WMI Video Library
Since its inception in 2008, WMI has been cataloguing the progress and impact of the loan program through videos compiled in the field by interns, volunteers and WMI officers who travel to loan hubs each year. The videos document the history of WMI's evolution and provide a window into the lives of the women and families we serve in hundreds of rural villages in East Africa.
WMI Loan Program: Impact and Progress
2023 - From the Archives, 15 Years Ago
Thanks to our summer interns who took old footage and made a fun video showing how things in Buyobo have changed and what it was like when we started out. (3:57)
2023 - Women's Microfinance Training
WMI trainers travel to Samubu, Kenya at the invitation of the Sarara Foundation to empower 37 amazing Milk Mamas with business skills training. (1:56)
2023 - WMI: Girls Empowerment
Working with the non-profit Rukundo International, WMI funds a girls empowerment program in southwest Uganda that strives to keep girls enrolled in school, prevent unwanted pregnancies, and teach critical entrepreneurial skills that can lead to future employment. (1:09)
2022 - WMI:15 Years and 15 Changes
Through 15 years of service to rural women, WMI has had a profound impact on their lives, their families, and their communities. (3:01)
2022 - What Makes WMI Unique?
Unique program features that protect borrowers and support the local community help distinguish WMI from other microlenders. (3:19)
2022 - Celebrating 15 Years of Service
From 20 borrowers in 2008 to 22,000 borrowers today, WMI celebrates 15 years of service to rural women. (1:51)
2022 - International Women's Day
WMI's local leaders celebrate in song the loan program's impact in reducing domestic violence in rural villages. (0:13)
2021 - Flourishing Conversations sponsored by BECO interviews
WMI President, Robyn Nietert on WMI's long history of successfully launching women entrepreneurs in rural East Africa. (27:16)
2021 - Women's Microfinance Training
One in an Army fan collective supports WMI at the summer concert of the Korean pop band BTS.
2021 - Loan Program History and Operations
Using archival photos and videos, The Flourishing video series covers WMI loan program history and operations in an interview with President Robyn Nietert (27:17)
2021 - Business Operations
WMI borrowers continue to manage business operations during critical times and adjust to incorporate pandemic precautions. (3:36)
2020 - How WMI Borrowers Generate Income
See how WMI members start a variety of creative businesses to generate income. (5:26)
2019 - Dealing with Defaulters
To maintain the trust of members, it is crucial for a rural loan program to follow up immediately with defaulters. Join the ladies as they organize to confront a defaulter in her home and negotiate a repayment plan. (2:32)
2019 - Visiting a Loan Hub In Busseesa
Spend 90 seconds with WMI visiting a loan hub in Busseesa, Uganda and share the enthusiasm and energy of the ladies in the loan program. (1:32)
2019 - Dining For Women Partners with WMI
Two NGOs join together to focus on empowering rural women. (3:52)
2018 - Elephant Orphans Create Opportunities for Rural Samburu Women
WMI is helping to create job opportunities for Samburu women in Northern Kenya. (0:31)
2017 - 10 Years Growing
At the decade mark, loan program leaders talk about the strides the loan program has made in reducing poverty and rural business women share why they are proud of WMI. (9:20)
2017 - Clean Water for Buyobo
The recently completed Buyobo water restoration project shows the vital importance of clean water to the community and the difficulty of managing water systems in rural villages. (5:37)
2016 - Good Health is Good for Business
Partnering with local medical professionals, WMI brings healthcare, cancer screening and HIV/AIDS outreach to village loan hubs in Uganda. (6:12)
2015 - WMI Multigenerational Impact - Sironko District, Uganda
The children of WMI borrowers talk about the impact the WMI loan program has had on their community and their own opportunities. (4:40)
2015 - Village Girls Group Funded by WMI - Sironko District, Uganda
WMI initiates entrepreneurship and health training programs for teen-age girls in the village. (4:42)
2015 - Community Projects Expand Through WMI Loan Program - Sironko District, Uganda
The WMI loan program generates income to support community-wide programs that benefit the entire village. (4:45)
2015 - Loan Program Impact from a Woman's Perspective - East Africa
The 2015 Capstone Senior Team from the Bullis School in Potomac, MD studied the WMI loan program's impact from a local woman's perspective and created this video to publicize how small businesses help alleviate poverty and improve household living standards for rural women in East Africa. (20:50)
2015 - Aguti Benna, Clinician, Medical Centre - Gulu, Uganda
