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2021 Marked the 10th Anniversary for OneLove | Here is our story
 ... and we have only just begun ...
Come join our team and be part of making the difference!

2010 - 2011

  • OneLove founder (Suzanne Dane) accompanied a group of university students to Tanzania for four months. While there, she was asked by a health organization to delivery business start-up training to 48 women in remote villages. 

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  • Suzanne returned  the following year to evaluate the original 48 businesses. All were still in existence and thriving. Recognizing the positive impact, OneLove was officially born and became a registered NGO/charity in Canada.

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  • Suzanne travelled to Mombasa and shadowed loans officers from a large microfinance institution (MFI) to learn more about microfinance, the associated processes and impact to rural African communities.

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  • Suzanne (in collaboration with one of her daughters) established 10 women in soap-making businesses. The option for establishing micro-franchises was considered.

 

2012-2015

  • The Biashara Village Ventures program (including train-the-trainer) was developed with materials in both English and Swahili.

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  • Suzanne continued to visit Tanzania once or twice a year and deliver the training to groups of 30 women.

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  • Developed partnerships with five other NGOs who use the Biashara Village Ventures program to further support their work.

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2016 - 2018

  • Requests for training support continued to grow significantly. A team of trainers (local Tanzanian) was added to the OneLove family.

  

  • Expanded the  core business program to include training on  peer-lending and further, facilitate the start-up of VICOBA groups (Village Community Banking). This entailed follow-up mentoring, purchasing supplies (passbooks, master accounting journals and lock box) and injecting start-up seed funding 

​2020

  • Established OneLove as a registered NGO in Tanzania. Opened an office in Moshi in partnership with another NGO (KELASO).  

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  • Formed a partnership with Bicycles for Humanity (Edmonton, Calgary and Victoria branches) to identify and distribute donated bicyles to those most in need. Continued through to 2023. 

 

2021-2022     

  • Opened the Summit Samaki Centre - a 3-acre fish farm. This social enterprise brings multiple benefits including empowering some of our program mamas to start fish businesses and obtain fish at reduced prices: provide food to nearby villages who live below poverty and often without food; and, most importantly, create a sustainable revenue stream to support our core programs.

 

2023   

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  • The Summit Samaki Centre expanded to include buying/selling cows and goats - additional revenue streams. It started because we needed "lawnmovers" but proved to also be a positive revenue stream. For every 10 cows - we net $6,000-$7,000 annually. Our goal is to get to a standing inventory of 30 cows. 

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  • Held 5 "Mama Empowerment Days" - 1-day events designed for 60 mamas per event. Included a half-day peer mentoring session followed by 3 workshops on critical topics identified by the mamas (#1 Womens Rights; #2 Dealing with Sexual Abuse/Violence; #3 Womens Health).

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  • Launched a pilot train-the-trainer project to see if we could empower 10 Tanzanian women to deliver our program. Each woman represents a VICOBA (peer lending) group of 30 mamas who they, in turn, would train. Pilot is ongoing. 

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