Most entrepreneurial families run small income generation activities directly out of their homes in low-income neighborhoods. They operate inadequate stores, roadside eateries, local fruit and vegetable stands or other small-scale ventures that they know will attract customers.

While these families have limited education and no money to grow successful businesses, their work ethic compels them to be proactive rather than wait for handouts. Instead of becoming dependent on charitable friends or government social welfare programs, they strive to provide for their children by the sweat of their brow.

They have the right attitude for success, but because of their disadvantaged situation, they are just barely getting from one day to the next.

A 2013 survey revealed that over 42 percent of the Ugandan workforce are engaged in the informal economy.

The number represents millions of people who live below the poverty line, struggling to put food on a table, trapped substandard housing and deprived of basic needs such as health care and sanitation. A large proportion of these informal workers are women trying to balance their childrearing responsibilities with the need to supplement their husbands’ meager income.

To take these businesses to the next level – from earning a little extra money on the side to developing a professional, growing and truly profitable operation – these hardworking entrepreneurs need what most business owners need: a loan.

However, because of their low income, poor families can only afford tiny payments on tiny loans. So small, in fact, that banks will not give them. Also, the risk of lending to a poor family with no assets is considered too high.

As a result, their economic pursuits stagnate, their dreams of a better life fade and they find themselves trapped in squalor.

Without opportunities, the poor often become bound to their dire circumstances – helpless and defenseless to escape the harsh realities of their surroundings. In Eastern African newest nation of South Sudan, many poor families live in a grim world where they see little hope for change. Most are victims of inherited poverty, and their futures are stunted and bleak.

Not only do South Sudan’s needy face the cyclical trap of poverty, but their families are often torn apart by HIV/AIDs and war. In recent decades, millions of children have lost one or both parents to disease and civil conflicts.

Abandoned, they are left to fend for themselves, the oldest siblings often becoming the head of the household – a responsibility he or she is ill-equipped to handle financially, and mentally. Even those children who have an extra parent or guardian are sometimes neglected or abused.

In other cases, the parent or guardian does not have the financial means to provide for regular meals, much less educational expenses. These vulnerable children, like the orphans, see their chances of returning to school dim a little with each passing day.  Eventually, most lose hope of being lifted out of their plight through the opportunities an education might have provided.

Although the government in South Sudan operates on the universal school system, meaning all children should be able to attend school at no cost, demand greatly outweighs the country’s supply of facilities. It is not unusual for classes to have more 100 students, and scarce materials and equipment often produce discouraged, overworked teachers.

Private schools could provide an ideal alternative, the costs remain a roadblock. Poor families are scraping by on less than a dollar a day need outside help to relieve them and rescue their children from this terrible situation.

With funding from W4, currently we are training 20 clients who will receive a loan to start their income generating activity or extend their existing enterprise after a duration of a course. The training covers basic meeting skills, sales skills, record keeping, simple bookkeeping, and a business selection skills. Also, HO gives each entrepreneur with a needed course materials.

Our women are hugely happy with the services they get from HO. Our dedicated field staff give personalized training, loan disbursement and repayment collection from a group of 20 members. We offer excellent customer care, and dedication to travel, so our clients do not have to fund their transport to repay loans.

HO works to empower women and strengthen families by improving their social and economic welfare. 99% of our borrowers are female. Research has shown a loan given to a woman is more likely to benefit her entire family than when the same amount is given to a man.

The outcome of our loan aims to help a woman provides her family with basic needs, build her future capital, and pay fees to educate her children to fight poverty.

In Magwi County, there is no money lenders. If any, their offer is to service the needs of businessmen. HO helps to contribute to a County’s overall economic growth by providing consumer-focused credits.

HO targets women clients. The first largest base is the unfortunate returnees who have few assets and limited chances to earn income. Many of these clients have little access to public services and no educational opportunities. Most are malnourished and earn incomes below the poverty line. They do subsistence farming, or selling basic goods out of a home or on a street corner. HO serves these borrowers with option of Group Solidarity to provide them with individual loans for micro-business.

