Report by BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators

Key person: Anna Ocen 

Recent Events

Loan Program

Since we last reviewed this program in September 2014 it has continued to grow.  There is an existing group with 34 people in it and a new group has started with 8 people.  Anna told us that there are new people wanting to join all the time.  She is cautious about inviting new people to join as she wants to find out more about the people before allowing them to come into the group. She always talks with them and finds out what church or mosque they belong to. She also always tries to get a reference, either from a church leader or from someone in the mosque. Several of the churches are very happy with the micro-loan program as they themselves cannot support the widows. Anna is always meeting people who need help from the loan program.

New Location

Another big development is that she is presently looking at starting another micro-loan program in Soroti, which is about 2 hours north east of Mbale. She presently has a group of 20 women in Soroti whom she is training to be micro-loan beneficiaries. The group is looking to appoint its own chairperson, treasurer and secretary. We had wanted to go and visit the people involved in this group however they advised that they did not want to meet with us at this stage, until such time as they had actually started operation and received the first loan.

Anna’s thinking at this stage is to loan enough money to the 20 members of the new Soroti program to allow them each to get a UGX200,000 (US$70) loan. This would involve 4m UGX (US$1,300). We see this as a significant new development which we are keen to support. What impresses us is that Anna is wanting to start the new program at this stage without effectively getting any outside assistance from Bright Hope World. The money for the first loan will come from the existing Mbale or Lira programs and will be repaid out of the first repayment if/when BHW comes on board. We do not think it is appropriate for BHW to support this until there has been the opportunity to see it working.  Despite this Anna is going ahead with the plan and using money from the existing programs as described above.

New Leader

The other new development is that Anna is presently training Sarah Muzaki (see story below) as one of the leaders of the program. We met Sarah both at the Foundations for Farming training and then subsequently at her home in Mbale. She also took us to visit several of her neighbors who are members of this program. Sarah impressed us as a godly woman with good integrity. Another advantage is that Sarah has also been trained in business administration and holds a diploma in that subject.  She certainly impressed us.

Personal Stories

Sarah Muzaki 

Sarah is a single woman who has five children, one of her own, two from her sister who died and two from a cousin who died. She also has an elderly mother who is dependent on her. Her mother is a widow who lives out in the village.  

Sarah gains income through several means:
1) She travels to a market early to buy secondhand clothes and then sells these near her home and in a market close to her home. Alongside the secondhand clothes she at times pays somebody to sew for her and sells these at her home and at the market also. This business fluctuates at different times of the year.

2) At harvest time Sarah travels up Mount Elgon into the mountains where she buys grains such as maize and beans. Although she has agents in the mountains that sell to her it is a dangerous journey. The roads and tracks are very slippery particularly after rain. She pays for a truck to bring the produce back down to Mbale. After buying the produce she holds these for one to two months and then she sells at a profit locally. This business brings in more income as there are many people who do secondhand clothes. There is also a good market for selling the produce particularly to such places as local schools.

3) Sarah also lives on land where she is able to grow vegetables and we visited her vegetable plot. She has also hired some land next to her land where she has planted maize with soya beans. With growing she is able to feed her family and also sell some of what she grows. 

Sarah’s recent loan was 1.2m UGX (US$350). She used 400,000 of this to hire the land next door for two seasons. She also used some of this money to pay for help with the digging. She bought seeds and fertiliser and she also restocked her business of selling clothes.

Before getting micro-loans Sarah reports her life was very difficult. Her own health was poor and she worried much about providing for herself, her children and her mother. She had heard of Anna and met with her in church. She also knew Grace very well and Grace introduced her to Anna. Anna was able to speak with her, to counsel her and to educate her about possibilities. Sarah said that she really appreciated being able to talk to Anna about the problems that she was having in her household. Participating in the micro-loan programme has meant that the family’s income has increased and she is able to increase the size of her businesses. She is able to send her children to school and to fund the books and equipment that is needed as well as the small fees she pays. Sarah is also able to feed her children in better ways and she herself has had a significantly improved level of health.

