Micro-Credit Programs

Microcredit is our primary program. Most of the money we collect and distribute goes to this program as it is highly successful and really speaks to our organizational philosophy of following Maslow's hierarchy and multisectoral development. People seek out what they need and we simply provide the seed money, in the form of a loan, to assist them in achieving their own goals.

Women's Program

Microcredit loans are given to women who come together as a group of 5 or more. Individual women in the group can apply for loans, but all of the women are responsible for each of the loans. It is sort of like a group of co-signers. If any one of the women defaults, the others become responsible for paying that loan. This way all of the women have opportunities to borrow money and support each other in developing their businesses and ensuring proper repayment.

 

 

This chart shows the value of microcredit loans issued over the first 6 loan cycles, beginning with cycle 1 disbursed in October 2007 and ending with cycle 6 disbursed in September 2010. The currency is in Uganda Schillings (1,000,000 USH is approximately $460). The colors represent different loan types, Blue being Small Business, Purple is Home Improvement, Green for Community Based loans, and Red for Agricultural loans.

In February 2011 our 7th loan cycle was implemented. This was our first series of loans to be charged interest at a rate of 15% (simple interest). This rate was established by the women themselves during a meeting of the Women's Advisory Board.

 

Youth Program

In February 2011 we also initiated a new pilot program for youth development. In our Youth Program, young men and women aged 17 to 27 are eligible to receive loans to start up a small business. In order to qualify for these loans they must first seek out someone to serve as a guarantor, and someone who can serve as a mentor. These people may be the same person or two different people. The guarantor will help them cover their loans while the mentor will provide guidance for the development and growth of their business.

Being our first loan cycle, and a pilot program, WCDP started small with 1,100,000 Uganda Shillings (about $480) distributed as 11 loans. Five loans went to support individual business projects, two to group business projects and four to agricultural projects.