By Robyn Nietert | The WMI Board of Directors
Dear Supporters,
As we look back on 2025, we sometimes feel overwhelmed by the depth of support we receive from donors like you. Your donations make it possible for us to provide technical support and financial assistance to our business loan and training programs operating out of six hub locations in Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania. The numbers speak for themselves. In our eighteen years, we have provided loans and business training to over 34,000 impoverished women worth over $15 million. When you consider our loans average $128 USD, that is a lot of loan activity for a small organization like WMI!
Highlights for 2025:
When seven women with varied business backgrounds (but none in international development) set out in 2008 to build a locally run non-profit microfinance program in Buyobo, Uganda whose mission was to train and provide loans to poor rural women, we had no idea how far we could take this idea. With your help we have raised over $4 million. We have seeded the various loan hubs with close to $2 million in lending capital, constructed almost $1 million worth of office buildings and meeting pavilions, and directed $600,000 to community projects like clean water initiatives, tree planting, biofuels and solar power.
Our efforts have proved essential to women’s empowerment and to improving household living conditions. Before a woman becomes a borrower, her average income is $31 monthly. In two years this number goes to $120. Her savings increases dramatically, providing funding for school expenses, housing and medical emergencies. And, by focusing our resources on a village basis, the visual impact is dramatic. Permanent housing springs up, shops open, people are healthier, and domestic violence decreases. We often hear, “People are united and work together.”
As foreign aid decreases, we especially appreciate your loyal support in this challenging landscape. We have big plans for 2026 and look forward to working with you to our common goal. Your trust and confidence in WMI's grass-roots approach to women's economic empowerment has translated into improved living conditions for thousands of rural families in East Africa.
Thank you!
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