By Emmanuel Opio, Communication Officer Kapelebyong

In a bid to scale its work on poverty eradication in the communities, Kapelebyong District has signed a partnership with Village Enterprise.

Under the partnership unveiled on Monday at the district headquarters, target communities of Kapelebyong and Acowa sub counties will receive the first grant of shs350m before the end of June and second of sh180m after six months.

The meeting was attended by district chairperson, Chief Administrative Officer and 10 parish chiefs and two sub county chiefs.

“In this program, we are targeting women, youth and refugees who are extremely poor, leaving on less than 2.51 dollars a day. At Least 2250 households are set to benefit.

Three group members will jointly receive a grant of shs500,000 after training on group dynamics, financial literacy and enterprise development,” Gerald Kyalisima, regional manager Village enterprise, said.

He said that the group members will use the money for starting up their sustainable businesses of interest, with guidance from the village enterprise.

Rhoda Oroma, the Chief Administrative Officer for Kapelebyong thanked Village Enterprises for the partnership, describing it as a great asset to the district.

“I’m extremely excited for this program. Its model is very organised and you have come to fill in the gap,” Madam Oroma said.

She was optimistic that Kapelebyong would come out of poverty with these initiatives. She said that the communities in Kapelebyong are proactive and easy to work with.

She challenged the government officers to support the program for success to be attained, calling them to guard against their names in all programs.

“Parish Chiefs, if you borrow money from groups, please pay with interest because you are government trustees.”

While representing the RDC, Asimwe Precious, the officer attached to RDCs office thanked Village Enterprise saying that the poverty eradication initiative fits Kapelebyong well.

“Kapelebyong is a hard to reach and needy district. Most of these interventions will uplift the understanding of these people especially on financial literacy, Asimwe said.

He asked Village Enterprise to follow the well laid targets to achieve their goals of poverty eradication.

According to statistics from the Kapelebyong district planning unit, the poverty rate in Kapelebyong stands at 49% against the national rate of 39%.