TORONTO MET ENTREPRENEUR INSTITUTE
PROJECT DAGO
MICROLOANS
EMPOWERED 200 KENYAN WOMEN
ISSUED 40 MICROLOANS
HELPED START 40 BUSINESSES
Project Dago
The Microloan Initiative
Dago is a place with limited jobs and limited resources, where people die young and children are starving. People donate money or goods, but once these resources run out, the community is left where they started. Often the only place women in Dago can make money is in the local market by exchanging goods and services. With no credit, land, education, or possessions, Kenyan women are entrepreneurs out of necessity, struggling to pay for school and feed their children, let alone save or build capital.
To address this need, we worked hand-in-hand with the villagers over several years to help them achieve business education and financial literacy. We then created a Microfinance Program modelled after the Grameen Bank and microloans. These women have now started over 40 businesses in the community since the project’s inception. They meet weekly to keep each other accountable, share best practices and complete our weekly education packages. Every year, the payments from the microloans are paid back in full and recycled to new entrepreneurs, making this initiative internally sustainable.
The Participants
Benefits
- Long-term thinking
- How to budget
- How to save money
- How to invest in your business
- Product Differentiation
- Market Segmentation
- How to brand your business
- And much more!
Team Members
Benefits
- Entrepreneurial thinking
- How to start and run a co-op bank
- How to structure a financial literacy program
- How to raise funds
- How to make a difference
- How to manage a social change making project
- And much more!
