Kwanda Q1 village report
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Introduction
Welcome to the latest edition of the Kwanda village report. You can expect to receive a report at the end of every quarter, which details projects we've funded, new partnerships, our financial metrics and more.
If you're reading this as a villager, I'd like you to keep in mind that everything you see in this report directly results from your contribution.
We're ever grateful to you for placing your trust in Kwanda.
Jermaine Craig
CEO
Highlights
Let's start with a high-level view of our most important metrics.
- Finance
- Capital deployed to date.
- £91,789
- Impact
- People directly impacted.
- 7189
Almost there! I'm really excited about our prospects to cross £100,000 in capital deployed in Q2.
Financial data
We believe that financial transparency is essential for a healthy, open community. Here is our current financial data.
- Cash in bank.
- £67,884
- Monthly village income.
- £10,571
- Monthly running costs.
- £7,017
Our finances have remained flat this quarter, with no real growth shown, which isn't necessarily bad. At worst, we're financially stable.
Unfortunately, I haven't had much time to dedicate to marketing Kwanda as I've primarily been working on internal tooling. Still, I hope to begin collaborating with villagers in Q3 to spin up our growth capabilities.
Photos from the field
See the work through the eyes of our partners, volunteers and beneficiaries.
Higher quality images and video footage has been a consistent ask from villagers. It's not always easy to get them but we're working on new frameworks in Q2 that should improve our output here.
Impact
"If you want to go fast, go alone; if you want to go far, go together." Here's the collective impact we had last quarter.
- People impacted in Q1
- 1136
- Capital deployed in Q1.
- £11,500
- Loans backed in Q1
- 34
- Proposals passed in Q1
- 4
Our voting process is getting really smooth. Villagers are no longer reporting issues voting, and we're able to spin up proposals pretty quickly. I'm open to ideas for improving voting further. If you're a villager feel free to drop your thoughts in the village suggestion box.
Funding Patapia, the new bank for women refugees
This quarter we were excited to witness our villagers pass a resolution to provide funding to Rebecca Aime, an entrepreneur we've been admiring from far for just under a year now.
- Region
- Uganda
- Capital invested
- £3,000
Rebecca Aime is a refugee from DRC who is building Patapia - a bank for women refugees in Uganda.
Patapia provides an economic engine to allow the refugees to start and run small businesses through a community-financing model. Patapia offers refugee women micro-loans, access to savings accounts and the support to start and successfully run their businesses and ultimately create their own jobs.
Rebecca's story is very inspiring. I'd urge you to learn more here: View project.
Funding sustainable community recycling banks in Ghana
Another exciting entrepreneur, our villagers, voted to provide funding to was Ernest Nartey-Tetteh, a Ghanaian entrepreneur building EazyWaste - financially sustainable community recycling banks for local communities in Ghana.
- Region
- Ghana
- Capital invested
- £3,000
Over 2.5 million tons of raw plastic is imported into Ghana annually, with over 70% resulting in waste. Since its inception, EazyWaste has reduced plastic waste in the community by roughly 145,000 kg total.
Ernest and his team have done this via a ground-up model that brings plastic waste recycling into communities.
Eazy Waste's model is financially sustainable, straightforward to implement, and is easily replicated and scaled. It can create large-scale change wherever implemented, requiring only simple locally-made machinery. Learn more about it here: View project.
Building a clean-water well for Nyarubanda Secondary School
This quarter we funded our 3rd clean water source in Tanzania. This time for Nyarubanda Secondary school in Kigoma, Tanzania.
- Region
- Tanzania
- Capital invested
- £1,500
Nyarubanda Secondary School is a girls and boys day secondary school in Kigoma District Council with 1083 students, from which 407 girls and 676 boys. In addition, the school has 27 employees residing nearby or in the school. The primary water source for the school is a stream from about 2.3km and rainwater which is not effective throughout the year.
The water challenge has resulted in underperformance among students and unexpected absentees, especially girls. In addition, there have been issues with waterborne diseases due to dirty and unsafe water leading to further absentees and reduced performances in measurement exams.
It's exciting to once again see our villagers come together to provide a much needed capital solution for the students at Nyarubanda Secondary school. All future updates will be trackable here: View project
Assisting African students fleeing the conflict in Ukraine
At the onset of the conflict in Ukraine, many of our villagers were surprised to hear about the shocking reports of African & Caribbean students who faced discrimination at the borders, onboard the evacuation buses, and from those they imagined would provide them with refuge.
- Region
- Ukraine
- Aid deployed
- £4,000
We held a vote to ear-mark £4,000 in funds to be deployed as donations to organisations on the ground in Ukraine providing refuge and support to those who were otherwise left to fend for themselves.
These funds where then donated to two organisations who were trusted and on ground in both Ukraine and neigbouring territory.
... Thanks for reading!
Thank you for taking the time to read this report. After almost two years of working on Kwanda, publishing this report is still my favourite part of the job. Anticipating the smiles of villagers as they read and see their impact on the world is truly a dream come true.
It's time to democratize the big challenges we face as a community. From climate change to poverty and everything in between. There's no reason local solutions to our big challenges should be solely in the hands of NGOs and government. A group of people must step out and make the first move, and I'm proud to know that group of people is us. We're not just building a single organization; we're introducing the world to new models for giving, crowdfunding and fundraising.
If you're not yet a villager I'd urge you to join us, and spread the word of Kwanda to those wishing to make a difference in the world.
As always, it's a pleasure to produce this report for our villagers.
Until next time!
Jermaine Craig
CEO