Field trip to Uganda: meeting the saving groups, local entrepreneurs and partners

Last week, our President came to Uganda with another board member. The idea was to reunite with our historical partner - NEW Foundation - and meet the ones who have joined in our journey over the past two years.

With them, we visited as many saving groups as we could, in the low and dry land of the Iganga district, in the verdant mountains of Budadiri, or under the peaky summits of Bududa.

We were toured by our beneficiaries themselves around all the projects they commonly or individually started thanks to the financial services of the VSLAs. Each and every member being so righteously proud to show us the shops they opened, the cows they bought, the poultry they started, the goats they bred, the land they rented, the maize, peanuts, beans, coffee and all other crops they grew. To show us the clothes they bought for their kids or the purified water they brought to their house. Projects and extents that even the field team was unaware of!

On top of those joy rides, we visited some completed and successful projects, such as the Kyalule Credit Cooperative. We wrote down the lesson learnt and thought about similar capacity-building projects.

And then, we all took the opportunity and time to talk about the future. We met with potential new partners, local organisations fighting for better life conditions for street children, other credit cooperatives in need of capital loans and financial technology stakeholders.

We met as well again with our actual partners to discuss the way forward and the expansion of our current projects.

In other words, it’s been quite a fruitful trip, and a trip which brought fruitful perspectives for 2018!

Now, take note for 2019 and join us in our next field trip to Uganda!