For only 6 pounds per person this powerful scheme will take 32 poor rural families out of hunger and poverty once and for all. Right now, these families can only cultivate a small area of land by hand with the result that they simply can't grow enough food to feed themselves. So FOAG will make low interest community enterprise loans available to the families who will invest the repayable loans in oxen and a plough. Soon they will be able to cultivate a lot more land and grow more food.
FOAG is tackling poverty in rural Uganda and has provided community loans to groups of farmers in Iganga, central Uganda for 7 years. We started with 2 pairs of oxen and now thanks to further investment and loan repayments there are now 170 pairs! Banks won't lend to very poor people in Uganda but FOAG will. We know these families just need an opportunity to climb their way out of poverty- and they will take it!
FOAG will screen and issue loans of 750 pounds to 8 groups each comprising 4 poor but hard-working families. Each group will use the loan to buy a pair of oxen and a plough which they will share. Working with our Uganda based community support organisation FOAG will organise borrower meetings, conduct site visits, provide ongoing business education and introduce Ugandans to dealing with the local bank. Our experience shows us that almost all farmers groups will repay the loan over 3 years.
This simple scheme fundamentally empowers people living in desperate poverty in rural Uganda. Over 7 years we have seen thousands of lives transformed. Loans are repaid, children are getting regular meals, healthcare and going to school. Parents are growing and storing all the food they need and using their credit history to secure bank loans to set up all manner of new enterprises to improve the whole community's quality of life.
