WMI Community Engagement Projects

Tree Planting Project

Beginning in 2023, a series of plywood factories opened in the greater Kibaale district in eastern Uganda, where WMI's loan partner, BCDC, operates. Burdened by the increased demand for mature trees, the region succumbed to unprecedented levels of deforestation, loss of biodiversity, and decreased water quality. The deteriorating environmental conditions disproportionately impact WMI's borrowers at the BCDC loan hub who rely on the region's agricultural land for their livelihood.

In 2025, in efforts to counter the adverse effects of deforestation, WMI provided a small grant to BCDC to kickstart a tree planting project. Over the course of one year, BCDC leaders aim to distribute approximately 30,0000 Grieveria and Eucalyptus trees among 1,200 borrowers to be planted in nursery beds located in agricultural land already owned and operated by the organization. The tree planting project not only mitigates the loss of trees, but promotes sustainability and environmental responsibility among borrowers and the community as a whole.

Water Tank/Solar Project

Maasai women in Ngorongoro, Tanzania loan program face challenges in accessing both reliable energy and clean water. Many households rely on firewood and kerosene for lighting, which poses health risks and environmental concerns. Water scarcity requires women to walk long distances several times a day to fetch water and leads to the use of contaminated water sources, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases. In collaboration with the Resilient Communities Africa Foundation (ReCAF) and the Village Community Banks (Vicoba) that manage the WMI loan funds locally, WMI is participating in a comprehensive solution that combines solar panel installation and water tank supply to enhance quality of life, support economic participation, and foster sustainability.

Girl'S Empowerment Program

Collaborating with the non-profit organization, Rukundo International, WMI sponsors a Girls Empowerment Program (GEP) in Southwest Uganda that serves 65 primary school young ladies across four partner schools in remote Kabale District. The activity-packed year includes entrepreneurship and business skills training, launching individual business projects, parent meetings, lessons for pupils, assessments, and graduation. This program gives girls a jump-start into the business world and life-long lessons on self-confidence and determination that will serve them well.

Mobile Medical Clinics

WMI collaborates with its Tanzania partner, Maasi Partners, to facilitate the delivery of quality, equitable and gender sensitive health services to the Indigenous populations in our loan service area through mobile clinics that bring medical staff directly to the community. Services include child vaccinations, TB testing, maternity and delivery care, family planning, and providing essential drugs and medicines. The mobile medical clinic brings health support directly to the thousands of active borrowers in the WMI loan program and their families. The mobile clinics provide 4,000 monthly doses of various antigens to children and pregnant mothers, growth monitoring to children aged five and under, postnatal care, treatment of common health conditions, and health education sessions on nutrition, disease prevention, environmental sanitation, and conservation.

Elephant Grass Project

Despite many upgrades in household living conditions in the villages where WMI works, many women still use charcoal as a main source of cooking fuel. The charcoal is made locally from charred wood and is an unsustainable source of fuel. It contributes significantly to deforestation, creates CO2 emissions that exacerbate climate change, causes serious health issues, and is expensive to purchase. To address this untenable situation, WMI has launched an elephant grass briquette project in partnership with Sun24, a non-profit promoting green energy alternatives for village communities, which has provided a 5-year grant for the initiative at our loan hub in Buseesa, Uganda. Biomass fuel alternatives are commanding substantial attention in emerging economies. Elephant grass is one of the fastest growing plants on the planet (like bamboo) and stores CO2 in its roots. The grass is harvested, dried, and compressed into biomass fuel briquettes. When burned, the briquettes emit very little smoke because of their high energy density. The grass can be harvested 4-6 times a year, making it an excellent source of biomass fuel.

Adult Literacy And Numeracy Training In Tanzania

The numeracy and literacy education program WMI sponsors in conjunction with a British NGO focused on Maasai women in five wards in Tanzania's National Conservation Area (NCA) has been invaluable and necessary for the success of our loan program there. Most of our borrowers have not had the benefit of any formal education, so by funding adult numeracy and literacy classes women who have businesses can learn Swahili (most speak Maa) and keep written and numerical records. Women undergoing training show increased confidence and are empowered by their decision-making and planning skills.

Counseling Sessions

Counseling centered on promoting self-care for improved mental health is a pivotal and empowering initiative that WMI supports. These sessions highlighted the significance of acknowledging and prioritizing mental well-being. The women who attended these sessions were urged to foster self-awareness, identifying their emotional needs. Guidance was provided to establish both group and personalized self-care routines, incorporating elements like mindfulness practices, relaxation exercises, and healthy coping mechanisms. By instilling robust self-care practices, women can better navigate life's challenges, fostering balance, reducing stress, and enhancing overall mental well-being.

Health Screenings

WMI believes that good health and the ability to successfully operate a business go hand in hand. In Bududa and Sironko Districts, Uganda, we partner with the Mbale-based medical professionals at RAIN Uganda to provide rural health screenings to locals including, cervical and breast cancer, HIV/AIDS, vision and blood pressure. Patients with issues are referred for follow up services. Thousands of women in the loan program, as well as resident villagers, have been screened through this health outreach partnership.

