Village Enterprise
Building Businesses to Break the Cycle of Poverty
Fast Facts
Uganda, Kenya, Rwanda, Ethiopia, Democratic Republic of Congo, Congo-Brazzaville, Mozambique, Tanzania
Jon Hamren and Kristi Smith-Hernandez
2007, 2008, 2009, 2010, 2011, 2014
Job Creation
How Village Enterprise Is Making a Difference
VE provides a community-based, locally-led poverty-graduation program that equips people living in extreme poverty in rural East Africa with training, mentoring, and start-up cash to create sustainable businesses and savings groups. VE works to break the cycle of poverty through programs, offered directly or through partners, for women, refugees, and youth.
Work of Village Enterprise
- Works with communities to identify households living in extreme poverty.
- Provides extensive business and financial-literacy training to entrepreneurs who form groups of 3 to launch a business.
- Establishes savings groups of 30 that meet weekly to build savings and support one another.
- Provides seed capital and experienced business mentors to entrepreneur groups that have developed business plans.
- Works with partners to provide access to markets and ongoing financial assistance for a year after businesses are established.
Initiatives Supported by Project Redwood
2007-2008: $49,000 over 2 years to create sunflower-production businesses in Eastern Uganda.
2009: $25,000 to fund 100 new businesses in the Budongo Forest in conjunction with the Jane Goodall Institute.
2010: $20,000 to finance training programs and roll out new businesses in Uganda.
2011: $25,000 to develop a business-in-a-box that contains the training, financial advice, assets, and mentoring needed to launch a retail, service or agricultural business.
2014: $20,000 to evaluate business options for the landless poor, then fund and mentor 30 businesses in Kenya and Uganda.