Pilot Light Foundation

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Pilot Light Foundation

Committed to empowering people to help themselves in the fight against extreme poverty

The mission of The Pilot Light Foundation is to improve the quality of life for people living in extreme poverty, in Africa, through SUSTAINABLE income. Our focus is on building the framework to enable individuals and communities to have financial sustainability and we do this through the Village Savings and Loans Associations model, which we have modified to ensure the success of those we serve.

When individuals can support themselves, they can establish thriving communities for generations to come. The idea of the pilot light is that it will light a small spark that can grow into a larger fire that burns on its own, after we are gone.

08/06/2026

Ritah is a member of a Pilot Light, savings and loans group, and she’ll tell you the group gives her so much more than financial support. It’s her family, a circle of people she can lean on, celebrate with, and grow alongside. Exceptional doesn’t even begin to cover it.

07/08/2026

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

07/01/2026

There's a certain magic that happens when women come together to save.

In one Village Savings and Loans group, something beautiful grew out of their weekly meetings…connection. The women realized their group wasn't just about pooling money, it was about pooling lives.

So they invited someone to teach them basket weaving. Now, alongside the financial interactions of the meeting, you'll find hands weaving while stories, laughter, and support are shared.

But they didn't stop there. That shared skill became a shared business.The group now sells baskets AND raises chickens together, on top of each woman's individual enterprise. Their next goal? Buying land in the trading center where they can sell both, side by side.

Group businesses don't work for every VSLA, but when they do, they're powerful. The profits feed back into the group's savings, growing the capital available for loans. Bigger shared capital means bigger individual loans, which means bigger dreams within reach for every woman in the group.

Savings groups. Baskets. Chickens. Friendship. Sometimes the most sustainable economics are woven, quite literally, with community at the center. 🧺🐔💛

06/22/2026

After 10 years of patient, determined work in the mountains of Western Uganda, we are witnessing something remarkable unfold among the Batwa community. 🏔️

For years, progress was slow and the questions were hard. Could we truly make an impact for one of the most marginalized communities in the region?

Then, slowly, something shifted. Young people in our Savings & Loans groups began to grow. Then the elders…the elders(!) began investing in income-generating businesses rather than relying solely on casual farm labor. It marks a profound mindset change, years in the making.

This week, we celebrated another milestone, a new market stall, open just two weeks, right on the main highway. The women running it are already seeing significant increases in their daily sales. And what excites us most? The group has bold, progressive plans to expand into a full market center and the vision and drive to do it step by step.

This is what sustainable impact looks like. It doesn't always arrive on schedule, but when it comes, it comes with roots. 🌱

06/17/2026

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

06/11/2026

✈️ We're heading back to East Africa! 🌍

Tomorrow I'm heading out to Rwanda and Uganda to visit our projects on the ground, and I couldn't be more excited. Every trip reminds me WHY we do this work. The energy, the people, the progress...it's impossible to put into words (but I'll try 😄).

Stay tuned for updates, photos, and stories from the field. This is where the magic happens. 🔥

03/08/2026

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

02/05/2026

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.

Photo by

01/22/2026

One of Pilot Light's primary goals is that those we serve will surpass the capacity of the Village Savings and Loans group to give loans large enough to be impactful on an already thriving business. They will then transition to local microfinance institutions for their financing, which is a sign of success.

Before becoming a member of a Village Savings and Loans group 4 years ago, Anatalie was earning $136 a year growing tree tomatoes. Through a combination of loans and reinvested profits, she was able to grow the business and is now earning $1380 annually! She also bought a cow and a pig, generating over $680 from breeding her pigs in recent years.

Due to her success, Anatalie launched another business sourcing clothing and popcorn from Uganda to sell in her village, right across the border in Rwanda. This business now brings in $400 a month!

Although Anatalie is still a member of her Pilot Light group, as she finds value in the community and wants to inspire and supporting fellow members, she has also graduated to a local microfinance institution. This marks her great success!

Photo by Stephen Scott

Address

10960 Wilshire Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA
90024

Website

http://linktr.ee/pilotlightfoundation

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