In 2014 WMI continued its track record as a high performance/ low overhead organization, which allowed us to achieve maximum impact with your donation dollars. Our feet on the ground are the ladies in the loan program who provide the local administrative infrastructure. There are no high priced consultants involved in WMI - only high quality, village-level staff members who have taken ownership of the program and are vested in its success.   
 

Our outreach has grown dramatically over the years.  Since inception, WMI has made over 15,000 loans totaling nearly $2,500,000. Currently, WMI loan hubs are serving over 3,300 active loan clients. The updated chart containing a summary of program operations is available on the web site: Summary
 

Operations in 2014 focused on infrastructure building, training and expansion of services - all of the progress we made in these areas was due to you generous support. Thank you for making the loan a vibrant financial resource for rural women! Our top 10 accomplishments for the year include:

 1. Construction of a meeting pavilion in Buteza, a sub-hub in Sironko District, Uganda, to accommodate the growing number of borrowers in this area.

 2. Launch of cervical cancer/breast cancer/HIV-AIDS screening in loan hubs in Eastern Uganda in collaboration with local medical teams.

 

3. Addition of 4-month long spring and fall in-field internships for college graduates, allowing them to obtain hands-on experience in microfinance program operations.

 

4. Construction of a kindergarten in the Alailelai, Tanzania loan hub, supported in part by contributions from the women in the loan program.

 

5. Post Bank Uganda's roll-out of a village-focused lending product inspired by WMI's successful rural operations.

 

6. Accompanied by Stephen Mukweli, the Managing Director of Postbank Uganda,  the Hon. Minister of Microfinance, Caroline Okao Amali, visited WMI headquarters in Buyobo and delivered a major speech on financial inclusion.

 

7. Week long training workshops at our Headquarters building in Buyobo for over 50 village women throughout our loan programs in Kenya, Uganda and Tanzania - many of those from Tanzania and Kenya had never travelled outside their countries.

 

8. Proficiency training of two village women in Buyobo on Excel spreadsheet functions.

 

9. Collaboration with Postbank Tanzania and Kenya Women's Finance Trust to develop a loan product for WMI graduates who want to transition to bank loans.

 

10. Addition of WMI's 14th loan hub - a partnership with Busessa Community Development Centre (BCDC) in Kibaale District, Uganda. 

In January 2014, Karen Bustard with join the WMI team for a 5 month in-field internship. She graduated from Tufts University in 2013 with a B.A. in International Relations, and a focus in global health, nutrition, and the environment. In Spring 2012 she studied abroad in Madagascar, where she conducted research in villages within a national park, looking at changes to both development and ecology since the political crisis in 2009. She presented her paper the following year at the Georgetown Conference for Undergraduate IR Research.

 

Over the past four years, she worked at Urban Tree Connection, an urban farming and community revitalization non-profit in west Philadelphia, where she developed and coordinated their new Teen Apprentice program. Karen will work closely with WMI's Local Director, Olive Wolimbwa, at WMI's Buyobo Headquarters to continue computer training and skills development for our loan program administrative team.  She will also visit other loan hubs to provide resource training.