Goals
2009 GoalsLoans: Extend loans to a minimum of 160 new borrowers and 240 follow up borrowers, for a total of 400 loans in 2009. By the end of 2009, WMI intends to establish a $50,000 revolving credit facility. Transition Platform: Develop a platform to transition borrowers into services provided by conventional banking institutions at competitive market rates based on their collective success in the WMI program. Human Capacity Building: Fund three positions for local coordinators, reporting to the WMI Manager, whose duties would include visiting borrowers on a daily basis to discuss their progress, interviewing potential borrowers, attending weekly support group meetings and providing weekly reports. Establish a small lending library in a corner of the Meeting Hall. WMI Building: Complete construction of a small building to house WMI operations and provide a meeting hall for community events. The Local Council has provided a surveyed plot of land in the center of the village for construction. The building will provide a permanent location for the WMI program and an indoor meeting space for the women, who are currently meeting under a tent. Children's Library: Bring the first books to Bulambuli by establishing a 1,000 volume children's library in the new building. 2008 Goals and Achievements - See Annual Report Two Year GoalsLoans: Continue to extend the WMI Loan Program from the villages in the Buyobo area, to villages throughout the Sironko District. Growing the program in a web configuration, with Bulambuli village as the center, will allow for mutual support among the borrowers, each of whom will have a social and geographic connection to other borrowers in the program. It will allow for the transfer of knowledge from experienced borrowers to newcomers and conserve resources by concentrating services in a localized area. Human Capacity Building: Establish a very modest retirement plan for WMI's Local Director, Olive Wolimbwa, whose salary is guaranteed for a 5-year period through a contribution from the Cordes Foundatation. Fund stipends for additional local coordinator positions, so that all borrowers in all villages have easy access to a WMI representative whom they know and trust. Fund small stipends for WMI representatives in Kampala, who can help coordinate WMI activities, so that the WMI employees working in the villages do not have to travel all the way to Kampala to carry out necessary business activities. Building Maintenance/Expansion: Set up a fund to provide capital for future building expansion and regular maintenance. Expand the budding library project so that villagers have access to books and materials that can inspire, encourage and guide their growing possibilities for a better life. Electrification: Electrify the proposed WMI building. Begin a Low-cost Electrification Loan Program in conjunction with support from the Ugandan government and private industry. Implement the use of solar panel systems to by-pass the overburdened national electric grid and encourage environmentally friendly alternatives. Men's Meetings: Establish a regular program of Support Group Meetings for male relatives of borrowers. The objective is to involve them in the loan process in a collaborative manner. New Communities: Evaluate other rural communities in Uganda where WMI can establish a strong connection to a village-level women's association to initiate a second hub for a credit program. Long Term GoalsWMI's long-term goal is to transition borrowers into mainstream banking services, but with an innovative and unique twist. WMI plans to harness the borrowers' combined success in the WMI loan program to command competitive terms, interest rates and convenient access to services. The disenfranchisement of women in rural areas from access to credit is a major impediment to sustained economic improvement for households in developing countries. It is extremely difficult for poor women to access services from institutional banks in the cities and towns throughout Uganda and other developing countries. Typically, they are excluded from access to financial services due to systemic reasons, such as: complicated paperwork, lack of collateral, demands for a male guaranty, unavailability of documents (such as citizenship documentation), unavailability or expense of transportation, and illiteracy. WMI's long term goal is to remove these barriers through the women's own track record of hard work, business success and a 100% loan repayment rate in the WMI Loan Program. By giving the borrowers a chance to prove their bankability, WMI will be able to interest banks in penetrating the rural markets to obtain the customers that WMI has initiated, trained and educated. Because the WMI Loan Program participants will have developed successful businesses with WMI's support, financial institutions will be willing to develop a tailored transition program to accommodate WMI graduates in their customer base. It is a winning scenario for all stake-holders: WMI borrowers will be able to access convenient, diverse financial services, on attractive terms, to meet their growing business needs, the financial institution will obtain educated and successful new customers, and WMI will fulfill its mission of changing the face of poverty one loan at a time. |
