Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators Following Visit in July

Key people: James and Gorret Mayende  

We spent three days with James and Gorret in Busia. During the afternoon of the first day a number of loan beneficiaries came and met with us. We also had a very lengthy meeting with seven people from the HIV/AIDS group and discussed their differing and more straitened circumstances. This group functions as a sub-group within the partnership and reflects their need to perhaps be treated differently from the other people in the partnership. They certainly were very poor. 

The next day we went out to Buhoya village. This is where James and Gorret live and where we had the opportunity to interact with a lot of people from the loan programme.

This report is split into various sections covering the different aspects of the ministry.

Recent Events

Church Planting

The church planting project is going well in two areas. The church in Amudat in the Karamoja area now has 25-35 people. One of the things James said is that he is open to partnering with other churches in that area to reach people. This seems to us to be a wonderful thing to hear from a partner because sometimes church planting and the proliferation of churches seems to be more competitive than collaborative. Obviously it is a challenging area for the gospel and unity will no doubt make a difference. Other churches come into the area and lure members with promises of food etc, so church growth is not immune from church politics. 

They have also been carrying out preliminary door knocking and group formation in what James said is a ‘suburb’ of Jinja. The area is called Bubugo and is 27 kilometres down a dirt road out past the airstrip. It is in the bush. They did an outreach there in September (see photo) and are proposing to do intensive evangelism there in January. Like other partnerships in Uganda, famine and food shortages have hampered the work, but it is continuing. They have a brother from their network who has moved there.

They would like there to be two outreaches a year and related leadership training. We would like to see this process continuing as the replication of churches with reliable leadership can bring further development to poor areas. The outcomes are often really good.

The church at Kween however has lost its pastor (Pastor Emmanuel). He has been lured to Kenya with his new wife with the promise of land. James and Gorret are still looking after his children as their own and educating them, even though they don’t quite know what is intended in the future. However, they assure us that the church is in good heart there. James preaches in Kween once or twice a month. 

Leadership Training

Over the last year there have been regular leadership training sessions. One took place in Kween and it covered churches in the network in Sironko, Bulambuli, Kween and Amudat Districts. 

There was a further leadership training from 28 August to 2 September this year. Each training has between 60 and 120 attendees.  

Education Support

This part of the partnership is continuing well. Those who get support do not have their costs fully covered. The actual amount of support is determined by James and Gorret on a case by case basis and ranges between 10 and 50% of fees. The rest is funded by family or other sources. 

Of the children and young adults presently in the support programme 17 have graduated from various trainings. One of these has gone on to train many local women in sewing and tailoring skills and, according to James, they are all doing well. 

40 are presently pursuing tertiary or vocational training. This group accounts for approximately US$10,000 of the budgeted educational funding of $14,000. There are various different types of education and training going on. We did stress to James that we would like to see more people doing vocational training and helping others to learn the trades too. It will keep them in the area. James and Gorret are very aware of this issue and of the loss to an area when students graduate and simply leave. He is hoping  to encourage students who graduate to return and reinvest in the area. This may be a long mindset change but they are very aware of this issue. James is aware that vocational training works well. He has plans for biogas, animal husbandry and training artisans, as well as bead and jewellery making and tailoring. He also thinks that there is potential for growing mushrooms and in poultry, mechanics, electrical etc. He hopes to be able to encourage an entrepreneurial spirit and that people will start their own businesses due to the scarcity of jobs. 96 more children are in secondary school doing O and A levels.

In addition there were four deaf special needs children. Sadly two have dropped out, one of whom became pregnant in unfortunate circumstances. One of the other children continues in the deaf school. James and Gorret are supporting her as the family has effectively disowned her and does not support her.

Micro-Loan Programme

This programme continues to be well run and continues to grow. There are approximately 100 people in the programme now - the number is not accurate because the records are kept in several different locations. James and Gorret’s son Bonnke has recently taken over looking after the books. We had a long chat with him. He told us that Christopher Odeya had stopped doing them as he has become very busy with his own business and had nearly lost a child in a fire in his home earlier this year. Christopher had some records but some were with James, some with Gorret and he had some from Christopher. He is in the process now of reconciling all of these. He will send this information to us when it comes to hand. 

The  HIV/AIDS programme has another 20 or so people in it and is planning to extend to 30 reliable and faithful people who will access small loans. There is a request for increased funding to enable their tiny (like really tiny) loan programme to grow and for them to be able to access larger loans. This is worth consideration but may be adequately covered in the budget for the year ahead. 

People in the main programme save at least one third of what they need and then borrow the balance, repaying it at 4% p.a over 6 months although in some cases this becomes a year. The programme is registered. The rate is low because of the high level of savings in the programme which funds ongoing expansion.

Loans are used for:
- Education in higher learning institutions
- Four more people now have boda boda motorcycles this year. The total overall who have had loans for this is 25 or more.
- To build houses
- People have bought land to cultivate
- An emergency loan was given to Dennis to buy a chainsaw with great initial results (see story below). This was one of two emergency loans which we were told about.
- Others who have had disasters have been supported back onto their feet

We would like to see the funding to the smaller programme continue at the same level. A couple of years ago they did not want a boost to the larger programme and both programmes have been rolled into one now. We think it is appropriate to continue to support the overall programme at least for the next year or so. 

Tree Planting

There was evidence of this around the compound at Buhoya. We didn’t really get the opportunity to discuss this further at Buhoya but we are very clear that it should continue for Kween (UGA02b). We have left it in the budget for Busia but will leave this to the discretion of James and Gorret as to where the funds are used.  

