Change a Girl's Life Through Microentrepreneurship

Dear donors.

We spent February and part of March identifying and selecting new participants for the program. 129 women applied. In late March we began helping the first 18, this April, June, and August we will expand with another set of 20 each.

Choosing was hard. It was hard because it’s always hard for us to see so many people in need and take decisions on who will be helped or not. Roughly 80%-90% of the 129 could qualify for the program. Moreover, we had never attempted before in the program an identification process of this scale. We had to build a more refined selection system that is fair, helps us select those most in need and protects us from fraud.

We began by going to the community and getting a list of vulnerable women. The Chiefdom, the Women Groups, the local Health Center and the churches all gave their inputs. But we also carried out door-to-door identification to ensure we were getting everybody. After, we moved to 1-on-1 interviews and home visits. We collect information on the family members, occupations and the assets and conditions of the house.

We have now an updated database with 129 girls and growing. From now on, when we train, check businesses or visit participants in their houses, we keep identification forms with us. This way we are ready to interview any girl that shows interest on the spot and never lose her. This is important as many of the most vulnerable don't have phones. 

We were trying to answer the question, with our increased budget thanks to growing support, should we expand out of Tole? The answer is not yet. There are more than enough women and girls living in extreme poverty we have not yet touched. Expanding will increase logistical costs and reduce the total number of women assisted. But if we keep growing at the same rate we should be expanding next year.

It was quite a bit of work. But we are happy to do it and help you help those most in need. Your impact will be higher on every person that we find living on 16 dollars a month, instead of say, 50 or 75. So we try to be thorough.

By the time you read this, some of the 18 new girls have already started changing their lives. They have found an occupation, some income for themselves and might have already improved in their feeding. But more important, for the first time in a long while, they look at the future and they see a reason for hope. Some have even started saving with us!

I have to inform you of another great opportunity with GlobalGiving. Today, starting right now and until the 13th of April, the Little By Little Campaign is running. Small (50$ or less) donations have a 50% bonus, and new recurring (monthly) donations a 100% bonus!! Please share and consider a small donation! There’s no better day than today!

One last thing, when we produced our project video we had a lot of footage we did not use. We decided to take some time to translate these longer interviews and put them on youtube. We have also accompanied them with data on each girl in some blog posts in our website. You might enjoy checking out Joy, I’ve updated her blog post with the latest data of February and March.

Next month you will get to know your new girls! 

Remember, today little is more, any donation up to 50$ will grow 50%, any registration for a monthly donation will grow 100% (until 200$). Combined, if you sign for 20$ today, we will get an extra 30!!

Have a great day