We had worked hard to get a different vehicle to replace a Landover that got involved in an accident in 2014. We sent out several applications to charities granting automobiles to African-based NGOs. In January, we were thrilled to receive an email from a Japanese charity to confirm that it had given Hope Ofiriha a used  truck. The lorry had gone through robust services and  ready for its new mission in South Sudan.

The vehicle is repaired and fully re-tested. It leaves Japan (ETD): 2015/03/10 by Vessel: CAR STAR, and will be arriving Mombasa port (ETD): 2015/04/01.

It is capable of transporting 2000kg  and carries a driver and two passages in a front. It will be able to reach deeper into rural communities, to  difficult -to access remote areas since it is an off-road lorry.  This truck matches remarkably unpaved roads.

Reaching rural communities have been a major challenge not only for Hope Ofiriha, but also for other humanitarian agencies working in a new country. The size of a truck and its capabilities will go some way towards meeting that challenge.

The lorry is expected to be on road early April when it gets a South Sudanese NGO registration number plate. The car will also be at the disposal of Mairo School Building project.

For the few days, she spent she get to know some of our clients and group leaders. While, in the north, she visited their homes, took pictures, and interviewed few. Women in Palabek Kal loved her, almost everybody she met desire to take a picture with her, Josephine Otema said.

In these two locations, she attended the clients skill training to see how Hope Ofiriha is training the beneficiaries, and loans disbursal to find out how the charity gives funds to the loaners. Additionally, she trained three staff in Kajjansji office on the usage of mambu and other administrative concerns related to microfinance operations. Notwithstanding, she was impressed with how we are running the program even thought she suggested some crucial areas that need improvement to execute the project efficiently, said Nakibuu Harriet.

She visited Anna Alak in her charcoal store in Kibuli, a client who has repaid her first loan to see the kind of improvement this loan can do. Her meeting with Alak was cordial, and she was happy with the achievement the client has made, said Alice Amwony.

Choose an item below and make a difference today! Your gift is tax-deductible through GlobalGiving this thanksgiving season.

$35 per Care Package
Bless a poor mother and her child by providing newborn baby essentials.  Send a baby care package thank includes socks, a bottle, aloe baby wipes, baby shampoo, nail clippers, a baby blanket, three burping cloths, and a teething rattle. <Donate Now!>

$10 per set of Books
Bless a child with the gift of learning this Christmas.  Education is a key element to breaking the chain of poverty.  You can provide a bag of cement to a child in need of school.<Donate Now!>

$75 per Medical Kit
Health care workers are often lacking even basic medical equipment.  Your gift can provide a health worker with the basic tools to care for the sick.  These life-saving medical kits include latex exam gloves, adhesive bandages, sterile gauze bandages, a stethoscope, a blood pressure cuff, and a digital thermometer. <Donate Now!>

Achiro is an Acholi, originally from the village of Pajok in South Sudan, close to the south Sudanese-Ugandan border. In the past years, there has been widespread violence on  the border, with insurgents torturing and killing innocent civilians. All of her properties was burned down, including her home and all of her possessions. Achiro’s mother was beaten to death, and two of her brothers were shot and killed by LRA rebels. She has lost most of her relatives due to this force, but she has one surviving brother still living in southern Sudan. Unable to live with the violence, Achiro relocated to the Acholi Quarter outside of Kampala, over 20 years ago. It is home to many Acholi families displaced from Northern Uganda and Southern Sudan.

When Achiro first came to the Acholi Quarter, she began to work in the stone quarry. After many years of this arduous labor, her health has severely deteriorated. She suffers from severe chest pains caused by tuberculosis, is partially deaf, and fragile. Achiro often cannot afford to seek the medical attention she needs. Fortunately, a donor paid her doctor’s consultation fees, medicines, and another follow-up. Achiro has recovered, fit and is doing well, and has not seen a doctor for last three years.

Her second job is crushing big stones into small pieces of hardcore to sell for house-building that to make a living, and her first venture is making and selling beads that also generates a good income. Her husband Kasule, who used to work as a security guard death  two years, adding her more weight on top of their already existing difficulties to provide basic needs for her large family.

