Pictures: Above left: A local woman with newly harvest bananas. Above right: Members of the Buseesa Community Development Centre after a meeting at St. Julie Mission.

SNDs Help Establish Micro-Finance Center for Buseesa Village

The Esseff Foundation and the Sisters of Notre Dame recently donated seed money to establish the Buseesa Community Development Centre. This micro-finance program has brought great hope to the impoverished people in Buseesa village.

Nicholas Smith, a volunteer finance expert from St. Julie Billiart parish in Newbury Park, organized the new centre with the help of the sisters and two members of the staff at Notre Dame Academy in Buseesa, Ben Anguma and Winnie Kyakusha.
People in the area form teams and vote to decide which projects to fund first based on a person’s reputation and skills, which is usually the only collateral available. The teams assume responsibility for the loans, and as each loan is paid back the team can then fund another project.

So far, loans have been made to help local women buy material to make school uniforms for sale, acquire a new sewing machine for a thriving dress-making business, and harvest crops.

October 2009