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Key people: Anna Ocen and Sarah Muzaki
This has been quite a difficult visit. In reality, although there is some progress and positive stuff to report, there is a lot which simply highlights the problems faced here in the loan group. I went with Anna and met quite a number of beneficiaries and heard a lot of stories. Many of those are reported below. I think it is important to realise and accept the reality that this is a very difficult place to run or maintain a loan programme. Recent events have destabilized the country’s economy and the challenges are immense.
The election in February has caused a big fallout in confidence in the communities. There is not as much money around and retailers in particular are feeling the pinch greatly, although some in the loan programme are continuing to thrive. This was extremely evident in the central market which had very few customers.
There are 35 current loan beneficiaries in two groups. There is what Anna refers to as the pioneer group which is the original people. This has 26 current people. She has more direct contact with them. Then there is a second group of 9 which is the responsibility of Sarah Muzaki who collects the money on Anna’s behalf and whom we interviewed last year. I understand that Sarah being appointed as the leader of this group has not been well received and that several of the people in the second group have returned to the pioneer group because they want the contact with Anna. Most of these people are associated with the bakery, are older and have had a long association with Anna.
In addition to the 35 people there are more than six people who do not presently have loans but are part of the group. They are waiting until later in the year until things have stabilized before resuming their loans. Because they have been in the system for some time and are only pausing in taking their loans the loan sizes will be around 800,000 UGX (US$240) to 1,000,000 UGX.
There are also other people who are wanting to join the group but there appear to have been too many challenges this year for Anna to be able to add many. The challenges include Anna’s asthma, which has troubled her greatly since earlier this year. We took enough medication to last her (hopefully) for a year. There have also been two deaths of people in the programme. Claris, who we reported on last year, and who was making school jerseys on machines in the town centre is one of those who has since died. There have also been related family deaths, really serious family sicknesses, theft of trading stock for many people, police raids (which we might call institutionalized theft as stuff confiscated is never returned but retained by the police officers), violence, termination of leases (one beneficiary was kicked out because the landlady said that she was cursed).
Having written all that, several of the beneficiaries I interviewed, despite having lost all in market fires or suffered multiple thefts, were continuing on with the loan programme and doing OK. We admire and are deeply humbled by the resilience of many of the people.
I also spent quite a lot of time with Grace, Gertrude, Betty Anna and Camida discussing the bakery possibility and looking at a forward plan. This is reported on separately.
Another development is that six of the women, whom I was not able to interview, are also growing rice in a field that they rent on the Kampala road outside Mbale. This has good potential to assist in increasing their income. After they have harvested in August/September they will return to their other businesses.
SemiI spoke to Semi in the main market. She sells ground nuts and beans and makes ground nut paste and something like peanut butter. Her present loan is 800,000 UGX (US$240) which enables her to buy sacks of nuts and beans and also process the ground nuts into paste or peanut butter. She had previously lost everything in a market fire a couple of years ago and had to start again. She is doing OK and business is OK. She has expanded and effectively runs her business out of two tiny stalls. She is managing her loan repayments.
Florence has three young children. She also sells ground nuts, sim sim (sesame) paste, which she makes, and small fish in the market. Her husband was killed a number of years ago by the Lord’s Resistance Army in Gulu in the north. She moved to Mbale after that. Her present loan is 500,000 UGX and she is paying well. She wants to increase her loan size and go out and buy produce and wholesale it to others in the market which is a good strategy. She has three children to support and has had three prior loans. She is happy with how it is proceeding.
We first met Joyce about three years ago selling some small cassava roots just outside the market. We wondered how on earth she could make a living from it. But she has managed. She has four children, is Muslim and has no husband. She has been able to move inside to the edge of the rear of the market where other produce sellers are. She has a 300,000 UGX (US$90) loan now. This is not her first loan but she has had to start again after the police came and took everything off her when she was working in the street. She was thrown out of her house, gave up in discouragement and disappeared from the loan programme for nearly two years. But Anna tracked her down and started her off again. When she found her she was discouraged and sick and unable to work. Now her children are going to school again and she is making enough money to pay the fees. While she was out of the loan programme the children were not going to school at all.
We met Secolah a couple of years ago outside her little shop. Since we last met her she has been in a wrangle with her late husband’s brother over her husband’s land. This got to a stage where he literally tried to cut her arm off with a machete. She has the scars to show it. She was very fortunate that he was not successful. She is in court arguing over the land and is not able to make regular payments on her loan of 600,000 UGX at this time, but is doing what she can. When this loan is repaid (hopefully in a couple of months) she hopes to take another of UGX 1m. Her shop is improving and she is able to send her children to school. Her son is studying Social Work at the Islamic University. We had a good opportunity to pray with her.