Achiro cares for her twelve grandchildren. Hope Ofiriha is planning to sponsor two in 2015 when funding is made available by the donor who had promised to give a Hand Up. Achiro pays for the rest to attend school, but regularly struggles to afford the fees.

Anna explained to program Coordinator Alice Amwony her idea of running a telephone booth that would operate only after her working hours on market days. While opening a tel-kiosk can incur high start-up costs, Anna could build a small kiosk with a small space cheaply at the Saturday Farmer’s market, and would benefit from the many customers passing by. Plus, working one day per week would allow Anna and her two business partners to attend to their duties.

Impressed by the plan, Alice helped her secure a loan and training, and the business took off quickly. Anna shares proudly: “Now I sell three set of prepaid phone cards and by 2: 00PM everything is gone. People love my service!” They have introduced new service and bring in two volunteers to help.

” When life becomes very hard, widows often return to their parents or abandon their families. I was able to endure, to stay with my children, and to educate and provide for them”, Anna explains. Anna says her greatest success is educating her five children.

Becoming an entrepreneur enabled Anna to become self-reliant. ” When my child is sick, now I have the resources to pay for it, and when my family needs food, now I have the resources to pay for it. I thank Hope Ofiriha and Deki for supporting my family and me.”

I want to use my success story to raise awareness so other business-minded clients can get a loan to run a business, make huge profit, provide basic needs, and pay school fees, said Anna.

If you are a generous donor, and want to get involved, go here to help William Akena or to  new entrepreneurs who need your help to gain ground in their struggles against poverty.

Teresa Amyel Pajok harvesting groundnuts in her garden

Teresa Amyel knew that setting up a business selling out foodstuff will fill a gap in her household needs that she lost in 20 years of constant civil.

Nevertheless the 59-year-old on a meager salary could not find a single bank willing to grant her a loan. In spite of this, Amyel has been able to fulfill her dream, because of microcredit.

Before she got microcredit, she did not know these kind of loans were available in Magwi County and Southern Sudan. However, she thinks it is logical that a microfinance is not just available to people in the developed countries. ” The story about a farmer who can buy a cow thanks to microcredit is one I can empathize with because I am actually in the same situation.”

Until recently, Amyel, who suffers from poverty problems, lived on without any benefit, or her salaries in arrears take several months to come. Now and then she earned a little from tiny business on the side of her work with Magwi local government.

However, it did not amount to much. She had difficulty with the idea of having to accept handouts. She did not want to be dependent.

So she put together a business plan to sell foodstuff and took it to Hope Ofiriha. Although the NGO was often positive, it would not grant her a loan without the fund from Deki.

Her difficult financial situation and the fact that she had no collateral meant she was not an attractive client for the banks.

A leader in her group of 20 members, solved the problem by acting as a guarantor. Now Teresa Amyel has been able to get microcredit from Hope Ofiriha to realize her dream; her foodstuff stall in Magwi.

Ochieng kicks off his fundraising campaign with 200,000 NOK donated by Trolltech Foundation to build Mairo Primary School. Using his social media channels, Ochieng is appealing to family, friends and fans to join him in supporting this cause and make a tax deductible donation at: <Mario Primary School>

” I am calling on all of you who have provided me with support and encouragement throughout my struggle against poverty to join forces with me now, said Ochieng.

Hope Ofiriha and Trolltech Foundation  announced their partnership last year to fund the construction of  the school to offer Omilling children who are at risk of being separated from education due to the cycle of poverty.

” Across the Africa youngest nation, too many children are struggling without necessary means to survive. many are separated from their parents by the fighting or injured in the crossfire, “said Carolyn Miles, Save the children’s president and CEO. The support of donors like Trolltech Foundation  is critical as it enables Hope Ofiriha builds schools to return children to normalcy again.

Since the outbreak of violence in December 2013, the conflict has intensified and displaced more than 1 million people. If the fighting continues, more than half of the South Sudanese population will be in need of humanitarian aid by the end of this year, according to the United Nations.

HOPE OFIRIHA’s economic empowerment arm – (micro-finance), seeks to change its previous approach of lending, to establishing a well thought out innovation owned by women to fight poverty through income generation initiative by taking up loan.

