a chance in life.