In its simplest form, microfinance provides basic financial services, such as credit and deposit-taking, on a very small scale, to historically marginalized populations that do not meet the criteria to do business with conventional banking institutions. This covers people whose lack of access to collateral means they cannot qualify for credit, and includes the world’s poor, who number over one billion and who live on less than $1.25 per day. Microfinance encourages economic stability through income generation rather than subsidies.

The innovation of microfinance has allowed low income individuals, usually excluded from the traditional banking system, to obtain micro-loans to develop micro-enterprises and build savings. The aim of the microfinance project is to contribute towards sustainable economic development by providing local individuals, groups and communities with the proper skills training and micro-loans to grow their businesses, create new jobs and help break the cycle of poverty and hunger. This project seeks to unlock the potential of micro finance services and tools as mechanisms for helping rural poor in Uganda leap over insurmountable hurdles that have been hindering them from achieving their dreams of a sustainable livelihood.

According to the UN’s Capital Development Fund: “Comprehensive impact studies have demonstrated that:

1. Microfinance helps very poor households meet basic needs and protect against risks.
2. The use of financial services by low-income households is associated with improvements in household economic welfare and enterprise stability or growth
3. By supporting women’s economic participation, microfinance helps to empower women, thus promoting gender-equity and improving household well-being.”

This is where you come in!

What will I be doing?

• You will perform tasks such as helping to develop business plans, developing marketing strategies, conducting workshops, providing business guidance and support, and more.
• You will help to establish facilities for credit such as the Village Saving and Lending Association (VSLA)) in order to enable underdeveloped and poor communities to expand.
• Volunteers will perform tasks such as reading though business plans, developing marketing strategies, conducting workshops, providing business guidance and support, and more.
• In addition, we do strongly encourage all our prospective volunteer to fund raise for this project which they will be working with prior to their arrival in Uganda. The funds which volunteers raise contributes to the capacity building of the organization and the community – to kick start the project to cover some of the items needed for the running of the project. Volunteers can either use the Go Fund Me platform.