PartnersFoundation for the Development of Needy Communities
FDNC, located in Mbale, Uganda, is a group of development-minded individuals with the goal of creating jobs, improving income and increasing investment in eastern Uganda. FDNC takes a grassroots approach to development that supports self-reliance and sustainable growth in needy communities. FDNC provides logistical support to WMI. FDNC operates a vocational school in Natondome village, about 15 kilometers from Mbale. It also sponsors the Mbale Youth Band, the first brass band in Uganda. When FDNC founder, Sam Watulatsu, traveled to the United States in September of 2007 and met with the WMI Board of Directors, he told them about the Mbale Youth Band. Sponsored by FDNC, the band is composed of AIDS orphans and street children and was organized to give them a sense of community and self-worth. Brass instruments are unavailable in Uganda and when he told WMI about the band's desperate need for additional instruments, WMI swung into action. Organizing donations at Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD and other local venues, they received contributions of 50 beautiful instruments. With delivery charges to Uganda costing upwards of $2,000, WMI contacted DHL and the company generously agreed to ship the instruments free of charge. On December 13, 2007 DHL picked up the instruments that WMI Board members had carefully packed in 3 huge shipping crates. The instruments arrived in Kampala in January 2008 where they were collected by FDNC amidst much fanfare, and New Vision, Uganda's leading paper, covered the event. Discovery Communications
Discovery Communications, LLC, located in Silver Spring, MD, supports WMI through a program to raise funds to add solar panels to the WMI building in Buyobo. With electricity, the newly constructed building will be able to offer a variety of new services for the community. Discovery has also donated 15 lap tops to start an Internet Café in the meeting room in the building in summer 2010. This will provide WMI’s borrowers and all of the local villagers with a much needed connection to the world community.
Hope for Ugandan Students
La Ceiba http://www.twodollarchallenge.org/laceibabank
UVa Student Entreprenuers for Economic Development (SEED) -The Bluefields Project
The Bluefields Project is a microfinance initiative being launched by a team of UVa students in Bluefields, Nicaragua in partnership with a group of businesswomen who have recently developed the Caribbean Women's Credit Cooperative. Funded by a Davis Peace grant, the project will be underway this summer when team members head to Bluefields to help develop business and health promotion trainings and workshops, as well as issue the first round of loans. WMI has provided documents and consulting services to help the project get off the ground.
Wellness Corporate Solutions http://www.wellnesscorporatesolutions.com/
Wellness Corporate Solutions (WCS) is a consulting company based in Cabin John, Maryland that focuses on improving health and well-being of company employees in businesses and non-profits around the country. WCS is working with WMI to introduce simple health initiatives for borrowers in the program. The first project will be blood pressure tracking which can be done every time loans are issued. WCS has generously provided a blood pressure cuff and simple instructions to educate borrowers about the importance of maintaining a normal blood pressure. WCS also provided educational information on ways to combat high blood pressure through diet, and borrowers with high blood pressure can begin taking steps to address this problem.
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Hope for Ugandan Students (HUGS), headquarted in New York City, is an organization formed of volunteers working to identify the needs of orphans and vulnerable youth in Uganda working to satisfy those needs. The organization was founded by volunteers who had traveled to Uganda to work with FDNC in Mbale. HUGS provides student sponsorships, special education needs, health initiatives, and other services to help youth gain the skills they need to support themselves and develop their community. WMI directors support HUGS through student sponsorship and WMI has helped HUGS raise funds through the Parade Magazine Giving Challenge. HUGS provided WMI with organizational and web site advice.
La Ceiba is a microfinance institution based at University of Mary Washington in Fredricksburg, Virginia. Its vision is to provide microfinance opportunities to people in developing nations, particularly in Central America. Its first goal is to open a micro-loan and savings program in Siete de Abril, a community located in Ceiba, Honduras. It seeks to establish a group based lending program while also providing entrepreneurial training to borrowers. La Ceiba has promoted WMI at Mary Washington University. WMI has provided La Ceiba with loan documents and training materials to help them with their initial program launch.
