increase in income after 2 years of support

Helping vulnerable people become entrepreneurs

Marie Maude Compère Joseph

Entrepreneurs du Monde

In Guinea, the reconstruction of survivors of conflict-related sexual violence is not limited to judicial recognition. It also requires economic autonomy and the ability to project themselves.

In September 2009, in Conakry, a peaceful demonstration was brutally repressed by security forces. Many women were subjected to extremely serious sexual violence. These acts had serious repercussions: social stigmatization, loss of income, isolation. 

The Global Survivors Fund (GSF), founded by Dr Denis Mukwege and Nadia Murad, has launched its first interim restorative measures pilot project in Guinea, built with 158 survivors.

Wakili, a social microfinance institution created by Entrepreneurs du Monde, played a key role. It has built a personalized support system to strengthen the survivors' power to act.

By opening personal accounts for each survivor, Wakili first guaranteed the security of compensation payments, protecting them from social and family pressures. It then deployed a tailor-made financial education program: budget management, savings, investment in income-generating activities. 

This support has enabled the women to (re)start a business and sustainably improve their living conditions. The results are tangible: renewed confidence, rebuilding family ties, reintegration into the community. To this day, Wakili continues to support numerous participants.

This model is now fuelling advocacy for a national policy and paving the way for a replicable approach in other contexts.

Guinea: an innovative partnership to rebuild lives after sexual violence

The recent typhoons in the Philippines left thousands of people without electricity for several days. Each storm is a reminder of how fragile the power grid remains in rural areas, how essential access to solar energy is to cope with power cuts, and how much sense ATE Co's mission makes!

For the past ten years, ATE Co, a Filipino social enterprise created by Entrepreneurs du Monde, has been providing vulnerable communities in Rizal and Samar with solar-powered equipment for lighting, cooling and access to information.

An innovative partnership with social microfinance

Despite the payment facilities offered by ATE Co, access to this equipment remains difficult for very low-income families. In September 2025, a pilot project was launched with microfinance institution SCPI, which serves isolated fishing and farming communities. SCPI's beneficiaries now have privileged access to ATE Co's solar equipment. Building on this experimentation, ATE Co will replicate this model.

An evolving technical offering

The team has diversified its offering to meet families' needs. In addition to essential products (lighting, ventilation and information access kits), ATE Co now offers small equipment: radios, small fans, mobile lamps etc., while maintaining high quality standards and a committed social charter. 

New avenues to explore

The team is studying the possibility of setting up in new isolated but accessible areas, and is multiplying product demonstrations and village meetings to raise community awareness.

Solar power in the Philippines: a lifeline in times of typhoons

It's been a productive summer for Munafa! Our microfinance institution in Sierra Leone has opened its 7th branch in Bo, the country's 2nd largest city.

This new branch is aimed at Bo's most vulnerable communities, many of which depend on subsistence farming. These populations now have access to new financing solutions and training tailored to their needs.

After two market studies in the field, the entire local team was recruited and trained for an effective opening in July. The animators then went out to meet local communities to promote the services on offer. 

They organized meetings with the first groups created to explain the methodology and rules of the group and to ensure that the beneficiaries corresponded to our target. They then visited them in their homes, before starting the training courses.

To date, 18 groups have been set up, bringing together 390 beneficiaries, 35 of whom have already obtained their first credit, revealing real enthusiasm! All the signs are green to reach the target of 500 active borrowers by the end of the year.

Next steps include the hiring of a farm advisor, who will provide technical guidance to farmers and support to operational teams.

Thank you so much for supporting our work in the field!

With 390 beneficiaries, our new branch in Sierra Leone is a hit!

Strengthening the resilience of vulnerable populations in the face of climate change is one of the priorities of Fansoto, in Senegal. 

Involved in two regions hard hit by droughts and floods (Casamance and Matam), the social microfinance institution acts on 3 fronts: 
- training in agro-ecological techniques
- organizing community environmental activities 
- offering cooking stoves that consume less wood. 

A strategy that is bearing fruit! Last year, 1,660 beneficiaries took part in a field school and nearly 1,000 individual farm advisory visits were organized. In addition, 325 families were equipped with a cooking stove, leading to the saving of around 1,000 tonnes of wood and a notable reduction in CO2 emissions.

