This grandmother makes enough income from milk sales to send her three orphaned grandchildren to school.
AYA strongly believes in creating opportunities that will provide a long-term means of self-sufficiency for orphans and their guardians. One of the best ways to achieve this objective is through micro enterprise. People living in poverty do not lack the motivation to change their circumstances, but the resources necessary to do so. Therefore, AYA supports several projects that facilitate small loans or grants to the guardians of orphans.
The Fort Portal Micro-Grant program was created to give guardians in rural Uganda $100 grants that are typically used to purchase a cow; thus, giving the family an ongoing source of income from milk sales and breeding. Several smaller micro-credit groups that AYA supports in Nairobi were organized and created by impoverished parents living in the slums. They began by pooling small amounts of money and making loans to each other to start income-generating projects. These loans and grants may sound like a relatively little amount of money, but they provide the foundation to dramatically change the lives of children and families living in extreme poverty.