After meeting with Sarah we met other women that lived nearby who were also accessing loans through the micro-loan programme. Sarah had introduced some of these women to Anna in the programme. Sarah’s role is to support these women and they work together as a group supporting each other, ensuring that they repay their loans and caring about each other on a day to day basis.

When we spoke with Sarah about her dreams for the future she told us that she had completed a Diploma in Business Administration and that she had a dream of opening a school for orphans. However she thinks that although she would like to do this this would not be possible. She also has an idea of finding ways to care for older women particularly those older women who are in the village.  

Because of Sarah’s history of being reliable and caring for others, as well as having the Diploma in Business Administration, she is also part of the small team who are planning and potentially going to take responsibility for the bakery project in Mbale.

Ida

We met with Ida in the new market that has been built in Mbale. This is an indoor area that is very large and currently the tenants do not pay a rental as it is still in the process of being organised. They do pay four times a day for amenities such as cleaning and power which says a lot about how well organised it is! We met with Ida last year and she was in a temporary position in an outside market where the situation was quite challenging and unstable for her. Being in the market is definitely a benefit. Ida reported that her business was going well however at the moment those who buy her garments were busy with planting. She does not sell much in the middle of the year however later in September there are many buyers. Sarah buys material and sews dresses and children’s garments and sells them. Her loan size recently was 500,000 UGX (US $170) and she uses this money to do small repairs on her sewing machine, to buy materials and cottons and to improve her stock. 

As we were about to leave Anna explained that Ida had been having significant challenges. With the profit from previous loans Ida had bought a cow. The cow was pregnant and her plan was that once the calf was born and weened she would be able to sell milk as another income for her family. However last month while she was at church this pregnant cow was stolen and she doesn't know who stole it or how to get it back. This has discouraged her immensely however she continues to run her sewing business and hopes that she will be able to once again save to buy another cow.

Sarah Nabude

We met Sarah in a village near the outskirts of Mbale. Her husband left to marry another woman when she was pregnant with her last child. Sarah’s two older children did not go to school and have left home. They are working elsewhere in Uganda. Her youngest child is 8 and she still has five children living with her as dependents. Sarah sells firewood for her income. She travels to villages where she is able to pick out trees which are then cut down. She then travels with the trees back in a truck bringing them to Mbale where she chops them into smaller pieces and sells them from the property that she lives on. She has been doing this business for five years.  

Sarah joined the micro-loan program in June 2014 and she has had three loans, the first of 200,000 UGX, the second of 400,000 UGX and the loan that she has out at the moment is 600,000 UGX (US$180). With the first loan Sarah was able to buy wood which she added to her stock and sold for increased profit. Every time she gets a loan she adds more stock which is improving her income. She faces challenges in that the demand for firewood varies and sometimes it is difficult to sell, especially during the rainy season, when firewood is wet.  

On the property we noticed that there were bricks that Sarah had built and fired. She did this to begin collecting the materials to create a storage place for the wood so that it would not get wet and be easier to sell. Sarah also had a problem with thieves who would come in the night and take wood from her property. Sarah threatened them with getting a guard and the thieves are now frightened and she only loses a small amount now.

To supplement her business Sarah has been growing maize and beans. Anna is keen to run a Foundations for Farming course for women as she sees there is good potential for improving their crops in Mbale. Sarah would be one who would benefit as she has a reasonable amount of land around her home.

Sarah reports that the main challenge with repaying the loans is that during the wet season it is difficult to sell and when she has not sold it is difficult to pay back the loan. Despite this Sarah is able to make repayments and is also saving. Sarah uses the income from her business to support her family with food and school fees and she also supports some family members in the village where she came from near Mbale. Sarah reports that one day she would like to be able to open up a grocery shop and earn a living that way.

Lofisa Neumbe

Lofisa is a neighbour of Sarah who is the leader of the new micro-loan group in Mbale. Like many others, Lofisa's husband abandoned her. He went to Sudan and took other women as wives. Sarah has two children aged 8 years and 6 years. At the time of meeting Sarah, Lofisa and her children were surviving by begging for food. She was renting a very small place and had no income. She and her children were repeatedly unwell. Sarah stood with her and helped her with feeding her children and also took Sarah to meet with Anna.

