The Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) works with subsistence farmers in the rural areas of Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania. Through business training, funding and mentoring, VEF aims to help farmers create and sustain income-generating small businesses. In June 2009, VEF reported 19,200 small businesses launched thanks to their help. 75 percent of the businesses are still going strong after four years. In 2009, VEF claimed USD 274,000 in total assets and USD 114,000 in total liabilities. GiveWell, a New York-based charity evaluation nonprofit, just awarded VEF for its success in “making a strong, evidence-based case that they are improving the financial situations of low-income people in the developing world.” VEF uses microfinance insights by giving grants of $150 to groups of five entrepreneurs–a small sum that does not have to be repaid.

On Monday, Microcapital Brief announced VEF’s new partnership with the Disney Worldwide Conservation Fund (DWCF), which works to study and protect wildlife and ecosystems and also provides annual awards to American non-profit organizations that work internationally. Since its creation in 1995, DWCF has supported 800 projects with $14 million in grants to individuals working in 110 countries. As part of the partnership with VEP, DWCF has donated USD 25,000. This grant will expand VEF’s development/conservation program surrounding Uganda’s Budongo Forest – a conservation area in East Africa that is home to roughly 600 chimpanzees. The Budongo program empowers local communities to start sustainable, diversified small businesses in a way that supports long-term conservation goals. Budongo uses an integrated approach to promote the conservation of chimpanzee habitat, critical to the forests’ sustainability. The organization also aims to alleviate poverty in the local communities surrounding the forests, through training and empowering locals to to start sustainable, diversified small businesses through microfinance. The VEP mentors work closely with the communities to teach sustainable business concepts and important knowledge of forest resources and how to protect them. In the three years since the beginning of the program, VEF has reported 480 new businesses and trained 2,400 people in 40 villages adjacent to the forest.

Oikocredit applauds VEF’s success, as we also support other microfinance institutions in Uganda as well. Of the 20 MFIs we  support in the country, many focus on sustainability projects much like that of VEF.For example, the Community Enterprises Development Organization assists members in the production and treatment of high-yield seeds and plants. Entebbe Livestock Marketing Cooperative Society (ELMACOS) is a marketing cooperative we have partnered with in Uganda. It focuses on livestock and livestock products, in which landowners join forces to ensure efficient production.