We are seeking an individual, with a passion based on the principles of women Economic Empowerment that will open doors, and create opportunities that will ultimately improve and transform livelihoods.

We strongly encourage women to apply although men can also apply.
Anybody from the following countries can apply Kenya, South Sudan and Uganda. Age 25 to 50.

We are open to receive the application from May 18th 2014 to May 30th 2014.

If you are interested to work with Hope Ofiriha, please send us your CV, educational papers, and two letters of recommendation of which one is from your current employer and a cover letter to Email:

1. info@ofiriha.org

or call +256 789520831 (between 12am – to 2pm Mon/Friday)

The main function of the Head of Credit is to grow, plan, coordinate, control, and direct lending operations of the unit, in such a way as to minimize a risk in lending, and ensure profitable lending. He or she reports to Executive Director and the board of management

Main Duties and Responsibilities:

• As Credit Risk owner, identifies, mitigates, and monitors risks in credit function Planning and Development.

• plans and initiates strategies for portfolio development and recovery loans.
• Conducts market survey and  identifies new and viable clients and groups for lending
• Initiates plans for recruitment, training and development of Credit Officers in accordance with loan portfolio development and makes recommendations to the board.
• Reviews lending policies and procedures on a regular basis and submits appropriate improvement plans and strategies.
• Coordinates all recovery activities and ensures prompt recovery.
• Monitors, controls performance of individual and group loans.
• Monitors and controls the appraisal performance of Credit and Recovery Officers and makes recommendations to the board.
• Complies, disseminates and monitors implementation of lending policies, procedures, especially recovery of outstanding portfolio.
• Ensures that proper background checks carried on each client, and group  in accordance with the recommendation of Credit Officers.
• Analyses arrears rate on the monthly basis.
• Follows up evolution of arrears rate on a weekly basis.
• Devises, keeps to, roster for regular visitation of all clients and groups in order to assess lending performance.
• Crosschecks and confirms an accuracy of all date, facts, and figures to be presented to the board.
• Monitors the application of loan accounting in the individual and group lending and ensures that loan accounts balance and interest properly calculated.
• Submits monthly credit statistics to report to the board of Management
• Submits quarterly reports to Executive Director on overall lending performance.

Results Expected:

• Organize, supervised and keep precise records; i.e., well analyzed data with full supervision.
• processing of micro credit schemes, and related follow up as per job description under general
  supervision of Executive director.

Person Specification:

• Bachelor/Master Degree in Accounting, Economics, Business administration or related fields
• Certified Public Accountant (CPA III)
• Minimum 4 to 5  years Experience in Microfinance industry
• Ability to work on your own initiative as well as a part of a team
• Proven analytical skills and ability to think strategically
• Excellent communication skills, both verbally and in writing  in English (Swahili, and Arabic language will be added advantage)
• Excellent understanding of Micro Finance program
• Effective computer skills (Microsoft office)
• Planning, narrative and Financial reporting skills.
• Communication, tact and negotiation skills
• Problem solving
• Flexible and patient
• Excellent skills in writing business plan

Our vet Land Rover is capable of transporting two tons, or carries 15 people excluding a driver. It will be able to reach communities in remote, difficult -to-access rural areas as it will be able to travel off-road.

After when it was grounded due to failure in the gearbox, Hope Ofiriha had a major challenge to reaching rural communities, but now with the reconditioned gearbox from UK fixed. It’s now ready for full operation. The size of the land Rover and its capabilities will go some way towards meeting that challenge.

Thank you Deki.org.UK! Thank you Hope Ofiriha donors!

The benefits of the use of these blocks are great and include:
Environmental – breaking away from the general practice of firing bricks, the impact of deforestation and on the wetlands is greatly reduced.
Structural – The compression of the bricks creates a strong and sturdy block. The uniformity and the interlocking feature of the brick provide high stability to the structure.
Educational – Introducing this technology to the community provides a new skill set while also promoting environmentally conscious practices in construction and decision making.
Aesthetic – Building with these blocks creates more visibly attractive building.

