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Microenterprise

Africare Micro Credit

Regaining Hope

Two years ago, Maimounata Sawadogo’s husband became sick and lost his job as an ambulance driver. Just at that time, she learned that she was HIV positive, but as the stronger of the two, she was obliged to take on the role as head of the family. She tried to carry out several small business activities at the village market, but despite her courage and her hard work, she could not meet all the expenses of the family. So she decided to join the Association of Hope and Health.
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FEATURE STORY:  A Father’s Dying Wish

Abandoned by his mother at the age of four, Fungai lived with his father until his father’s death from AIDS in 2001. Fungai was 13. Because of the stigma of AIDS, Fungai was left to fend for himself. “Two minutes after my father died, a handful of my community acquaintances brushed their dusted feet, washed their faces and hands, and signaled me farewell. I have not seen them again.” Fungai dropped out of school because of lack of school fees and educational materials. He sought work as a domestic, earning less than $10 a month. As a result of the harsh work and living conditions, he left and became a vagabond roaming the streets, eventually ending up at the Messengeiro de Deus Open Centre, a partner to Africare’s COPE project,* which works to help orphaned and vulnerable children. Learn more>>

 

There’s No Stopping Lizzie Grant!

Lizzie Grant, 45 years old, is a member of the Gerengo Village Savings and Loans (VSL) group in Ntcheu District, central Malawi. Mrs. Grant began with a small loan of US$38 to help start her business of buying and selling farm produce. Her small investment developed into so much more. Learn more>>

 

Small Loans, Big Differences

William Dube is a farmer in Limpopo province, South Africa. He grows herbs such as chamomile, basil, jasmine and eucalyptus. Until 2002, he made little profit and thus remained trapped in subsistence. Read more >>  

 

"The Most Successful Microcredit Activity in Northern Mali"

In recent decades, many well-managed local credit facilities have arisen in the southern Mali. In northern Mali — where villages are widely dispersed, where desert-like conditions prevail, where poverty is even more severe — they have not. Read more >>

 

Results in Guinea-Bissau

Between 1989 and 2000, Africare supported microenterprise development in outlying areas of Guinea-Bissau, one of the 10 poorest countries in the world. And the work got results. Read more >>

 

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