Uplift Project founder describes small grants that helped women entrepreneurs in Guyana

Forest McSweeney, founder of the Uplift Project, told Easthampton’s Pioneer Valley Life that his small nonprofit has given direct grants to 12 people in rural Guyana over the past year, with 11 recipients receiving $500 and one receiving $1,000.

McSweeney said the project focuses on small, targeted purchases that let residents build businesses and keep money circulating locally. “We start from the bottom up and we give the support directly to the people who we want to benefit,” he said. “There’s no fluff, there’s no BS.”

The project’s early grants supported so-called “snack huts” (tiny village shops), but McSweeney said those businesses were rarely viable sources of long-term growth. Instead, the group has shifted to funding equipment that increases productivity: he described buying a new electric sewing machine and an inverter so a woman could sew school uniforms locally rather than import them, and donors pooled to buy a larger oven for a village baker.

The baker, introduced in the show as Candita, spoke briefly in the segment and thanked supporters: “I must first of all I thank the Lord for making a way that I can have a bigger oven… and that I can expand in my business,” she said.

McSweeney said the oven cost donors about $425 and tripled the baker’s daily output from two loaves at a time to six. He used the example to show how a modest investment can increase local sales and keep income inside the community.

On finances, McSweeney said Uplift raised roughly $12,000 last year and delivered about 65% of that total directly as cash or material aid; he said the project aims to raise that direct-delivery share to about 75% this year and posts detailed breakdowns on its social channels (Instagram handle cited on the show: Uplift Project GY).

McSweeney criticized large charities for administrative layers that reduce direct aid, citing widely reported criticisms of post‑disaster charity operations as an example of why Uplift emphasizes direct, bottom‑up giving.

The project’s selection criteria, he said, prioritize women with children or deep roots in their communities because they are more likely to reinvest funds locally and sustain small enterprises.

McSweeney said the organization performs in-person interviews and follow-ups before granting funds and acknowledged a single case where a recipient’s purchase did not materialize because a local intermediary reportedly took the money; he framed that incident as a reason to prefer grants over loans in his model.

The Uplift Project’s work, McSweeney said, aims to be low-cost and locally anchored: “If we can give someone a tool and they do the work themselves, that’s what works,” he said.

The segment closed with Sullivan inviting listeners to visit the project’s online pages for more information and updates on future trips.