Our approach
Our Approach
Working in the Gaps
Hands of Hope Africa works in remote, underserved Ugandan communities where women are already building livelihoods through farming, trading, tailoring, and other small enterprises. But they sit in the gap between informal enterprise and the formal financial system. They have customers and income, but not the savings history, records, collateral or financial track record that banks usually look for.
That is the gap Hands of Hope works in. We help women strengthen their businesses, build savings habits, keep better records and use appropriately sized working capital responsibly. The goal is to help these young women build the track record and confidence to eventually access formal finance on better terms, while showing lenders that women-led businesses in these communities can be strong, viable customers.
Filling a Critical Market Gap
Why Women, Why Rural Uganda
In our conversations with women and lenders, the same barriers surfaced over and over again. Women are central to Uganda’s economy, yet the financial system still does not work for them.
Our Origins
HOHA grew out of time spent working alongside grassroots organisations and women in Ugandan communities, listening to the challenges families were facing and the opportunities women wanted to build for themselves.
One of the clearest early requests was for practical, income-generating skills. We began by supporting vocational training, financial education and savings, helping women strengthen skills they could turn into livelihoods.
But as we stayed close to the women and their businesses, another barrier became impossible to ignore: skills alone could only take one so far without fair access to capital. The barriers were real, but so was the potential on the other side of them. Again and again, we saw how investing in one woman could ripple outward through her family and community. That is why women remain at the heart of our work.
Our Approach:
Building a bridge to formal finance
Our work centers on women’s economic empowerment, one of the most powerful drivers for breaking generational poverty. We do this through a 3-part model:
Our approach is designed to bridge the gap to formal finance. We help women strengthen their businesses, build savings and financial records, and access working capital so they can become stronger candidates for banks and MFIs over time.