Aguti Scovia Benna, clinician at a Gulu, Uganda heath centre, explains how WMI loans help families access medical care. (0:26)
2014 - Journey Through WMI
Ladies in the WMI loan program show how the program takes village women from training to independent bank loans in 24 months. (3:29)
2014 - WMI Borrowers in Tanzania Marketplace
WMI borrowers in Tanzania now have funds to stock their small business and do a brisk trade in the local open air marketplace. (1:34)
2012 - WMI's 5 Year Anniversary Milestones
WMI's Local Director, Olive Wolimbwa, discusses how the WMI loan program has impacted the lives of rural women and the communities where they live in the past five years. (7:37)
2012 - Small Loan, Big Change
Jackline Namonye, WMI Borrower and Assistant Local Director, shows how WMI small loans made a big change in her family's life. (14:43)
2012 - Triple Bottom Line Impact of WMI
Robyn Nietert, WMI's President, talks about WMI's triple bottom line impact from WMI's first loan hub in Buyobo, Uganda. (5:42)
2010 - Voice of America
Experts say microfinance can be an important liberating force in societies where women struggle against social and economic conditions. Voice of America interviewed WMI's Robyn Nietert on the growing success of WMI's loan programs. (2:45)
How it Works! - The WMI Loan Program Overview
Women's groups in rural villages in Uganda and Kenya are building a road out of poverty with their own hard work, determination and support from the US-based Women's Microfinance Initiative. (9:56)
October 2010 - WMI Location Visits
In October 2010, Montana Stevenson and Ainsley Morris accompanied WMI borrowers and trainers, Olive, Irene, Jackline, and Penina on training visits in Uganda and Kenya. (5:16)
2009 - WMI Launch
Follow the journey of American businesswomen as they travel to Buyobo, Uganda to help impoverished widows launch small businesses. (9:48)
Video Biographies: WMI Women Share Their Stories
WMI borrowers took center stage to show supporters worldwide how the loan program has impacted their lives and their rural communities. Thanks to Greenlight Apparel for assisting in the production of many of the video biographies.
2020 - Building a Rural School
Penina describes building a thriving rural school one loan at a time. (2:31)
2019 - Village Pub
Creating a local watering hole for villagers requires lots of customer care. (2:01)
2019 - Launching A Hardware Store
Operating the only village hardware requires great customer relations. (2:00)
2019 - Poultry Supporting Education
Adding a poultry business provides critical cash to support a small primary school. (2:23)
2019 - Harvesting Bogoyas
Not for the faint of heart, climbing trees to harvest bogoyas is a tough business. (1:09)
2019 - Produce Seller
Selling produce at the local market is a chaotic all day event. (1:27)
2019 - Street Vendor Pancakes
Making delicious pancake snacks is a reliable source of income for an enterprising borrower. (0:57)
2018 - Borrowers Boosting Bogoyas
Rural women turn buying and selling bananas into big businesses. (3:22)
Penina's School - Sironko District, Uganda Loan Hub
Her journey from first-time WMI borrower to Head Mistress of her own school serving hundreds of students in rural Uganda. (4:56)
Susan Aringo - WMI Local Coordinator - Gulu, Uganda Loan Hub
Susan Aringo is a rural businesswoman in Northern Uganda who knows about the challenges of life in an area that is still recovering from a twenty year insurgency led by The Lord's Resistance Army. (2:12)
Alice Monje's loan bought chicks and now she runs a thriving chicken business with the help of her entire family. (2:46)
Allen Namerome's loan started a bean and grain trading business; profits allowed her to buy cows and other livestock that vastly improve her family's nutrition. (1:19)
Joy Nangalama started a fish business with her loan and switched to selling beer, to operating a motorcycle taxi, to leasing out a chain saw to stay profitable and one step ahead of the competition. (2:13)
Margaret started a jewelry business with her WMI loan that has ended her days of poverty. She says having a business is even making her look younger. (2:54)
Olive Wolimbwa's loan launched a business that paid school fees for her eldest son to graduate from University - he obtained a full-time job in the microfinance industry. (1:56)
Robinah Wamanga used her loan to build a successful produce business from scratch; after getting to know other WMI women, she was elected to the local district government with their support. (2:03)
Sarah Mogombe makes the best banana pancakes in any of the villages - local trucker drivers buy them by the bag-full to sell in South Sudan. (3:54)
WMI Loan Program Graduations
Each year, WMI members graduate from the village level loan program to independent banking and financial autonomy. To commemorate their success, the women organize a graduation ceremony, complete with a brass band and a celebratory march to the local trading center.
