the circle is
regenerative impact in motion.
Across the Kula Fellowship,
it is growing in strength and magnitude.
It starts with an idea, a hope, a spark.
Investment spurs ignition.
Businesses emerge.
More ideas sprout.
The Circle is Kula’s spotlight on household entrepreneurship in the Kula Fellowship, and an invitation for our community to join us in regenerative impact.
one business
leads to countless others
profits repay loans, capital builds, and investment multiplies
The Foundation of Regenerative Impact:
Entrepreneurship Training & Access to Finance
Entrepreneurship
Great things start small. Most Fellows begin coffee farming with a few hundred trees on a very small plot of land. Over time the farm expands and the yields increase, but additional revenue streams are needed. These supplemental micro-enterprises are powerful for Fellows – growing household incomes, supporting communities, and leading to further financial opportunities.
The combination of greater coffee harvest and increased revenue streams is the key to significant income increase, and leads to exponential impact for Fellows and their families.
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As one of the most densely populated countries in Africa, Rwanda’s land scarcity dictates that the path to prosperity for most coffee farmers cannot be reliant on increasing their farm production alone – they also must create new revenue streams if they hope to grow their incomes significantly. Kula’s Household Entrepreneurship Curriculum supports Fellows to develop and assess their skills, opportunities, and resources, create starting-level business plans, and engage in coaching to see those businesses grow. In training we use the Kinyarwanda word ‘ubushabitsi’ for ‘business’, which translates more closely to ‘side hustle’, to help Fellows approach these as feasible, tangible ventures they can engage with, using what they have to build for the future. Every cohort produces a myriad of new business types, informed by their community’s needs. Past businesses have included barbers, carpentry, grain milling, bakeries, animal rearing, vegetable farming, tailoring, leather working, soap making, bee keeping, fertilizer distribution, restaurants, beverage making, and many more.
Access to Finance
Investment spurs ignition. Accessible, affordable, manageable loans are usually key in any business success, especially in communities lacking capital. Yet for rural farmers, the challenges to accessing traditional finance are myriad and insurmountable. For Kula Fellows, finance provides the bridge between an idea and an enterprise, supporting their vision into action.
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In rural Rwanda, institutional financing is often out of reach for farmers. The physical distance to a nearest bank branch, lack of connection to digital banking, and complications of loan logistics all provide obstacles, but the biggest is the large interest rates that are prevalent, typically starting at around 16%. For women these challenges are magnified, as they often face social stigma and family dynamics which prohibit them from being able to make financial decisions on their own. For these reasons, there is a persistent need for low-interest, community-based savings and loans systems – a way for savings to increase and grow in catalytic strength and a method for external investment to encourage business creation and start a ripple of new revenue and increased incomes for rural communities. Kula’s Household Entrepreneurship Curriculum facilitates Fellows to establish Village Savings and Loans Associations (VSLAs) – small, self-governed groups in which members save regularly and can borrow at low interest. To bolster capital in these groups, Kula provides additional no-interest loans, ensuring that all members have access to affordable financing during the Fellowship and beyond.
The Circle in Motion
200%
average income increase per Fellow household
2.4
average revenue streams per Fellow household
500,000
USD in no-interest loans provided by Kula through 2028
The impact is ever growing,
an exponential energy reaching out to transform each family, village and beyond.
And each of us plays a part.
This is The Circle.
The Circle in Motion
Jacqueline's Story
The Circle is growing. And it includes all of us.
The Circle is regenerative impact – starting with hope, growing with investment, and expanding with collective success.
Our community of committed donors is essential in this process, funding thousands of new ventures and building a regenerative ecosystem to empower countless more.