The first time Anna met Lofisa she considered that she was so unwell and poor that she would be unable to be a part of the group because she would be unable to repay the loans. However Anna reconsidered this and agreed to meet with Lofisa again and decided that they would find a way to support her. When we met Lofisa she was onto her second loan. Life has not been easy as Lofisa and the children are regularly unwell. They have had repeated infections with typhoid and this is making life even more challenging as they need medicines and are so regularly unwell.

In November 2014 Lofisa started a small business buying tomatoes and onions and selling locally near her home. This did not do so well. She took a loan and used some of this money to pay for three months rental and began a small store selling daily products like washing soap, small drinks and such. Lofisa reports that very slowly she is building up her business and adding to her stock. She has customers who come especially in the morning and in the early evening. She is making repayments regularly and she was able to pay back the first loan and has taken a second loan. Lofisa is also able to make very small savings in the program.

Lofisa reports that she had been waiting for death because of their illness and because she had no way of getting income but now she is able to see that there is the possibility of life. Her children and Lofisa are now able to take a small meal mid-morning, they are able to have lunch around 2-3pm in the afternoon and sometimes when things are going well they are able to eat supper at night. 

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The Mbale widows loan program is clearly continuing to grow and do well. It was good to have clarified with Anna the interest rate actually charged on the loan (12% per annum) as we had thought for a number of years that it was much higher. 

Influence in the Community:
• Some women in very difficult situations are being greatly helped by the program
• Many of the women in the area have been deserted by their husbands, or their husbands have died
• Many support children and other family members or orphans
• The fact that the churches respect the program and are referring new loan beneficiaries speaks for itself
• This group has always impressed us as being extremely cohesive and is a practical example of love in action
• The training which the women receive in administering the loan and taking responsibility clearly inspires the women and gives them hope for the future
• The loan program is poised for further growth and we are hopeful that the development of additional leadership will assist with this growth

Current Issues and Challenges

Anna is working to develop and train new leadership within the micro-loan groups which is a significant development which will help the extension of the programs. 

Political instability with upcoming national elections.

Local corruption which sees theft of stock, unilateral relocation of tenants in the market, unfair competition for spaces in the market.

Despite all of the challenges this group remains remarkably cohesive and the level of support provided to the members is both a witness to the community, and deeply impressive and moving when encountered.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) For increase of leadership capacity
2) For the women whose lives have been quite significantly touched and changed by admittedly very small loans received
3) Loan sizes do need to increase as inflation is likely to be rampant in the next few years
4) The structure of the groups create social cohesiveness and strong mutual support where if one member has illness or problems other members support them spiritually, socially and financially. This is impressive and creates strength within the individuals and group as a whole.
5) Membership of the loan program seems to give the women hope for the future.  Several of the women we met are doing quite well with their loans.
6) Sickness continues to be an ongoing plague in this community and there were a significant number of women within this program really struggling with health issues.
7) There are problems with the local market. This is very similar to Lira in that the local Government has built a new market and relocated people into that market. It is not yet fully functional and the stall holders are being relocated regularly within the market, causing a great degree of unsettledness.
8) Several of the loan beneficiaries have had their cattle die, and one, Ida, who had saved for her cow within the program had that cow stolen just before we arrived (Personal Stories).  These are devastating events for people in such poverty.

Comments

Our respect for Anna as a major leader of women in this country continues to grow. She clearly has the welfare of a lot of women to the forefront of her mind and attention and spends almost all of her available time meeting and ministering to needs. We believe that Anna’s role in these programs is pivotal. Simon, Anna’s husband, has had real difficulty in obtaining regular work in recent years. He has now engaged in Simsim (sesame) farming on his family’s land near the lakes and is looking to increase his family income that way. Anna continues to make jewellery and provide some support for the family that way. However her time is hugely taken up with the administration of both loan programs.