Grassroots
Microcredit
Building economic resilience from within. Community savings. Peer lending. Real impact.
Finance built on community, not collateral.
The Grassroots Microcredit scheme targets rural and peri-urban communities across Sierra Leone — places where formal banking infrastructure is absent and where women's economic groups have long operated outside the reach of conventional credit systems.
The programme works with existing community structures, building on the informal savings circles and mutual support networks that women in Sierra Leone have maintained for generations. Rather than importing a foreign model, Aurora Foundation's approach formalises and strengthens what communities are already doing — adding capital, training, and institutional backing to proven grassroots systems.
Participants are supported not just as borrowers, but as economic actors building sustainable futures for their families and communities. Repayment rates reflect the programme's deep roots in trust-based community relationships.
Built on the strengths communities already have
The Grassroots Microcredit scheme is designed around four interlocking elements that build lasting economic resilience — not dependency.
Community savings groups
Participants form local savings groups — pooling resources, building a shared capital base, and creating a foundation of financial trust within their community.
Peer accountability
Group members act as mutual guarantors — supporting one another through challenges and celebrating shared successes. Social bonds replace collateral requirements.
Flexible repayment
Repayment schedules are structured around seasonal income cycles, harvest periods, and the real rhythms of rural livelihoods — not rigid monthly bank-style terms.
Financial literacy training
All participants receive practical training in bookkeeping, budgeting, and business planning — building the skills to grow sustainably beyond the initial loan period.
From savings circles to sustainable enterprise
In communities like Tumbaidu and across rural Sierra Leone, women's groups have long practised informal savings — the "osusu" system where members contribute weekly and rotate access to the pooled fund. The Grassroots Microcredit scheme works alongside these traditions, offering additional capital and professional support that allows groups to scale their ambitions.
Programme participants have used loans to invest in inventory for market trading, tools and equipment for food processing, seeds and supplies for farming, and raw materials for small manufacturing. In each case, the loan is the catalyst — the business knowledge, peer accountability, and community support structures do the rest.
"When women control their own income, whole families benefit. We invest in women because their communities flourish when they do."
Aurora Foundation — Community Finance