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. Â
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.Â
Initiatives Supported by Project Redwood
2007-2008:Â $49,000 over 2 years to create sunflower-production businesses in Eastern Uganda.
2009:Â $25,000 to fund 100 new businesses in the Budongo Forest in conjunction with the Jane Goodall Institute.
2010:Â $20,000 to finance training programs and roll out new businesses in Uganda.
2011:Â $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:Â $20,000 to evaluate business options for the landless poor, then fund and mentor 30 businesses in Kenya and Uganda.