Reproductive Health and Education

Not all microfinance providers are alike. WMI is a non-profit provider of microfinance services. In Sironko District, Uganda, WMI works with Marie Stopes International to bring family planning education and options to village women and their partners. We have had record crowds turn out for training on family planning alternatives and to receive resource information. WMI offices are used as confidential consultation rooms where women are able to receive on-the-spot family planning services.

Boys and Girls Group

Boys and Girls Group is a program for youth ages 11-14 in Buyobo led by our facilitators, Sam and Teacher Susan. Girls and Boys groups hold weekly sessions discussing topics such as sexual health and hygiene, as well as creative expression and business skills. Boys and girls groups also hold contests in entrepreneurship and design. Through these contests, some of the youth in our program have gone on to create successful businesses and sell their designs to fund their education. To date, more than 400 youth have benefited from the program.

Clean Water Initiatives

Access to clean water is a serious, on-going problem in rural African villages. WMI has completed several projects to bring clean water to the communities we serve. In 2013, college interns installed a rainwater collection tank in the classrooms at Buyobo Primary to provide drinking water to the children during school. In 2017, WMI, with its local partner BWA, completed a $35,000 renovation and expansion of the entire Buyobo gravity-fed water system - the most extensive water project in the District. Over 5,000 residents and school children can now drink potable water straight from the tap, eliminating the need for expensive or time-consuming purification measures.

Solar Lamps

With a generous support from Sun24, WMI has distributed thousands of solar lamps to women in rural communities in Uganda and in Kenya, through our loan program partner, Lewa Wildlife Conservancy. The solar lamps provide power in kitchens and common areas so that children can study in the evenings and women can cook in their kitchens without being dependent on traditional carbon-based lighting options. Off-grid households in Kenya spend approximately $200 a year on kerosene to fuel kerosene lamps, making them costly in addition to being dangerous. A survey that the lamp recipients participated in showed that the solar lighting sources were very well received and much preferred over kerosene lamps.

Orphan Outreach Program

The Orphan Outreach Program is a new initiative which was launched in 2018 by interns Lilia Smythe. It provides resources to orphaned children in Buyobo and the surrounding communities. In Uganda, children who have lost at least one parent are considered orphans. Most of these children live with relatives or other adults in the community; however, they often face issues of mistreatment, neglect, and hunger. WMI launched the Orphan Outreach Program which provides a safe, afterschool haven, with access to adult counselors, academic assistance, and school supplies. Today, 32 children come to Buyobo each week to participate in the program.

Buyobo Table Tennis Club

WMI has supported the Buyobo Table Tennis Club since it was launched by professional player and Buyobo community resident, Kevin Mafabi, in early 2020. WMI provides equipment and supplies for the nearly 100 village boys and girls who are learning to play table tennis at WMI's headquarters pavilion, including pandemic protective gear. Utilizing WMI's meeting hall for practices, the Club is an avenue to teach village youth new skills, physical and mental fitness, discipline, and an opportunity to win scholarships to high-level secondary schools. The Club program, which initially was offered only on the long school break, now operates year-round and serves dozens of elementary and middle school boys and girls.

Litter-Free Communities Campaign

Much of sub-Saharan Africa is awash in plastic bags and uncollected litter is routinely discarded by the side of the road. With the introduction of two trash containers, two full-time trash handlers, rakes, wheelbarrows and gloves, the main crossroads of Buyobo are now spotless. The community has wholeheartedly embraced the clean-up campaign, especially the business leaders, many of whom are WMI borrowers. With WMI and BWA providing materials and training, the community clean-up campaign has expanded to surrounding areas.

HEAR (Helping End Abusive Relationships)

HEAR gives sexual violence survivors in the Buyobo community a chance to feel like they have a voice in combating this type of tragedy. Coordinated by college interns, the AIDS Information Center in Mbale provided a three-day course in Buyobo for local 20 women leaders to be trained as HEAR counselors. These community leaders now offer counseling services for victims of sexual assault. In addition, there is now an emergency fund in place for those who have been sexually assaulted and need transportation to the city of Mbale in order to receive treatment.

Agroforestry Training

Trees for the Future, a partner of WMI's loan hub in Buyobo, conducts agroforestry training which focuses on the importance of protecting tree cover and taking care of the local environment. Demonstrations provide instructions on making nursery beds, and free seedlings are distributed for women to plant in their home gardens.

Building Construction

In 2009, WMI completed its first building - a headquarters in Buyobo, Uganda where it manages operations throughout East Africa. WMI now has a regular schedule of building small pavilions in strategic rural areas to accommodate up to 200 loan group members. The land used for the buildings is purchased by the ladies in the loan program and they are responsible for building maintenance and security, while WMI finances the building construction.

The buildings provide a venue for loan collection, training sessions, support group meetings and community events - they give WMI the capacity to add new services, store records in a secure location and expand services. In 2017, WMI dedicated the new 500-seat pavilion adjacent to its Buyobo headquarters, which now hosts all loan program activities for the largest member groups and has also become a valuable community resource.

