The Trust
Overview
The WDB Trust’s flagship beneficiary programme is WDB Micro Finance. The WDB Trust is also the sole shareholder of WDB Investment Holdings which was established to create financial sustainability for the Trust’s beneficiary programmes. The WDB Trust is responsible for capacity building and fund raising for the WDB Group and innovating development projects that are aimed at improving the lives of poor rural women.
The WDB Trust’s vision is to:
• Be the preferred provider of sustainable income generating opportunities, products and services to poor women within LSM 0-4; and
• Develop and promote self-sufficient South African women to take control of their lives.
WDB Trust’s mission is to use existing skill, knowledge and capabilities, in order to primarily provide access to credit to poor rural women, resulting in their sustainable growth and development.
These programmes are meant to further leverage the value of the micro credit programme of WDB MF.
Focus areas
The core business of the WDB Group is ensuring that poor rural women are given the tools to free themselves from the chains of poverty. The primary tool we have is developmental micro credit for the poorest. Thus WDB Micro Finance is the engine that drives the WDB Group ensuring that the financial resources unleashed by the WDB Trust and WDBIH are made available to poor women in rural areas through micro loans.
History
Established in 1996, the WDB Trust (a not-for-profit Section 21 entity) has developed two programmes which benefit poor rural women, namely:
• an ICT programme that links women to technology through computer basic based literacy training and computer literacy programmes; and
• a Business Development programme that provides women entrepreneurs with skills to help them run their businesses more efficiently.
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