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What We Do Village Enterprise Fund (VEF) endeavors to break the cycle of poverty in East Africa through training, seed capital and mentoring for income-generating small businesses. Since its founding in 1987, VEF has helped create more than 13,550 micro-enterprises to benefit an estimated 340,000 people. Our grant will be used to help rural farmers in the Katine and Kamuda sub-counties of eastern Uganda start sunflower-production businesses. The sunflower venture serves as a cost-effective model for poverty reduction initiatives in other regions of the world. VEF’s recent impact evaluation shows that 88% of its businesses operate beyond 1 year and 75% beyond 4 years. One-third of its entrepreneurs launch second businesses. VEF made extensive use of PRW’s non-financial support in Cycle 1, including a major revision of their web site and an in-country visit to meet VEF staff and business owners and assess market conditions. They are eager to expand our collaborative efforts by leveraging our grant to raise funds from other foundations and securing our advice on the costs/benefits of further investment in sunflower seed processing and marketing. For more information, visit: www.villageef.org or contact Jon Hamren at: jmhamren@yahoo.com.
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From the depth of need and despair, people |
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Sunflowers are a highly profitable and scalable agricultural crop used to produce cooking oil and healthy animal feed. A team of experienced Ugandan field volunteers and VEF staff spearhead the effort.