Florence is a 42-year-old single mom of five children, all of whom attend school. She operates a tiny restaurant on the street to earn money to provide for her family’s basic needs and pay her children’s school fees. 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… Read More
Fund a Microloan
Hope Ofiriha currently offers two ways for you to help fund a microloan. You can donate to a general microloan fund to empower struggling South Sudanese women refugees in Uganda to start small businesses and create a better life for their families. Or you can support one of the individual entrepreneurs featured below through Deki, our microloan partner. This option allows you to decide what to do with your loan funds when the entrepreneur pays you back: re-lend the funds, donate the repaid amount to Deki, or withdraw the funds. Most Deki loans are repaid within 12 months.
Loan Santa Money to Make and Sell Bread
Santa is a 27-year-old married woman living with her three children (ages 9, 7, and 3). She also cares for an orphan from a distant relative. 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… Read More
Empower a Mom to Expand Her Business
Susan is a 44-year-old married woman who lives with her four children and her husband in Magwi County, South Sudan. For the past three years, she has been burning wood into charcoal to sell to make money to provide for her family and pay her children’s school fees. 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… Read More
Help a Family of 10 Thrive, Not Just Survive
Susan is a 32-year-old married woman caring for a large family. She has five children ages 20, 18, 13, 10, and 6, and she also takes care of three orphans. Currently, seven of her children attend school. Susan’s husband has been unable to find work for a while now, so Susan is the sole breadwinner for her family of 10. 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… Read More
Loan Madalena Money to Increase Her Herd
Madalena is a 44-year-old married woman with seven children living with her family in Magwi County in South Sudan. Her husband is a seasonal farmer making a meagre income. To provide for her family’s basic needs and pay her children’s school fees, she is teaching basic English at a primary school just to survive because she is not a teacher by training. Madalena also raises goats as a small side business and plans to expand her farm because business is booming along the South Sudan-Uganda… Read More
Loan a Mom Money to Start a Second Business
At 37 years of age, Grace is taking care of a large family. She has four children of her own, and she also cares for three children from her brother’s first wife and two from his brother-in-law. The children are still in school and depend on Grace to provide them with food, shelter, and school fees. She hopes to build a permanent house for her family and see all the children in her care through a university-level education. To make money to provide for her… Read More
Help Olga, a Single Mom, Educate 6 Kids
Olga is a 53-year-old single mother caring for her four children and two orphans in Magwi County, South Sudan. All the children in her care attend school. 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… Read More
Help Ersilia Expand her Poultry Business
Ersilia is a 61-year-old single woman who takes care of a relatives’ seven children as well as her deceased sister’s three orphans. She is supporting ten children in getting an education using the money she earns from her business. 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… Read More
Empower Alba to Buy Cold Drinks in Bulk
Alba is a 23-year-old mother living with her husband and an 11-month old baby in Juba. Her husband is struggling to find a good job, making the family income inconsistent. To provide for her family, Alba started to sell cold drinks: soda, passion fruit, Fanta, and kerekada (red dried fruit). Since it is very hot in Juba, cold drinks have continual high demand. Alba plans to diversify her cold drink kiosk, which is located in a busy market for second hand clothes for babies known… Read More
Help Santa One Day Build a Restaurant
Santa is a 46-year-old mother of four children living with her husband in Magwi County. She’s been running a tiny restaurant to make money to provide for her family’s basic needs and pay school fees for her children. She’s the only breadwinner for her family to put food on the table. Her husband has been struggling to find work for a while. She aspires to earn enough extra money to be able to build her own restaurant in a more promising location. She also dreams… Read More
Assist Simone in One Day Having a Home
Simone is a 26-year-old married mother of four children (ages 14, 12, 10, and 3). She sells bananas, watermelon, and soft drinks to make money to provide for her family and pay her children’s school fees. Her kiosk is in a central location, which has high foot traffic of 250 customers a day. 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,… Read More
Help Rekele Expand Her Beekeeping Business
Rekele is a 51-year-old woman living with her husband in Omilling country in South Sudan. Seven years ago she started her own business producing and selling bee’s honey. She learned her trade from the Onura women’s beekeeping organization. She puts determination and love into her work to make enough money to support her and her husband’s basic needs. 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… Read More
Empower Abwoo to Sell More Cold Drinks
Abwoo is a 49-year-old mother living with her four children and husband in Torit. For the past three years, she has been selling bananas, mangos, and oranges to make money to provide for her family’s basic needs and pay her children’s school fees. She receives help from her husband to run a cold drink kiosk. 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… Read More
Loan Jane Money to Support Her Siblings
Jane is just 20 years old and she is already supporting a large family on her own. Since her mother died three years ago, she has been taking care of her siblings ages 16, 12, and 10. Jane has been doing small-scale farming to make money to provide for her and her siblings. 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… Read More
