Bring Community Finance to Janja!
Donation protected
The Short Story:
The Goal: I desperately want my village to be involved in the Community Finance Initiative, a partnership between Peace Corps Rwanda and a non-profit called Global Communities designed to increase knowledge of household finance and business/entrepreneurship skills at the grassroots level. Hopefully the program will result in the formation of an income-generating savings and loan group in my village, which will then provide participants with the seed funding to start their own businesses.
The Problem: In order for me and my Rwandan counterpart, who will be my partner in implementing the project, to attend the training, I have been charged with the intimidating task of raising $800 in less than three weeks. This is where, hopefully, you come in.
For those interested, here is the long story…
During the past two months living in my new home, a small rural northern village called Janja, I have spent a lot of time asking my new friends, neighbors, and colleagues what my community most needs. Their first response is usually about infrastructure. The road to my site is notoriously terrible, which means that my community is very remote and therefore cut off from access to major towns and the services they provide. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, this is unfortunately not in my wheelhouse. However, Peace Corps Rwanda has started a new program called the Community Finance Initiative to help with what is usually the second suggestion from community members: income generation.
Simply put, the people here in Janja are really poor. The vast majority are farmers, but most don’t own enough land to generate the income necessary to save for long term investments, like their children’s school fees. This is the problem that the Community Finance Initiative is designed to address. Peace Corps Volunteers around the country have partnered with Global Communitites, a non-profit tasked with implementing U.S.A.I.D. projects, to organize grassroots initiatives designed to educate rural Rwandans about household finance and business practices. Each Volunteer partners with a Rwandan counterpart to teach the curriculum to members of a local cooperative.
The project will last about a year and has four phases. The first is focused on personal finances, which covers savings, debt management, and budgeting, simple skills that many Rwandans have never learned before and that can have drastic impacts at the household level. In the second phase, members will incorporate as a savings and loan group. They will pool their savings and then lend sums out to members at interest to generate income. In the third phase, members will undergo Business Finance and Entrepreneurship classes and develop a business plan. In the final phase, participants will have the ability to receive microgrants to help their businesses get off the ground.
My goal of $800 will enable me and a Rwandan counterpart to attend a week-long training next month designed to prepare us for the first two phases of the program. In the training of teachers, my counterpart will learn the details of the curriculum and some specific techniques for teaching adults. I will learn about the monitoring and evaluation system for the project and how to track and report this progress back to Peace Corps and Global Communities. This $800 will cover all transportation, training materials, curriculum resources, housing, per diem, and all other costs associated with the training. Otherwise, I will have to wait a full year to attend the next training. If you are able, please join me in bringing these skills and resources to my new friends, neighbors, and colleagues in 2015.
The Goal: I desperately want my village to be involved in the Community Finance Initiative, a partnership between Peace Corps Rwanda and a non-profit called Global Communities designed to increase knowledge of household finance and business/entrepreneurship skills at the grassroots level. Hopefully the program will result in the formation of an income-generating savings and loan group in my village, which will then provide participants with the seed funding to start their own businesses.
The Problem: In order for me and my Rwandan counterpart, who will be my partner in implementing the project, to attend the training, I have been charged with the intimidating task of raising $800 in less than three weeks. This is where, hopefully, you come in.
For those interested, here is the long story…
During the past two months living in my new home, a small rural northern village called Janja, I have spent a lot of time asking my new friends, neighbors, and colleagues what my community most needs. Their first response is usually about infrastructure. The road to my site is notoriously terrible, which means that my community is very remote and therefore cut off from access to major towns and the services they provide. As a Peace Corps Volunteer, this is unfortunately not in my wheelhouse. However, Peace Corps Rwanda has started a new program called the Community Finance Initiative to help with what is usually the second suggestion from community members: income generation.
Simply put, the people here in Janja are really poor. The vast majority are farmers, but most don’t own enough land to generate the income necessary to save for long term investments, like their children’s school fees. This is the problem that the Community Finance Initiative is designed to address. Peace Corps Volunteers around the country have partnered with Global Communitites, a non-profit tasked with implementing U.S.A.I.D. projects, to organize grassroots initiatives designed to educate rural Rwandans about household finance and business practices. Each Volunteer partners with a Rwandan counterpart to teach the curriculum to members of a local cooperative.
The project will last about a year and has four phases. The first is focused on personal finances, which covers savings, debt management, and budgeting, simple skills that many Rwandans have never learned before and that can have drastic impacts at the household level. In the second phase, members will incorporate as a savings and loan group. They will pool their savings and then lend sums out to members at interest to generate income. In the third phase, members will undergo Business Finance and Entrepreneurship classes and develop a business plan. In the final phase, participants will have the ability to receive microgrants to help their businesses get off the ground.
My goal of $800 will enable me and a Rwandan counterpart to attend a week-long training next month designed to prepare us for the first two phases of the program. In the training of teachers, my counterpart will learn the details of the curriculum and some specific techniques for teaching adults. I will learn about the monitoring and evaluation system for the project and how to track and report this progress back to Peace Corps and Global Communities. This $800 will cover all transportation, training materials, curriculum resources, housing, per diem, and all other costs associated with the training. Otherwise, I will have to wait a full year to attend the next training. If you are able, please join me in bringing these skills and resources to my new friends, neighbors, and colleagues in 2015.
Organizer
Sarah Carson
Organizer
Pine Township, PA