EDUCATION – Progress at Mairo Primary School
During the production at Omilling, we had one machine on site producing up to 500 bricks a day with a team of 2 men. The soil excavated from red marram was used to make the bricks. Francis stabilized block specialist with the community made 10,000 interlocking soil blocks with a mixture of soil, cement and water compacted with a manually operated machine. The benefits described above were actualized in the project as evident in school’s beauty to two already built classrooms, the skills passed on, the productive use of soil and the firewood saved. To learn more.

HEALTHCARE – Progress activity
Through Land Rover Defender we are able to deliver the supplies to the clinic, despite the bad road caused by heavy rainfall. The following items are delivered to ONURA Survival Clinic – 6 birth mats, 8 boxes cotton wool, 4 pieces syringe & needle, 5 sets of umbilical cord clam, 6 maternity pads , and 2 set delivery instruments.

South Sudanese women are 155 times likely to die in childbirth and pregnancy than Westerners, a ministry of Health in Juba report says. Overall, an Omilling woman have a higher chance of dying in childbirth and pregnancy, but through your contribution many deaths have been avoided. Six mothers gave birth safely to six beautiful babies last year.

The death rates could have been reduced by 99% if mothers had access to emergency obstetric care. Many women still deliver their children alone or with untrained attends, and we are raising awareness to give birth in the clinic.

Her dream is to save enough money to purchase a piece of land to build a house with a shop in front.

Florence will invest her loan capital into dried beans, peas, maize flour, cooking oil, wheat flour, onions, rice, and smoked fish. She also plans to purchase saucepans to replace the ones she has that leak. Her business has a high potential to make a huge profit, enabling her to repay her loan on time.

Santa makes and sells bread to make ends meet and pay her children’s school fees. She is her family’s main provider because her husband has been unable to find work for a while. He does earn some money farming, but his income is sporatic.

She aspires to see her children through university studies and build a bakery of her own to run as a business. She will use her loan to buy a work table, kitchen utensils, flour, eggs, baking powder, yeast, sugar, and oil to make and sell bread and make enough of a profit in a short time to repay her loan.

She aspires to build her family a permanent home, expand her businesss, and save money for her and her family’s future.

With her loan, Susan will buy two wheelbarrows, a hoe, a panga, an axe, and 200 sacks for packaging charcoal. Her business is highly profitable, which will enable her to make a huge profit and repay her loan on time.

To make ends meet, she buys and sells women’s dresses, offers sewing services, and sells other essential commodities from a kiosk. She is an ambitious tailor who ensures that all the dresses she sells or alters perfectly fit, ensuring her customers return.

Susan aspires to support her children until they finish university studies and build a three-bedroom house for her family.

She will invest her microloan into a new sewing machine and also buy more textiles to boost her business, so that she can increase her profits and repay her loan on time.

Madalena also raises goats as a small side business and plans to expand her farm because business is booming along the South Sudan-Uganda border. She wants to be a main supplier in her niche, and her only challenge is investment capital.

Madalena aspires to build and run a primary school as a business in her own village, so all children from her village can access education. “It is my dream to see a school built in our village,” she says.

Madalena will invest her loan in 50 female goats, which will help expand her business enough for her to earn a reasonable profit and repay her loan on time.

To make money to provide for her family and pay school fees, she’s been trying to earn money sewing, which gives her a poor return. To boost her income, she recently started selling soya pieces, plastic bags, tea leaves, salt, sugar, dried bean, milk, cooking oil, and other groceries.

Grace will invest her loan capital into soya pieces, plastic bags, tea leaves, sugar, maize flour, rice, and groceries to enable her to run her two businesses and make a huge profit to repay her loan on time.

To provide for her family’s basic needs, she works at the local Health Department in Magwi County. She supplements her salary baking bread and selling it in a kiosk. She also sells sugar, tea, coffee, Coca-cola, salt, onions, and cooking oil. Olga hopes to one day open her own shop in Magwi County and sell groceries.

Olga will invest her loan funds into buying wheat flour, sugar, tea, coffee, Coca-cola, salt, onions, and cooking oil. By buying in bulk, she will be able to make a big profit to repay her loan promptly.

