CENTURY 21 Signature Real Estate was proud to partner with Orphans of Teso to raise money for their 2020 Change Their Story campaign. Together, we raised $44,500 to fund new initiatives and programs for vulnerable children in Uganda.
For the past 10 years, Orphans of Teso has worked to provide care and support to more than 650 orphaned and vulnerable children in the Teso region of Uganda through a program of local community empowerment and long-term sustainable development. C21SRE is proud to be a partner in helping these communities care for these children and pull them out of the cycle of poverty.
Orphans of Teso’s 2020 Change Their Story Campaign
The annual Change Their Story campaign is focused on empowerment and increasing the income levels of the families in Orphans of Teso’s program at a household level. Uganda has an agriculture-based economy and they’ve learned that the best way to make an impact is by providing them with livestock.
This year, the team at Orphans of Teso focused on the following initiatives to empower and provide dignity to the families in the program:
- Provide female pigs to 330 families so they can create an income for themselves and start providing for their own families.
- Provide sheep to 160 students to raise and sell.
- Start a Village Savings and Loan program (VSLA) so families can start businesses and generate income.
Why pigs and sheep?
The goal of this campaign was to increase household incomes and asset bases. The majority of the families in the district earn a livelihood from either growing crops or raising livestock. Most household heads spend their time and energy finding food for their families and not as much as time on other needs, such as education, health and clothing. The 2020 Change Their Story campaign initiatives were designed to help with both raising household incomes and helping families meet basic needs.
Sheep Project– Each child will receive a sheep to rear and multiply. First-born sheep will be donated back to the CarePoints. Firstborn male sheep will be sold by the CarePoints and firstborn female sheep will be gifted to other children in need in the community.
Pig Project– Each family will receive a female pig and several pigs for breeding. After the first litters are born, families will keep one piglet and donate the rest back to the CarePoints. They will distribute the female pigs to other families in need and sell the male piglets.
VSLA Program– This micro-financing endeavor is designed to increase household income and set community members on the path to financial independence.
Participating members will be trained on small business management, entrepreneurship, saving and financial planning. Members will then make weekly deposits into their VSLA program where the money will be pooled and held in a secure lockbox. Each week, the VSLA members will meet as a group to make deposits and members seeking loans can present proposals to the committee.
Loans can be used to start businesses, pay for education, improve buildings, or to fund another community project. Members are charged 10% in interest and when the loans are repaid, the interest goes into the VSLA account to be paid out as profit to all members, based on their percentage of savings over the year.
The original $30,000 raised will fund these three main initiatives. The additional $14,500 will be used to cover university and secondary school tuition for the older children in the program.
Thank you to our community of donors! We appreciate everyone who donated and shared information about the 2020 Change Their Story campaign and the work Orphans of Teso is doing in Uganda.
If you’d like to stay connected with Orphans of Teso, you can follow them on Facebook and Instagram to stay up-to-date on developments at the CarePoints, new opportunities to get involved and their work with vulnerable children and families in Uganda. You can also go to their website at www.orphansofteso.com.
Here at Century 21 Signature Real Estate, we’ve made it our purpose to do more than just sell real estate. Our passion is to invest more in the communities around us and use our resources to make an impact in the lives of others. To learn more about this philosophy, click here.