Raising Chickens to Raise her Family

Before receiving a loan, Alphonsine, an unemployed mother of six, was not able to provide the basic life needs of food and shelter for her family. The Micro-Loan Initiative provided her with $260 to purchase chickens to establish a poultry and egg business. Now she has a large flock of chickens, collects dozens of eggs each week and has generated the income not only to provide food and shelter for her family, but also to afford to send her children to school.

Pigs, Goats, and Honeybees

The village of Gahima asked Humanity for Children to assist with their challenge of adding protein to their diet and helping to provide a way for them to begin a pig raising business. They purchased 15 young female pigs and distributed them to 15 of Gahima’s poorest families. Once these pigs are raised and bred, each family will give one of the female piglets from the litter to another family in the community. This is a great example of how one gift can multiply into many gifts.

Storing Beans for Greater Profit

Beans are a major crop in the Kibungo area and most families plant enough for themselves and to sell at market. But everyone sells their beans at the same time… this drives down the price of beans. This group of entrepreneurial women used their microloan to raise more beans and to find a way of safely storing the crop for a number of months until there were fewer beans on the market. As the price of beans went up, so did their profits. These profits allowed them to send their children to school and to help lift their families out of poverty.