I went with Anna to Camida’s house. She used to be in the market but left before it was burned to the ground. She now works from home sewing and making garments and table cloths. She does not have a great deal of exposure to passing traffic and her location is actually really difficult. But she cannot afford to hire other premises and, like others, is simply making do. She is behind on her loan payments but is doing whatever she can to pay as much as she can. She reports that there are many many more challenges this year than last year.
It is important that we give an update on Sarah as it appears that she is shaping up well to become a leader among the women. I spent a lot of time with her and talked a lot about the challenges which she is facing, and also some of the things which are going well. Anna has appointed her to assist in collecting the loan repayments for some of the women in the north western part of the city. This caused some friction from some of the older group who thought that because Sarah was a lot younger she should not be ‘promoted’ ahead of them. That issue is largely resolved as the women involved, who are also associated with the bakery, are now being looked after by Anna. She is very aware of the difficulties faced by the women in her area as often they can only afford to pay a small regular amount toward what they owe. Sometimes only 10,000 UGX a week toward a loan. The group she looks after has met and prayed with Anna too and is continuing OK.
Sarah has experienced a significant downturn in her businesses, buying produce from up in the hills above Mbale and selling them in the town, and selling second hand clothes. She reports that the money is simply not there. Prices are high for food and competition is caused by buyers from the north and from South Sudan who are desperately short of food. She has a loan of 1.2m UGX but is not always able to afford the payments and is just paying what she can, like a lot of the other beneficiaries. It appears that they just have to ride it out. Some days she makes no money whatsoever from her endeavours.
On the bright side, she attended the Foundations for Farming training last year in Jinja and has been putting it into practice, doing compost in her rubbish pit and mulching and is getting good gains from her maize plot which is about 10m x 12m. She has also been teaching some of the other women in her area and they are also starting to do it. She is going to continue doing it. She is hopeful over time of being able to farm up to 4 or 5 hectares but is starting small. She does not at this time have access to a larger piece of land but there are possibilities out in her mother’s village near Soronko, about 40 minutes by vehicle from Mbale. It is important to note that Anna speaks highly of Sarah and considers her one of the best women to relate to in the groups.
Anna receives quite a number of requests to assist other people to set up loan programmes. She is recognized in the community for this and assists where she can.
It is really evident as we travel around that Anna is greatly respected in this community. The women whom she interacts with obviously respect her and look up to her. While I was in their house Simon came back with Emmanuel, a friend and colleague. His wife deserted him and left Emmanuel with the children a couple of years ago and Anna and Simon spend time with him and counsel him.
We have seen similar things happen on other occasions too.
Anna still has a vision to grow and expand the number of loan programmes. The possibility of a programme in Soroti is still there and she is speaking at a women’s conference there in October.
She is also recognizing that she does not want to simply remain with a loan programme under Jireh Women’s Group but she wants to also expand it as she finds other reliable people. She has a desire to help (by which I understand she means ‘mentor’) someone else, or other people, to do it. Her health has prevented that happening in the early part of this year.
Like all loan programmes we know of, she would like the loan sizes to increase so that the types of business can increase. We have a limit on how far we think we should go with this before programmes become self-sustaining. We think that the loan sizes should reach about 1,500,000-2,000,000 UGX (US$450-600) and our involvement diminish or stop at that point.
Everyone we talked to said there were many more challenges this year than last year. Each person spoke of loss in some form. Destruction of stock, family sickness, deaths, increasing costs, fewer customers, inflation, pressures before and after the election, hunger and poverty, higher food costs.
There has been jealousy and some bad feeling in the programme. I think I got an understanding of this though. Sarah Muzaki became the loan collector for part of the pioneer (first) group where the beneficiaries have had a long involvement with Anna. It was because of geographic and distance issues but they rejected Sarah and Anna is now looking after that.
Slow or delayed payments, and many are struggling.
Non-payment means that some are ashamed to come to the regular meetings.
1) Despite the challenges people are continuing
2) Sarah Muzaki is proving reliable to Anna which is encouraging
3) For wisdom for the Mbale women regarding establishment of the bakery which BHW is potentially willing to support
4) There is jealousy and some difficulties and disunity. Much of this seems to have been addressed and we are hopeful that the issues are overcome.
5) Sarah has been putting Foundations for Farming principles into practice and seeing encouraging results. She has also taught some other women in the area she lives.