Help Hellen Diversify Her Food Sales Business
Hellen is a 27-year-old mother of three children (ages 11, 6 and 3). Two are in school, and the youngest goes to daycare. Her husband is currently unemployed, which means that Hellen is the main breadwinner for the family. 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… Read More
Loan Beatrice Money to Sell Food Items
Beatrice is 27-year-old mother of two children (a 5-year old boy and a 2-year old girl). She also supports her late brother’s three children. Currently, her husband is unemployed, which is making things hard for the family. 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… Read More
Empower a Mother of 5 to Expand Her Business
Safinah is 49-year-old married mother of five children (ages 17, 15, 13, 10, and 8). She’s the sole breadwinner in her family. Her five children go to a primary school. 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… Read More
Help a Mom Send Orphans to University
Jane is a 33-year-old married woman living with her two children (ages 16 and 2) and her husband. She also takes care of four orphans. Five of the children go to school. Jane sells staple foods to customers around her community to make a living and pay her children and the orphans’ school fees. She’s the only breadwinner in her family because her husband has been unable to find work. She aspires to build a bakery to earn enough money to send all the children… Read More
Loan Grace Funds to Buy Charcoal in Bulk
Grace is a 32-year-old mother of three children (ages 15, 13 and 10) who are still in school. For four years, she’s been selling charcoal and firewood to make money to provide for her family and pay her children’s school fees. Some of her money also goes to treat her husband who is disabled and needs medicine. She’s the sole breadwinner in her family. In the future, Grace hopes to buy a piece of land to build her family a permanent three bedroom house along… Read More
Loan Margret Money to Expand Her Business
Margret is a 45-year-old married woman supporting two grandchildren. She is a business woman who sells charcoal in Kajjansji. She has been involved in this business for the last four years, enabling her to meet some of her family’s immediate needs and pay her grandchildren’s school fees. School is not free in Uganda, where she and her family live as refugees. Margret aspires to buy a lorry in the next five years to transport sacks of charcoal for retailing and to run the lorry as… Read More
Help Betty Take Care of an Extended Family
Betty, 41, works hard to support herself and her family. Betty is married with three children, all of whom go to school (which is not free in Uganda). Betty has worked in a retail charcoal business in Kajjansji for four years now. Her husband has been jobless for ten years, and she also supports two siblings and her mother-in-law. Betty is aspiring to rent a store big enough to warehouse 200 sacks of charcoal to sell to restaurants and schools. Her hope is to save… Read More
Change the Lives of Three Generations
Mary, a 63-year-old widow, sells charcoal to support herself and two of her brother’s grandchildren, and has done so for four years. She lives in poverty as there is no welfare system to help senior citizens in her community. To provide food and pay rent, Mary has to maintain a business to sustain herself and her dependents. Mary has a difficult time paying medical bills whenever she or her dependents fall ill. Her other major challenge is the high cost of transporting charcoal to her… Read More
Loan Akot Money to Open a Sports Bar
Akot is a 49-year-old mother who became a widow ten years ago when she lost her husband, the sole provider for the family. Being a widow with three children opened her eyes to work hard. She started selling local brew called “Marwa” made from white millet in a friend’s bar. Akot later opened her own bar and expanded the business to selling other beverages to meet the varying demand of her customers. Through this business, she has been able to fund her children’s education (it… Read More
Help Agnes Earn Money for Her Kids’ School Fees
Agnes, 31, is a married mother of five children who runs a little bar so that she can provide for her family and pay her children’s school fees. School in Uganda, where Agnes and her family live as refugees, is not free. Agnes has to work very hard because her husband has been unemployed for many years, making her the family’s sole breadwinner. She currently works from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m. six days a week to make ends meet. Agnes has requested a loan… Read More
Empower Rose to Expand her Drink Sales
Rose, 47, makes a living producing a traditional drink in Uganda made of millet and bananas. She will invest her loan into stocks of ingredients needed to make the drink. She will then sell the drink in her local community. Rose is divorced and she has seven children. Three of the eldest girls have completed school education and are now married. Rose works long days, until 11 p.m. every evening. She will be able to improve her standard of living with the help of the… Read More
Loan Josephine Funds for a Sewing Machine
Josephine, 38, works as a seamstress. She is a skilled worker and she would like to expand her business. She has more orders for school uniforms than she can meet. She will invest the loan funds into fabrics, materials, and a new sewing machine. This investment will help her diversify her work and serve a wider client base. Josephine is a divorced mother of two (ages 17 and 14), and the children will soon be independent, although they are still in school. School in Uganda… Read More
Help Alai Diversify Her Tea Business
Alai, 33, lives in Magwi county in South Sudan and makes a living running a small tea stall. She will invest the loan money into buying stock: sugar, flour, milk, and other necessary ingredients for her business. With the loan, she will be able to diversify her business and bring in more customers. Before setting up her business, she didn’t have her own income. She is a recent South Sudanese returnee/refugee from Sudan. Alai is a divorced mother of three children (ages 12, 10, and… Read More