News from the Family Friends Project

Currently (as of April 2024), 12 families are involved in the Family Friends Project and, with the support of their sponsors, are working to build up a small independent business. Most of the mothers in our project sell charcoal, cooking oil, clothes, food or fruit from small roadside stalls, and one lady runs a tailoring shop for making clothes.

At the end of last year and the beginning of 2024, a total of eight women, after two years of successful work in the business class, were able to receive their first credit instalments and take the first step towards their dream of owning a business. We would particularly like to thank all the sponsors who made this possible with their generous support. Special mention should once again go to the Thomas Engel Foundation, which has supported five of our families since early 2021 and has now also provided a total of 1,000 Euros in loans.

Furthermore, after a long period of instability in the Family Friends Project, caused by frequent changes in our project managers, we are delighted to have finally found a very committed and reliable new project manager in Emmanuel Kaiser since September 2023. He has fundamentally reshaped the concept of the business classes and the accompanying support for families during business establishment. The business classes have now been alternating between theoretical and practical components for several months, aiming to provide participants with useful everyday knowledge, such as making soaps or batik fashion, as well as theoretical content on business establishment.

We are convinced that by modifying the concept of the business classes, distributing credit over three instalments, and providing close supervision and support to the women during the start-up phase, the project's success can be sustained and enhanced long-term. Unfortunately, there was also one sponsorship we had to terminate because the family did not adhere to the contractually agreed rules. This was not an easy decision, but for the benefit of our sponsors, we place great importance on transparency, honesty, and reliability, as non-compliance with our project rules also creates disadvantages for other women and families. For this reason, we attach great importance to the implementation of the rules and do not tolerate non-observance.

However, we are also pleased to mention that in March 2024, we successfully graduated our first woman from the Family Friends Project, who had been with the project since October 2019. Due to Corona, the frequent changes in project managers, and visible successes after the original deadline, the family was allowed to remain in the programme significantly longer and has now been released from the Family Friends programme by Benjamin during her project journey. We wish her all the best and good sales for her future.