Pilot Light Foundation

When we talk about "successful businesses," alcohol isn't usually what comes to mind. But in Uganda, it's one of the most consistently profitable trades we see. 🍺

Meet Costa (slides 1-4). She runs a bar serving local brew made from cassava, and earns $30 a day, a remarkable income here. Her secret? A music system she invested in with her loan. "The music keeps the men calm," she says. "It makes them dance instead of causing trouble." Costa is also a huge soccer fan, so she bought a TV for her bar too. It draws in customers for match days, and she gets to watch the games herself.

Meet Dorcus (slide 5). She sells local brew, beer, and soft drinks, earning $15 a day. But she didn't stop there. She used that income to launch a second business buying and selling soybeans and sunflower seeds for cooking oil production. That side venture alone brings in $1,700 a year.

We don't romanticize alcohol, but we do pay attention to what's actually working for the people we serve and right now, that's women like Costa and Dorcus, who are out-earning many businesses in "safer" industries and reinvesting that income into their families and future ventures.

Real economies aren't always tidy. Real impact means meeting people where they are.

Photos by Sagio Mhza Photography

From subsistence farming to $1,000 a year in income.

Jaqueline joined a Pilot Light Village Savings and Loans group 5 years ago as a single mom with no income beyond food she grew herself. Over five years, she used small loans and savings to build something remarkable:

🥬 Vegetables → $75/yr
🐐 Goats → $170/yr
🥛 Milk sales → $325/yr
🐂 Selling bulls → $375 (and counting)

Her family now eats three meals a day, which regularly includes meat. Her kids' school fees are covered. Her house has been renovated and even has a TV.

She was afraid of loans until Pilot Light staff took the time to educate her. That conversation changed everything.

Supporting women like Jaqueline isn't charity. It's an investment. In families. In futures. In communities.


Photos by Abidja Darnell Lyon

On this International Women's Day, we celebrate the economic achievements and the move toward gender equality of all women who participate in Pilot Light programs.

Brenda's success is a perfect example that, when given opportunity, women are gamechangers.

Before she joined a Village Savings and Loans group in 2023, Brenda was farming only for home consumption. She would occasionally do casual labor for other farmers.

She used the little she earned to begin saving in her group, until she qualified to begin receiving loans. Through a series of gradually increasing loans, she built a petrol business, which now earns approximately $95 weekly. She used profits to start farming maize and sunflowers, both cash crops, that generate $1500 annually.

Brenda's 5 children are now all in boarding schools and she has 2 bulls for plowing her rented land. She plans to grow both her farm and her petrol business.

Financial sustainability equals freedom to make one's own choices for a better future.

Photo by Stephen Scott

Sometimes it’s the modest victories that offer the most profound sense of achievement, and in Nora's case, the Pilot Light team is ecstatic!

The Batwa are a group that has been historically marginalized in an extreme way and who had limited interaction with the outside world, until the 1990s. Working with them for 13 years has been both challenging and has brought great joy to the team. The markers we use to measure progress have inched very slowly up the scale, within the community of Batwa elders.

Nora is 76 years old. She has been a member of a Village Savings and Loans group for 13 years, but until 2025, she had only used her loans for growing food for the family and had never taken the initiative to start a business of her own.

When we visited her last July, we were elated to discover that Nora had opened a small shop selling produce, alongside one operated by her granddaughter. She now earns over $7 daily, up from ZERO. We asked her, why now? Why, after all of these years did she finally decide to engage in a business? She couldn't give us a clear answer why, but she was not alone. Several elders had done the exact same in 2025.

Sometimes persistence, patience and understanding pay off. By some measures, the Batwa project has not achieved remarkable milestones. However, when you truly know these people, it is easy to see that huge mountains have been climbed and it makes it all worthwhile.

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