With the help of supporters like you, Outreach Uganda empowers women to overcome poverty. One of the major tools that help the beaders in Jinja continue to enhance their economic wellbeing is an internal revolving loan fund. The fund provides small business loans to members of the beaders group.

During the ten years before creating this internal fund in March 2008, most members had been securing loans with interest rates as high as 34%. This lending rate was so high that they had made little economic progress. By 2011, the group no longer relied on any outside microloans and was able to operate entirely through their own fund.

Supplemented largely by income earned from bead sales, the fund is sustainable and allows the Jinja women to be their own lenders. They are in charge of its operation and manage their own business affairs. Our beader groups in Agwata and Kitgum are in the initial stages of creating their own revolving loan funds based on the successful Jinja model.

The importance of an education cannot be overstated, but Outreach Uganda's child sponsorship program is about so much more than sending students to school. Because of caring people like you who sponsor children and support our work, we can also cultivate helpful characteristics such as leadership skills. Many of our sponsored students rank in the top levels of their classes. They take on additional responsibilities at school and in the community. They understand the importance of being a leader and they effect that they have on others. 

Atimango Valeria (pictured at left) is the assistant head girl at Walukuba East Primary School in Jinja. She represents the student body and helps serve as a liaison to teachers and administration. Her goal is to become the official head girl by next school year.  

In a letter to her sponsor, Akello Sharon writes "This term in school, I learned the best thing to do is share the little knowledge I have with [others]."  

We believe that building leadership skills in youth enables them to take charge of their lives and become participants in their communities. It strengthens confidence and will one day enable them to take part in the very decision-making processes that create economic and social change. We are extremely grateful to the sponsors whose investment in these children today will have a tremendous impact in the Uganda of tomorrow.