✨Meet our borrowers! ✨ This is Linda, a member of the Endabash loan hub near Tloma, Tanzania. Linda sells homemade African batiks and provides tailoring services. Hers is one of many WMI stories that illustrates how determined women who receives adequate training and microfinance loans can can create empowerment and financial independence in their lives. (fb)

✨Meet our borrowers! ✨ This is Betty Magombe. Betty was one of the initial group of borrowers to receive a loan when WMI first launched in Buyobo, Uganda back in 2008! Betty buys and sells bugoyas, a type of banana native to the region. Through years of entrepreneurial experience and WMI training, Betty’s bugoya business is thriving, producing healthy profits and ready to evolve to the next level. Every week she travels from Buyobo with 150-200 large branches of bogoyas to sell in the markets in other towns like Malaba and Soroti. Sometimes she crosses the border into Kenya, where bogoyas are popular but not grown, and sells her entire inventory in a single day. Betty earns about around $2 in profit from each branch of bogoya she sells (a branch can have upwards of 100 bananas on it). She plans on investing her profit into purchasing a tuk-tuk (three-wheeled small truck), which costs about $2,500, so that she can drive herself to and from markets. Betty will pay for half of the tuk-tuk up-front and has requested WMI issue her an asset-based loan to finance the remaining cost. With profits from the business Betty has already constructed a permanent home and secure storage units, in addition to paying for her children’s education. Through her travels she has learned to speak 10 languages, including Swahili and English, as well as numerous local dialects. As a WMI member, she is generous in sharing her business knowledge with other women in the community and acts a mentor to new borrowers. Betty is a shining example of how a small bit of financial capital can transform a life, a family, and a community. (fb)