We are incredibly excited to officially launch a new partnership project with Rotary International, the Bideford Bridge Rotary Club, and the Rotary Club of Gulu City to create lasting change for the communities we support in Uganda.

Thanks to Rotary funding, we are now beginning a new two-year microfinance project designed to help people build sustainable livelihoods and reduce cycles of poverty.

The project officially began on 1st May, with funding now received and implementation underway.

This initiative will provide small loans to support income-generating activities such as farming, market trading, tailoring, and crafts. Alongside access to microcredit, beneficiaries will also receive structured financial literacy and business skills training to help them establish and grow sustainable businesses with confidence.

Importantly, the need for this project came directly from the community themselves. During regular evaluation work linked to our education programmes, families spoke about the challenges they faced in creating stable livelihoods and the barriers preventing them from accessing opportunities. We recognised a growing need to support families beyond education alone, creating pathways for parents and guardians to become more financially independent and reduce long-term reliance on charitable support.

We also wanted to create opportunities for our students after graduation, as well as for the Bonga girls who complete vocational and skills training programmes. Many young people leave training with valuable skills, but without access to finance they are unable to put those skills into practice or start small businesses of their own. A major challenge many people face is exclusion from traditional forms of credit. Because of vulnerable backgrounds, lack of collateral, or unstable incomes, many individuals are unable to access loans through conventional systems and can become trapped in cycles of poverty or reliant on high-risk informal lending.

This project takes a different approach.

Rather than focusing on profit, the model is designed around empowerment and long-term sustainability. Interest rates are kept low, beneficiaries receive significant training and mentoring to develop strong business plans, and community support networks are built to provide ongoing encouragement and guidance. By integrating microfinance with entrepreneurship and financial literacy training, we hope to give participants the tools they need not only to start businesses, but to sustain and grow them successfully.

The project will also actively tackle gender inequality. Women are often disproportionately excluded from traditional lending systems and are more likely to rely on insecure informal borrowing arrangements. To help address this imbalance, 70% of the project’s beneficiaries will be women.

Over the next two years, the project is expected to directly support 200 people through microfinance loans. However, the wider impact will extend far beyond this number — supporting families, creating employment opportunities, and strengthening local communities as businesses grow and livelihoods improve.

We are hugely grateful to Rotary for partnering with us to create real, lasting impact, and we are excited to see the difference this project will make in the months and years ahead.