To go even further, a 3-year development project, financed by the AFD and donors, started in early 2025 in Casamance. The project aims to strengthen local agencies and offer new services to women farmers. 

In partnership with two other NGOs, in-kind credits will be offered to them. With the Institut sénégalais de recherches agricoles (ISRA), these credits will take the form of salt-resistant seeds, in a region where soil salinity poses a problem for rice growing and market gardening. The team also plans to offer monopumps for irrigation, in partnership with the Fondation Énergies pour le monde (Fondem). 
 
The momentum is well underway, and the ingredients are in place for great successes to come!

Sustainable agriculture as a response to the climate challenge in Casamance

Dear Difteur-ses,

The security crisis in Burkina Faso has forced more than 2 million people to flee their region. 

In Ouagadougou, many are hosted in precarious conditions by entrepreneurial families accompanied by YIKRI, the Burkinabe social microfinance association created by Entrepreneurs du Monde. 

Faced with this urgent need, YIKRI is launching an ambitious project. Starting this week, 50 women will embark on a 3-year program to help them escape extreme poverty in the long term. A total of 200 women will benefit from this full and personalized support.

In the first phase, each woman will receive food products and a basic kit (stove, solar lamp, hygiene products), free access to a mutual health insurance scheme and help with administrative formalities. Some will also join a literacy program. 

In a second phase, the women will be trained to create an income-generating activity: catering, food processing, craft production... They will receive equipment to get started, tailored training and support in finding outlets. 
 
This project is based on a collective mobilization: YIKRI, Entrepreneurs du Monde, TOND LAAFI (health coverage), Nafa Naana (energy equipment), SAMU Social Burkina Faso (psychosocial follow-up), with the support of the French Development Agency, the City of Lyon, and the L'Oréal Women's Fund. 

These players share the same objectives: to get internally displaced people out of their extremely precarious situation in the short term, and to provide them with long-term support in their economic insertion and integration into their host community. 

Thank you for enabling us to help them!

Burkina Faso: a new start for 200 internally displaced women

Dear Difteur-ses,

Our Anh Chi Em (ACE) program supports small-scale farmers and herders in northwestern Vietnam. Myriam Carbonare, our vice-president, and Chloé Mendiondo, agronomist, visited the team and met beneficiaries. An opportunity to share news from the field! 

Services tailored to local issues 
ACE is based in the country's poorest province. The population, made up of ethnic minorities, has few resources and lives off agriculture and livestock. ACE gives these micro-entrepreneurs, 90% of whom are women, the boost they need to develop their business with microcredit and savings services, advice and training. 
 

Great proximity between the team and beneficiaries 
ACE relies on an invested team of 35 employees who regularly visit beneficiaries to ensure that the program is meeting their needs. 

Women who are hard-working and ambitious 
The beneficiaries combine a crop production activity with animal husbandry. Despite the ups and downs they forge ahead, driven by the desire to offer their children a better future. 

Current challenges 
Faced with inflation, loan amounts have been revised upwards in 2 of ACE's 4 branches. In addition, beneficiaries are experiencing the impact of climate change and are in demand of training to adapt. 
 
More outlets 
A key issue: finding more commercial outlets for beneficiaries in the weaving and coffee sectors. To this end, the team will strengthen value chains by integrating environmentally-friendly techniques.

Account of an immersion in Vietnam with the Anh Chi Em program

Dear Difteur-ses,

Any initiative that wants to solve a problem needs to be able to measure the impact of its actions. Want to know how we do it? We'll take you behind the scenes!

Understanding the profile and evolution of beneficiaries' living conditions
 
In every social microfinance program, data is collected over several loan cycles.

Every other time, when applying for a loan, beneficiaries fill in a form about their living conditions, income, children's schooling and so on.
This data enables us to target the most vulnerable and assess the real impact of our programs.

As an example, among the micro-entrepreneurs who joined Fansoto in Senegal in 2024, 90% had never had access to formal credit and 45% were illiterate. 

Understanding more complex changes and measuring perceptions 

To go further, in-depth surveys are conducted every 2-3 years. They combine a quantitative and qualitative approach, via focus groups. 

These surveys reveal that, over time, the perception of positive changes increases. By way of example, of the 202 beneficiaries of our Wakili program in Guinea surveyed in 2024, 85% felt better equipped to cope with life's ups and downs. 

We look forward to unveiling our 2024 impact report soon, synthesizing the results of all our surveys!