Since 2017, WMI has constructed nine additional meeting pavilions/offices in sub-hub villages. WMI is proud of its newest building constructed in 2024, a two-story office building set in WMI's headquarters in Buyobo, Uganda. The new building allows WMI to offer a greater number of skills classes, training, and financial services to rural women. The building is equipped with an automatic money-counting machine, necessitated by the large volume of loans handled at the headquarters building. It is a fan favorite!

New School Classrooms

In 2010, interns from Walt Whitman High School in Bethesda, MD, raised over $4,000 in funds and helped lay the foundation for three new classrooms for Buyobo Primary School in Sironko District, Uganda. Some of the classrooms in the existing school had been dilapidated beyond repair. During the year, the ladies in the loan program, WMI supporters, village residents and local officials raised funds to complete the construction. The roof was put in place in May 2011, just weeks before WMI's next crew of summer interns arrived to paint and decorate the classrooms. Assisted by jubilant local students, the 2011 interns painted the classrooms with various designs including the water cycle, a map of Africa and local village scenes. In subsequent years solar power was added and WMI continues to make improvements to the classrooms as new needs arise.

Children's Library in Buyobo

WMI Installed a children's library of 1,500 donated books in Buyobo. From analyzing the data for the Fact Book, launching the pre-school pilot program and making field visits, WMI found that the local village primary school was grossly under-resourced. Students in the Bethesda, MD, area, including Pyle Middle School students, conducted a book drive for WMI. Christina Esposito and her Girl Scout troop led a band of volunteers, including many Carderock Springs, MD residents, in an effort to cover the paperbacks with plastic protectors, create a computer inventory and insert library check-out pockets in the back. The books continue to provide a much-needed resource to local students.

Textbooks for Buyobo Primary School

Through the efforts of Margot Van der Vossen and Brian Miller, Williamson Elementary School in Williamson, NY donated its slightly used textbooks to the village children in Buyobo. Brian, a high school science teacher, interned with WMI in Buyobo and was determined to do something about the lack of textbooks in the school classrooms, where students are taught by rote memorization. Brian's mother, Lori Miller, went into action and secured full sets of reading and math books for 60 students, grades 1 - 6 from her school in New York. The Williamson educators told WMI that "it is very exciting to know the books will once again be in the hands of children."

Teacher's Tea and Bun Program

The summer 2010 high school interns launched a Bun and Tea Program for the teachers at Buyobo Primary School, which continues to serve the teachers today. The program provides a bun and cup of tea every afternoon during lunch for the teachers to enjoy. Many teachers walk a long way to get to the school and have no lunch during their breaks, so these snacks provide much-needed energy. Funding for the program has been continued by private supporters and WMI partner, the Buyobo Women's Association.

Eyeglasses

Vision problems are very common in rural Uganda because eyeglasses are very expensive and screening is not easily accessible. WMI supporters have responded to this pervasive problem by donating over 1,000 pairs of eyeglasses and much-appreciated sunglasses to Buyobo. Additional donations are accessed on a regular basis from non-profits locate in Mbale.

Blood Pressure Monitoring Program

WMI kicked off a blood pressure monitoring program in May 2009, which continues to to be very popular with loan program borrowers as they learn more about the dangers of high blood pressure. WMI staff offers screenings and tracking of blood pressure to WMI clients and provides healthy eating advice and simple solutions to high blood pressure. The WMI Program provides the first opportunity for many of the women to have their blood pressure taken. This increased awareness is the first step to disease prevention.

Fuel-Efficient Stoves

WMI introduced a fuel-efficient stove (F.E.S.) distribution opportunity in Buyobo. By developing a relationship with Ian international non-profit, WMI arranged stove deliveries to borrowers who wanted to become saleswomen. An F.E.S. eliminates almost all of the smoke from wood-burning cooking and utilizes one-third the amount of firewood as open flame cooking. There is a large demand in the villages for this type of timesaving and cost-cutting product.

WMI also partners with Sun24 to provide metal grates and cylinders to improve the efficiency of the three-stone cooking method used by many village women.

Advanced Business Training

WMI has partnered with MAPLE Micro-development, located in Mbale, Uganda to provide advanced business training to all WMI Local Coordinators. MAPLE is dedicated to reducing poverty, empowering women, and fostering self-sufficiency across generations by providing community groups in East Africa with a range of financial and educational services. WMI's local coordinators serve as liaisons to their own communities around WMI's headquarters in Buyobo, as well as liaisons to all of WMI's rural loan program partners throughout East Africa. They visit WMI's other affiliated programs on a quarterly basis to conduct 2-3 day business trainings for new borrowers. MAPLE's "training of trainers" builds upon the coordinators' existing framework of business knowledge so that they can incorporate this knowledge into the trainings they conduct quarterly, as well as pass it along to the WMI businesswomen in Buyobo whom they visit on a monthly basis.