2024 - WMI President's Speech Celebrates Borrowers in Ligisu
WMI president, Robyn Nietert, encourages borrowers and recognizes their dedication and accomplishments in a short speech delivered in Ligisu at the annual community celebration in Buyobo, Uganda. (2:21)
2020 - WMI President Enjoys Buyobo Graduation
WMI president enjoys buyobo graduation and encourages a cheering crowd with her speech. (6:09)
2017 - Buyobo Graduation
Join the ladies of Buyobo for a 90 second mash up as they get ready and celebrate their business successes in 2017. (1:37)
2013 - WMI Graduation Video Montage
Montage of clips from the WMI graduation celebration in 2013. (3:55)
2011 - WMI loan program graduation ceremony in Buyobo
All 26 WMI loan groups in Buyobo proudly marched in the 2011 graduation ceremony. (2:56)
January 2010 - WMI Graduation March -- Buyobo, Uganda
With a brass band leading the way, WMI members march to the local trading center to celebrate the women who have graduated from the loan program and are moving on to independent banking. (1:43)
Interns in Uganda
2019 - Milking a Cow
WMI's college interns learn some useful life skills in the village. (1:01)
2019 - Making Sanitary Pads
WMI interns enthusiastically show village boys and girls how to make reusable sanitary pads. (1:01)
2019 - One second a day in the summer college internship in Buyobo (:55)
July 2011 - WMI Internship Trip to Buyobo, Uganda
In June 2011, 8 high school students from Bethesda, Maryland traveled to Buyobo, Uganda to assist with teaching Math and English at the local primary school and completing the construction of 3 new classrooms. (4:31)
July 2010 - Walt Whitman High School Internship Trip in Buyobo, Uganda
A group of 14 students from Walt Whitman High School, Bethesda, MD interned in Buyobo, Uganda during July/August, 2010, setting up an internet café, tutoring at the local school and preparing the foundation for 3 new classrooms. (3:42)
2009 - WMI Tutoring Winter
In November 2009, two WMI interns traveled to Buyobo, Uganda, for six weeks. One of the projects they worked on during their stay was a supplemental education program for the local primary school children during their school vacation. (3:11)
Village Life
2024 - Mobile Health Clinic Bringing critical medical services to Maasai women and their families in the rural villages of the Ngorongoro Conservation Area of Tanzania, WMI supports Dr. Shemagembye's mobile clinic as a vital health lifeline for the local women in the loan program. (1:16)
2023 - Girls Talk Working to make sure girls stay in school, avoid unplanned pregnancies, and learn business skills, WMI teams up with Rukundo International to bring WMI's outreach program to hundreds of teens in rural Uganda. (4:19)
2022 - Girls Empowerment Program In Southwest Uganda young girls are learning entrepreneurial skills through WMI's outreach program. (1:31)
2021 - WMI Table Tennis Club A year into the youth table tennis program in Buyobo, students talk about the lifetime lessons they are learning. (2:33)
2021 - WMI Youth Table Tennis Program gives village primary school students a chance to learn a skill that can win them a scholarship to secondary school and university. (0:46)
2019 - A Primary School Day
See what the school day is like for village primary students. (2:18)
2019 - Yoga with Kids
WMI interns and youth group leaders introduce primary school students to yoga. (0:58)
2014 - Masaba Dancing at WMI Celebration in Buyobo, Uganda
WMI holds annual village celebrations in East Africa with music, singing and lots of dancing. Masaba shows us how its done in Buyobo, Uganda. (1:00)
2013 - A Spotlight on Children of WMI Borrowers
WMI makes loans to women but knows it is lending to entire families. The businesses that women start turn into a family affair with everyone pitching in to make sure the businesses succeed. (6:05)
2013 - Drummers and Dancers in WMI Atiak Loan Hub
WMI started a loan hub in Atiak, Uganda in January 2012. This area suffered heavily during the 20-year insurgency in northern Uganda. (1:07)
2013 - WMI Ataik, Uganda Loan Hub Traffic (0:23)