The story of Ayaa

Her family could not afford school requirements, so she dropped out of school. Her story relates to over 2 million (45%) children who drop out of school in Uganda!

Tina, Ayaa’s mother, who lives in West Nile, Uganda, worked hard each day but could not support her family & afford a meal a day.
She was selected to participate in our program, where she received training, a one-time seed grant and cash stipend to meet basic needs. She started her business and receives regular technical support.

Tina and other women participating in our program are also part of the business saving and loan group, which encourages them to save and invest. Now Tina is able to support her family with 3 meals a day and she also supported her daughter Ayaa to return to school.

We pursuit greater impact

We use data to drive innovation and decision-making. And we invest in rigorous monitoring and evaluations to ensure impact, enhance learning, and inform decisions.

How we monitor and evaluate our impact

We developed a robust monitoring and evaluation system which guides us in our routine monitoring and evaluation. We collect baseline and end-line household surveys to measure program impact based on key indicators, including average increase in household incomes, average increases in household savings, average total saving per business saving group, meals per day, and increase in the number of children accessing education.

Here are some examples of recent accomplishments:

120
women and youth trained in business skills
120
business grants distributed
1200
children impacted
4
saving and loan groups established, and strong in-kind contributions from participants and the Local Government

We also won the D-Prize fellowship for innovative distribution; which normally less than 1% of applicants are selected. The local Government also promotes us as part of their strategy to end extreme poverty in the villages.