Mikwano Microfinance Class

Hi, Donors,

I'll begin by thanking you for your support of Embrace It Africa, and particularly our microfinance initiative, Mikwano Microfinance. We've continued to progress this summer on increasing the capacity of Mikwano Microfinance. This has been done in two trajectories: education and construction.

We have formed a relationship with a UK-based non-profit organization called Teach A Man To Fish. TAMTF "works with local partners, in-country, providing tailored on-site support to schools and NGOs which are setting up businesses. Our field officers work to train school staff and students to run their own businesses so that the project becomes sustainable over the long-term." I have attached a proposal that they put together for our Mikwano Microfinance project. This will be effective both in training staff to run the microfinance institution, and will help community members with developing their business goals.

We started construction on the facility in June, and hope to have it completed by the end of the year. Construction is usually a quick process, however, what kept us from completing construction was determining, internally, the best use of our funds at hand. After much discussion, and other donations, we decided to green light the construction process.

I plan to head to Uganda in October/November, so look for another update towards the end of the year! Again, I appreciate you support, and if you'd like to know more about our projects, don't hesitate to reach out to me.

Sincerely,

Zachary Rodriguez

• Teach A Man To Fish Proposal (DOC)

Hi, Donors,

I want to thank you for your recent donation to the Mikwano Microfinance Class. We recently had a team of five St. Bonaventure University students in Bethlehem, Uganda, as part of our Embrace It Africa, Inc. student trip. We were able to set a few things in motion concerning the Mikwano Microfinance Class, which I would like to tell you about.

We are in the process of partnering with a UK-based organization called Teach A Man to Fish. Their mission has been "to encourage and support education projects that generate sustainable livelihoods for young people across the developing world. We aim to make a long term impact on global poverty by supporting education projects that give young people the skills to help themselves." We are going to have this organization come to run business development classes for secondary students and business owners in the Bethlehem community to educate those on how to better position their business to grow, and develop the right networking connections to enact this growth. I'm very excited to work with this organization, as I believe the community will benefit greatly from their involvement.

Also, we have been working with another UK-based organization to see if there are possibilities of developing a more close relationship concerning bringing young entrepreneurs to Uganda to partner with local people, in the hopes of developing innovative, culturally-focused projects that could help the community both economically and socially. These projects range from business development, clean energy, and agriculture.

It was a really great trip! We are planning a follow-up trip at the beginning of August, so I will continue to keep you updated on our progress. Thank you once again for your donation and support, as much of what we do, if not all, wouldn't be possible with the help of donors like you!

I hope all is well with you!

Sincerely,

Zachary Rodriguez

Links:

• Embrace It Africa, Inc.