Sustain Micro Enterprise

Although Uganda is one of the more developed African countries I have been to, it is a relative term. 38% of people still live below the poverty line of $1.25/day. Life expectancy is a mere 58. Houses (more often than mud huts these days but these are by no means a thing of the past) consist of a couple of rooms for living/sleeping. Cooking is done outside. Long drop toilets are often shared by several houses. Utilities are rarely provided outside of the towns. That means a walk to the water pump or if you can’t walk that far, to the dirty stream. Electricity is solar for those that can afford a small panel to light a room for their children to do their homework.

Vulnerability is wide-spread here. Single mothers/grandmothers, HIV+ women and widows are all vulnerable to the effects of poverty. Domestic violence is common. A lack of family planning leads to large families (average of 9 children but often much larger); paying for food, medicine and schooling for these children is often impossible. Poverty passes to the next generation.

Sustain Micro Enterprise is an NGO based outside of Jinja, Uganda . It aims to build a world where women are free from vulnerability through empowering women to run their own small businesses. Evidence suggests that women will invest their incomes in their families in a way that men in developing countries often don’t.

Sustain runs business training courses for groups of women with small businesses. And I mean small. A business may be selling a sack of charcoal or hawking a bundle of second-hand clothes. It may be making clothes on an old Singer sewing machine. Or a tiny grocery stall, one of a whole line of grocery stalls in a village. Many of these women have started their businesses with no formal training. They’ve simply had an idea and run with it, whether it was a good idea or not. Business training takes on a different meaning in this context. No sophisticated IT for communicating. No post-its or white boards for brainstorming. No bullshit corporate lingo. Simplicity rules. But for women living hand to mouth, week to week, simple concepts communicated via local examples can make a difference to how they think about their businesses.

Once women have completed the business training, they are eligible (subject to funding) for small loans to invest in their businesses. Without collateral, these women are unable to access credit through financial institutions so Sustain steps in. Small loans of up to £100 enable the women to buy more stock or to buy assets for their business. Loans are repaid every week with a small level of interest. Saving is encouraged although culturally difficult in a country where bank charges eat away at your money and children’s education and sustenance take priority over saving for a rainy day.

I’ve introduced a new mentorship programme, taking the theory of the business training and moving it into practice. I’ve been mentoring 11 women in the area of record keeping and data analysis. It’s not quite as formal as mentoring would be in the corporate world but adapting it to local needs is the only way it will make a difference. Over time it is hoped to build this into a global network of Skype mentors (anyone interested?!) addressing a range of business issues.

Sustain Micro Enterprise is an small NGO. Only 3 permanent members of staff. The work they do can make a huge difference in empowering women and raising them and their families out of poverty. But they are reliant on donations. A donation could help a group of women who have completed business training to access small loans. Or it could fund training or mentorship for additional groups of women. If you would like to make a contribution go to http://www.sustainmicroenterprise.org/get-involved/donate-now. It will be gratefully received!