When visiting the Batwa, a request was made from a man who is the leader of one savings and loans group. He showed us that he had started prepping wooden poles, shaved down from trees to begin building the structure for a house. He told us that is for an orphan who doesn’t have a …

Visiting the Batwa is always an adventure in an otherworldly setting. The last two days have been that and also very encouraging. The Batwa are unique in that they still have retained much of their traditional culture and because they have been so marginalized for decades that they are far behind in development. Because of …

When we visit loan beneficiaries, there are always many that stand out for a variety of reasons. Today we met Gregoire, who is clearly a natural leader and forward thinker and one of over 1300 people that make up the loan groups of our Mayange Community Development Project. Gregoire lives in the Bugasera district of …

Some days just make our work so rewarding and today was one of those days. We visited a group of about 200 inspirational women that form Revolving Fund (micro loan) groups in the hills of Rwanda, about three hours outside of Kigali. This project is only one year old, but it is already proving to …

CELEBRATION! Going home is always so bittersweet. I love these places and I love the people. I do feel very good, however, about the progress and impact I have found on this trip, which is the reason why I come each year. It is my job to make sure that your dollars are being used …

Today we drove three hours from Kampala to Kiboga in central Uganda where we completed our month long marathon to visit our projects. I feel like I really short-changed our Women’s Vegetable Cooperative, because I have a terrible cold and was not feeling well enough to engage as fully as I normally like to do. …

Every time we visit our Youth With Physical Disabilities Entrepreneurs Project, I am overwhelmed with the love amongst this group and reminded that happiness can be and should be simple. The groups are comprised of both young people with disabilities and caretakers of youth with disabilities. They are split into two groups of mushroom farmers, …

Arriving at the Rice Farmers Processing Factory this morning made my heart smile. More than 150 farmers had already arrived and were seated in rows of plastic chairs under an enormous tree. On two side were canopies and chairs set up, which is where sat down with our partners from Development Monitors, the cooperative board …

Today has been a very long day and it is late, so I just want to briefly talk about three members of the Rice Farmers Cooperative-Lira who have had great success since joining the cooperative and the Village Savings and Loans groups. We spent the day in Alebtong in Northern Uganda. This is an area …