Ersilia raises chickens and sells chickens and eggs, both of which have a big market in Juba and Torit. From this business, she’s been able to put food on the table for her large family and pay school fees for ten children.

Ersilia aspires to expand her poultry business in the near future to triple her income and repay her loan on time. Her business has great potential, but she faces a challenge of investment capital. “Nobody gives loan in Magwi. Customers for eggs and broiler are there, but my supply is low,” she said.

Ersilia will invest her loan money into buying more chicks, feed, and vaccines. With her two sources of incomes, Ersilia expects to have no problems repaying her loan on time with ease.

Alba plans to diversify her cold drink kiosk, which is located in a busy market for second hand clothes for babies known as “Obangi market.” In Obangi market, there are plenty of customers with money, and Alba’s only challenge is lack of capital to buy her supplies in bulk and be able to sell them at a profit in a short time. She is confident she will be able to repay her loan according to the plan.

Once she has more savings, Alba aspires to open a boutique selling babies’ dresses, shoes, and care products in the future.

She aspires to earn enough extra money to be able to build her own restaurant in a more promising location. She also dreams of earning enough money to educate her children and save funds for her old age.

Santa will use her loan to buy maize flour, rice, a jerry-can of cooking oil, beans, sugar, tea-leaves, coffee, and groceries to expand her business and make a large enough profit to pay her loan on time.

Simone dreams of buying a van to run her business out of as well as building her family a permanent shelter to live in. She will use her loan to buy bananas, oranges, pineapples, mangoes, apples, Coca Cola, Fanta, sugar, tea-leaves, milk, and groceries to expand her business and make enough of a profit to repay her loan on time.

She aspires to expand her sales to other areas and build a house for her and her husband to live in. She also would like to adopt two orphan children and see them educated and living productive lives.

Rekele will use her loan to buy 25 pieces of plastic jerry-can, 50 plastic bottles, five smoke machines, and 30 Langstroth beehives. Her enterprise has a high potential for profitability, enabling her to repay her loan on time.

She dreams of one day building her own shop so she can expand her business and make enough money to educate her children and safe for the future.

Abwoo will use her loan to buy two boxes of bananas, oranges, and mangos to make cold drinks to retail to make a huge profit to repay her loan on time.

She plans to enroll her siblings in school as soon as she can afford for them to go. She hopes the ten sacks of maize she harvested this year will generate enough money.

Jane dreams of being able to support her siblings through their university graduations as well as build herself a permanent house in Magwi. She will use her loan to buy one sack of maize seed, twenty five kilos of red bean seed, two hoes, one wheelbarrow, and one panga to enhance her farming ability to produce more maize and red bean. There is high demand of maize flour and red bean, an indication she will do well.

She sells beans, silver fish, smoked fish, onions, and green vegetables working from 7 a.m. to 4 p.m. every day. She only takes Sundays off. Hellen will invest her loan into two bean sacks, one sack of silver fish, one sack of smoked fish, one sack of onions, and two large cartons of green vegetables to retail to make a large profit.

In the future, she plans to buy a taxi with seven seats to operate between Magwi and Nimule, so she can have savings for her old age and her children’s future needs.

Beatrice has started selling smoked fish, silver fish, cooking oil, maize flour, sugar, bean, rice, and onions to earn money to provide for her family’s basic needs and pay school fees for her two children and the three orphans in her care. She aspires to one day build her own shop and expand her sales to other areas in South Sudan.

She will use her loan to buy smoked fish, silver fish, cooking oil, maize flour, sugar, bean, rice, and onions to make a profit to repay her loan on time.

Safinah runs a kiosk where she sells soft drinks and beer to provide for her family’s basic needs as well as her children’s school fees. She would like to move her business to an area with more foot traffic so she can increase her sales and profits. Her dream is to save enough money to build a permanent home for her family and have savings in her old age.

She will use her loan to buy Coca-cola, Fanta, juice fruit, sugar, beer, tea-leaves, coffee, and five sacks of charcoal, enabling her to make a good profit and repay her loan.