Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators Following Visit in August

Key Person:  Anna Ocen 

Recent Events

We spent a day and a half in Lira with Anna and had an opportunity to review the micro-loan programme.  

We had been hearing dire stories of the economic and food situation in and around Lira. It is clear that this has been an extremely difficult year for the people in the loan programme. Last year we reported on many of the difficulties that were being faced by the members in 2015/2016.  In many ways this year we found a much more positive outlook.

This loan programme, like the one in Mbale, has grown since last year. There are now 55 in the programme which is about 10 more than previously.

The situation with this loan programme has been difficult this year. In particular there was an issue with the loan administrator at Kirombe Pentecostal Church when she retained some of the money paid to her by beneficiaries for herself, and refused to account for it. This issue has caused quite a lot of distress, both for the loan beneficiaries who have been unable to access further loans and also for Anna, who has been working to resolve the situation along with the other administrator of the programme, Mary Taaka.

After a long period of persistently endeavouring to follow-up with the woman involved, Anna was finally able to meet with her recently. She confessed to what she had done and has agreed to start repaying it.

This loan group effectively divides into three. There is a grouping around Kirombe Pentecostal Church with about 10 people in it. There is another grouping around the central market and a grouping around Hope Restoration Centre. Each group is divided into sub-groups of five and the members of that sub-group are responsible for each other, and to ensure payment. As far as we can determine there are very few defaults in this programme and it is extremely well run.

We really like the interactions with the loan beneficiaries and Anna in this programme. There is a high level of transparency and people clearly have a high level of confidence in Anna as the administrator of the programme. When Anna is not staying in Lira her sister Peninnah looks after the collections and accounting to the bank for the payments received.

Personal Stories

Consi

Consi is a 79 year old woman who has ten children, four of whom have died. She currently cares for 19 grandchildren. We have met Consi previously and when we saw her this time her roadside produce stall had grown in size and also grown in the variety of products that she sells to the people nearby. She reports that many people buy from her as they go out and work in the fields during the day and when they come back to eat they do not want to travel into town to buy their food and so they regularly buy from her. While we were there Consi made several transactions and sales with locals.  

Consi also has some land where she cultivates produce to feed her family and to sometimes sell. There were some difficulties in the group that Consi was a part of in that village because the leader of the group had taken the money but not given it into the micro-loan programme. Anna made a decision to continue with Consi in the programme because she has always been very faithful, has always worked hard to pay back her loan and because of the number of children she supports. Consi has consistently struggled to support the children with food and an education. Some of her children are also sometimes able to help her with the gardening. Consi buys her produce wholesale and given the amount of variety we were surprised that she was often able to sell all of her produce within three days. She is able to make repayments as well as to have savings of 10,000 UGX (US$3) per month.

Juspinina 

Juspinina is a new loan beneficiary who has started with her first loan of 150,000 UGX (US$40). She has seven children, three in primary school, two in secondary school and two are not attending school as she is currently unable to afford this. Anna met Juspinina at a conference that was held in November. During that conference Anna was able to interact with many of the women and get to know them and learn about their circumstances and character.  She also took time to speak with the pastors of people she was considering for the loan programme. The other thing Anna takes into consideration is that she tends to include those women who have next to nothing to begin with so she takes in families who are struggling and who have very little.  

Juspinina has had this loan for one month and she said it is beginning to make a difference for her family and that it is helping her to buy food and also to pay for school fees. Her children get one meal at home and it was unclear whether the children are fed at school because unless the families are able to provide food for the school the children do not get fed. I asked Juspinina what had made her business succeed so much within one month. She described the importance of faithfulness to customers, being reliable so that she was able to meet customers when they come and also to be honest in her business

Kevin

Kevin is a 25 year old widow. Her husband died in 2013. She has one child who is seven years old and she also cares for her two sisters, one is 10 years and one is 5. Kevin has taken one loan of 300,000 UGX (US$80). She rents a sewing machine in the market and pays 20,000 UGX per month for space in the market as well as a locker where she locks up her sewing machine and supplies at night. Kevin designs and sews dresses for local woman. She was trained through another tailor and is able to make designs and dresses from magazines and a selection of pictures that she has.  

She described her business as going really well and once she gets more money she would like to go to Kampala to buy her supplies as it would be cheaper there. She is now also training two young girls whose mother was a friend of the family but who was killed on the road so she has taken these girls to help them learn how to support themselves. She does not have an overlocker but co-operates with another person nearby who allows her to have some overlocking done. 

Jacki 

Jacki is also a young woman whom we have met previously and we were amazed by the improvement in her demeanour. She appeared to have grown in confidence and also to have grown in happiness as well as her appearance of self-care. When we first met Jacki she was in the outside market selling small fire cookers and some other small products. However the local authorities wanted people to move into a newly built market and they came into the market, destroyed the stalls and took Jacki’s produce. At that point she was again back to a situation of having no form of income, having to repay a loan and having to support her grandmother and her young child. The loan group made a decision to support her again, she is now on her third loan of 600,000 UGX and Anna reports that she is doing very very well.  

Jacki explained that her grandmother had an accident and has either a broken leg or broken hip. Jacki needs to help her grandmother with her personal care in the morning but once she is up her grandmother is able to care for Jacki’s young baby while Jacki goes off to the market. Her stock looked good with a high variety of fruits and vegetables and she is managing to repay her loan as well as support her family.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

Anna continues to be a woman of influence. Recently she was contacted by a church in Zimbabwe which paid for her to fly there to be the keynote speaker at a week-long training conference attended by 300 women (and men). The focus of the conference was to train women and widows in working life principles, along with HIV management and testing, food raising, small businesses, and managing their lives in such a way that they do not need to resort to prostitution etc.

We have also found as we have been out in the villages with the beneficiaries that Anna commands a large degree of respect in her own community.

Plans for the Future

We see no reason to interfere with what is going on here. There is incremental growth in this programme, it appears to be well managed and Anna is diligent both to maintain the unity of the programme and to ensure that loan beneficiaries are followed up. Defaulters are minimal and we like what we see with this programme.

The next part of the strategy will be the possibility of extending the micro-loan programme to the young adults of HRC as they finish their respective training.  

Current Issues and Challenges

We don’t see there being a lot of major issues or challenges in this programme and we have confidence that it is well run and appropriately managed.

One of the challenges that is faced by Hope Restoration Centre (UGA03a) is that the graduates of tertiary and vocational training may have real difficulty finding jobs. Often the jobs simply are not there. One of the possibilities that exists is for this loan programme to be extensed to the graduates.  This is an obvious next step, provided it can be properly managed.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) For complete resolution of the situation with the leader in Kirombe Pentecostal Church.
2) For the provision of good new leadership in the programme.
3) For appropriate growth in the micro-loan programme to ensure that it can continue to benefit the community.
4) For wisdom whether to extend the programme to the young adults at Hope Restoration Centre as they graduate from their various trainings and are looking to start their own businesses.