Personal Stories

Bwire Dennis

Dennis has a family of eight that include seven children, his wife and his mother. They were living in a home with chairs, clothes, utensils etc. and Dennis was supporting his family through carpentry and using a chainsaw. One day he went to the trading centre to buy some supplies. He had left the power saw and his carpentry tools in the home with his family. Usually the family used a solar powered machine for lighting however there had been a problem so he was using a candle. His wife and children were in the kitchen when they smelled smoke. The candle had set his home alight. His wife ran to sound the alarm and to get help as one of the children was still in the house.

Fortunately they were able to rescue that child and there were no serious injuries or deaths. However the family now had no place to live, no possessions and he had lost the tools required to sustain and provide for his family. Initially the community gave him clothes and blankets and some small assistance to start life. However Dennis became extremely distressed and was wanting to kill himself. At that point somebody came to James and asked him to come talk with Dennis.

Despite the fact that previously Dennis had not wanted to join the micro-loan programme and did not have savings in the programme, after talking with Dennis James decided that he needed to do something to help this man and his family. Dennis described how the pastors had seen that the community had helped and therefore the church should also help too and through the church and Hope Women’s Group he was able to get a loan. The loan meant he was able to buy a power saw machine and two weeks ago he made a shelter on his land with the help of his neighbours. This loan was very large for a first loan as it was 2.5 million UGX (US$700).  

Two weeks later not only had Dennis created a shelter on his land, he had been labouring hard and earning money in whatever way he could and he had already paid back 450,000 UGX (US$125) to the loan programme. Dennis will also have to pay back the owner of the burnt chainsaw however he said that the owner of the chainsaw is willing to wait until he can pay. He also has to provide new household items, clothing and food for his family.

Dennis described the work circumstances as fluctuating and when he does not have chainsaw work or carpentry work he will till the land and labour in whatever way he can. Currently some of the children are with other family and friends until they get established and he hopes to be able to pay back the loan, pay back the man who was the original owner of his chainsaw, build a new home and to gather his children so that they can all live together. When he spoke to me five of his children were living with him and his wife in the shelter on his land.

Lauben and Florence Kwoba

Lauben and Florence have eleven children, the oldest is 22 and the youngest is five. They were living on Florence’s father’s land of six acres however the father was killed and the elder brother who owned a portion of the land was going to sell this. However there were difficulties with the documentation for the land and so the buyer went to court and eventually the entire family’s land was included and so the land was taken away from them. Prior to this the family had been able to be supported through cultivation of this land.  

So now the family had no place to live and no way of getting an income. Because of the challenges this family were facing James and Gorret decided to allow them to live in their house with them and also to cultivate part of the land that they had near their home. Lauben described how they had not managed to earn money as yet because although the pastors had let them use this land where they grew beans and maize there were significant problems they were not expecting. One was that they were late in planting and so they missed the first season and the second was that pests ate some of their harvest. Because of these ongoing difficulties James discussed the situation with the church and they decided together that they would buy a quarter acre of land so that this family could live and cultivate this land.  

I spoke with the family at the end of July and they were not able to move onto the land until September as there was currently a person renting this land and they had to wait until the harvest was over. Lauben described how some of their children went to live with relatives but they still have two of their children with them. Their plan is to cultivate the land that the church bought and to build a home on the land. They hope to bring back the other children and settle there. Eventually they would also like to expand and to buy more land and to grow soy beans. They also hope to pay back the loan so that they can then own that piece of land and the church may plan to buy another quarter acre for another family in difficulty.

Nora Babigumera

Nora Babigumera is the treasurer of the HIV loan group. She is a widow and has one dependent child at home. She was the first to get a loan and currently has 150,000 UGX ($45). She used to bake buns to sell but was advised because of her HIV status that it was not good to be around fires too much. She now has a small shop and has 3 acres of land on which she produces food, some of which she sells. Some of the money is needed (as for all of them) to buy their anti-retroviral drugs when the government funded ones have run out. She still finds meeting school fees hard. She also has poultry. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

This has previously been extensively reported on. It is always more difficult to gauge this issue in a widely scattered group. It is probably easier to gauge the influence in Kween because it is a smaller area and we are more able to see the effect. James and Gorret are highly influential there but we do really like what we see happening and the organic growth that is taking place in Buhoya and Busia. James and Gorret are really great people whom we respect highly and they in their turn are humble and heavily engaged in their communities. The HIV/AIDS group is starting to also look like it is making real progress. 

Plans for the Future

Church growth, leadership development and outreach continue to figure highly here. We would like to see the HIV/AIDS group settle and see significant growth potential there. Steven Juma (photo) is a good leader but it has to be a part of any strategy to grow reliable and godly leadership. Without that there may not be longevity in these partnerships.

Otherwise things will continue on largely as is. We have great confidence in James and Gorret. 

Current Issues and Challenges

1) There are some challenges as the loan sizes get bigger. Loan beneficiaries coming into the programme are often bringing significant savings (as reported on last year).

2) There are still people coming in at the lower end and the obvious group which will feed in beneficiaries in the near future is the HIV group. There are one or two there who are doing quite well. 

3) Bonnke looks like he will do well administering the programme but he lives and studies in Kampala and is only in Busia once or twice a month apart from holidays. There is a need for our partners to grow leadership from within. Christopher Odeya has not been able to continue in his leadership role as he has had significant personal challenges this year.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) There is a real sense of stability here. James and Gorret are fully engaged in what they are doing. We love what we see and it is very encouraging to visit with and connect with them. They are really lovely godly people. 

2) The HIV/AIDS group needs prayer. They are all HIV positive and life is obviously extremely  tough for them. But this group is stabilising and we are seeing positive growth signs.

Comments

This partnership has good organic growth. Probably the next step here will be to identify one or two other churches which might benefit from either a micro-loan programme or similar. This would be a logical way to expand the influence given that there are now 26 churches in the network. 

We have a lot of confidence in James and Gorret and they clearly value their relationship.