A grand merci to you for your support!

How do we measure the effectiveness of our action?

Dear difteur-ses,

For 26 years, Entrepreneurs du Monde has been committed to empowering women in precarious situations. 

On the occasion of March 8, we decided to put these women in the spotlight through testimonials, of which here are a few excerpts:

Win Myinte, SOO beneficiary in Burma 
"I left my village to go and work in Rangoon at the age of 14, in a textile factory where I earned a pittance. With the support of SOO, I became a savvy multi-entrepreneur. My 2 children no longer lack anything, I can even have my autistic son taken into a specialized center."

Coumba SOW, social worker at FANSOTO, Senegal 
"Here women suffer in silence. I offer them a confidential space to express what they're going through and then support them until their problem is resolved. We also do a lot of awareness-raising and have facilitated their enrolment in universal health coverage." 

Hafissatou KIRAKOYA, support manager at EMERGENCE, Burkina Faso
"Here, women are badly considered, especially when they don't have a job. I'm proud to change that at EMERGENCE: we make these women recognized professionals, hired and paid on the basis of a fair contract. 

Find out all the testimonials: bit.ly/3DpOcE5

A great thank you to you for helping these women to undertake!

Let's give a voice to women entrepreneurs and to those who commit themselves alongside them!

Dear donors,

Menstrual precariousness affects nearly 500 million people worldwide. 

Whoever says lack of access to menstrual protection, sanitary facilities and information, says impact on girls' school attendance and vulnerable women's ability to successfully undertake business. 

In 2024, Entrepreneurs du Monde launched the Miapé Menstrual Dignity project to combat this problem in Togo and Sierra Leone. 🌍 

👉 1st lever: raising awareness of a taboo subject.
In Togo, the theme will be included in the training of micro-entrepreneurs supported by Entrepreneurs du Monde. Awareness-raising activities will also be carried out in schools, and advocacy actions will be deployed with local authorities.

👉 2nd lever: support social enterprises in the manufacture of quality washable menstrual protection.
In Togo, the team is helping the Auréole Monde enterprise to scale up. A new team has been set up, production will accelerate, and partners have been identified for marketing.

👉 3rd lever: improving access to water and latrines in schools.
40% of Togolese schools have no latrines and 77% of Sierra Leonean schools have no access to water; the challenge is significant! This action will be carried out with the NGO SEVES.

👉 Changing practices sustainably.
By 2026, 35,000 women will have access to quality products and 36,000 people will have been made aware of the issue. A social enterprise incubation model for menstrual protection production will also be formalized.

The whole team is mobilized!

A big thank you to you, dear donors, for your invaluable support and donations 🙏

Menstrual precariousness is not inevitable!

Cher difteur,

Liberia, located in West Africa, is ranked among the five most impoverished nations. 84% of its population lives on less than 1.25 USD per day and ¾ of its food is imported.

In this context, Entrepreneurs du Monde has launched, in partnership with the AFD (Agence Française de Développement), a social microfinance program 100% dedicated to rural populations living near protected areas. It is aimed at farmers, the vast majority of whom are women, who lack resources and are threatened by extreme weather events.

The aim: to help them increase their agricultural yields and diversify their production with agro-ecological practices, to improve their standard of living while preserving the environment. A specialized local team provides local support with several services: loans, a savings account, training, agricultural advice focusing on nutrition. 

Other services are envisaged in a second phase, such as access to seeds and clean cooking equipment.

This offer has been eagerly awaited, and the team has made good progress since May 2024. Elili, a locally-registered social enterprise, has been created and two local branches set up. The first 44 groups of farmers have already undergone several training courses; they have made their first savings deposits and have just received their first loans.

A big thank you to all of you who support us and enable us to take action among the most vulnerable ✨

Nearly 800 farmers have joined our new program in Liberia!

In 2023, we worked for the essentials: reducing poverty , helping the most vulnerable to cope with climate change, supporting women's emancipation.

Together, we have supported :
162,964 entrepreneurs = 1 million people on their way to autonomy84% women28% men and women farmers12 countries, 21 local teams

In 2024, thanks to your support, we will be able to accompany more and better vulnerable people in entrepreneurship! 

Find out in video the testimonies of several women and men supported by Fansoto, the Entrepreneurs du Monde program in Senegal!

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