Granny Micro-Credit Scheme

Typically, elderly Ugandans, and grannies in particular, have faced discrimination from banks and other formal lending institutions when they apply for small business loans, because they are considered “credit risks.” PEFO grannies have, to help overcome this discrimination,organized themselves into 10 granny circles (SACCOS) of 40-120 members each. The purpose of these informal “village banks” is to give small business loans to members so they can improve their and their dependent’s livelihoods.

Grannies must become shareholders in a SACCO (5000 Ugandan shillings/share) to become members.Members are encouraged to save and contribute weekly to their SACCO. PEFO donors also make contributions to these granny banks. These three sources combine to create a fundwithin each SACCO from which small business loans are made to members.These loans must be paid back to the fund with 1%interest within 1 year.Dividends from each SACCO’sannual profits arealso distributed to its members each year.Each SACCO’sassets are kept secure short-term in PEFO’s granny circle office. Long-term, when assets reach required deposit amounts, they are kept secure in traditional banks.

Peer Learning

Peer learning is a key component in all PEFO livelihood interventions. We empower our grannies with on-the-ground, hands-on skills training, rather than academic approaches. While we often bring in external trainers to train our grannies, we also place a lot of emphasis on granny to granny skills sharing. Each group of grannies is responsible for the progress of its members. Home visits are conducted by granny peers to assure that new knowledge/skills have been successfully absorbed.

Revolve Projects

All granny households are given seeds from which they are expected to give back 10% of their harvest to the farm school for sustainability of seed production. The fifty percent of the grannies that are the strongest are given an income generating asset (IGA) of their choice (goats, pigs, banana suckers). They are expected to share a part of their produce from this asset with the weaker grannies and the farm school.

The objective of this project is to allow grannies to use IGAs to increase their incomes and to allowthe farm school to sustain agricultural and animal production. The grannies are helped to maintain their assets by granny leaders working in livelihood committees and by PEFO field staff who receive monthly maintenance reports.

Distribution of piglets to caregivers of Onywako-community

Granny Kezia Muzale with a grand son removing suckers from PEFO-van-for-planting-at-home

LIVELIHOODS

The objective here is to ensure food and income security in key caregiver households (typically headed by grandmothers), using community- driven, sustainable approaches to agriculture.These approaches are promoted and tested in our community farm school and include: an emphasis on sustainable, indigenous foods and farming methods; increasing food production; improved food access; promoting food and dietary diversity to improve health within the community.