Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator Following Visit in June

This report is being completed without having gone out to Buhoya this year but I spent a very full day with James and Gorret at the Source Cafe in Jinja on 14th June. It is somewhat difficult in the context of an offsite meeting to get a full and clear picture of what is going on but we have always had a lot of confidence in James and Gorret. 

This has not been a good year for Gorret with health issues. She had a fall and hurt her head badly earlier this year, is currently recovering from malaria and has also had a preliminary diagnosis of diabetes in the last few weeks.

Recent Events

Micro-loan Programme

Bonnke, their son, is still actively involved as the administrator of the loan programme and spends most of his spare time in Buhoya. He is going to send us a report on how the programme is going financially and detailing the loans and who has got what. There are a few defaults and a few who pay slowly but because they require a good savings history before getting the loan, the savings into the programme are high and the motivation to repay seems largely good too. People need to save to be considered for a loan. Interestingly they have more problems with the smaller loans than the larger ones in terms of repayments. This is possibly because it is so much harder to work with the very poor and the fact that those with larger loans have already made a significant commitment in savings before accessing a larger loan.

The loan programme has seasonal challenges. When there is no harvest (March-June) and also around December there are delays in payments. These are expected though.

The number in the larger loan programme (not including the HIV group) is now around 80. 

There is nothing much further to report in terms of types of loans from previous reports. Dennis, who received an emergency loan last year, has paid the chainsaw off and is now also constructing a house. This is a great outcome. (The photo shows Dennis and his family with the chainsaw and partially completed house)

Another story involved a woman who was separated and unable to repay her first loan (UGX200,000 - US$70). James had subsequently advanced another 400,000 even though she had difficulty with repayments of the first loan. As a result she has been able to do some business and complete her house. During this process her husband, who had run away to Kampala, had reunited with the family.

James also updated on the family we reported on last year who had lost everything when they had been evicted after a family dispute and the family had literally taken everything that they owned. They have a 1.2m UGX loan (approx US$350) but have not made repayments since November. However, James pointed out that people like this, although perhaps not as regular as might be liked, are blessing James and Gorret in other ways and supporting them and the ministry. In their words, they are part of the family. This family (like Dennis with the chainsaw) came into the programme without the requirement for prior savings. 

There are still beneficiaries wanting loans. The request was to leave the budget of $4,000 for the loan programme the same for 2019. We are happy with this but envisage in the near future being able to reduce or finish the financial boosts to this programme. We will await the figures from Bonnke and look at the position then. 

Interestingly, they have started a small loan programme in the church that they planted near Jinja last year. They put 500,000 UGX into it and it is a savings and loan programme similar to the existing one. It is great when our partners get something simple started without us! The members are saving into it and James and Gorret simply boosted it, similar to what we are talking about with new table loan programmes.  

HIV/AIDS Group

The HIV/AIDS group that we reported on extensively last year is continuing and Sande Steven is still leading it. They are doing trees and poultry in addition to the micro-loans. Kevin Honore (BHW new partnership facilitator) was in Buhoya a few weeks ago, met with Steven and was really impressed.

This group has come to the attention of a local MP who has made some promise to assist, possibly with them obtaining a small grinding mill, although this seems unlikely.  

Education

There is an increasing emphasis on vocational training although there are now fewer young people in the education and training/tertiary schemes. When we last reported there were 156 but now there are about 120 however this is still a large number of young people who are benefitting from this programme. James and Gorret are also looking towards encouraging more of them to come back to the area after finishing their training however it remains to be seen whether this will work as there seems to be limited opportunity in and around Busia.

Last year we indicated that two deaf girls had dropped out, one due to pregnancy and the other because we understood that the father was not supportive at all. There have now been two more deaf pupils added and there certainly seems to be good value coming from this programme. 

James and Gorret would like to have their own vocational training centre. We discussed this, that BHW would not support building a centre as such, and that it is probably better value to support the young people into existing institutions, and on the proviso that those who can contribute something back in response to the training and start in life that they receive from vocational training.

Leadership Development 

Part of the budget here covers leadership development. James does about two leadership training courses a year. This last period there has been one in Busia with 120 people and one in Kween with 70. We support leadership development and training but find it difficult to identify the results of this training. Gorret is very keen to identify and train women and youth leaders, and for this reason we think this fairly modest part of the budget should continue. 

Personal 

James is getting near to retirement which is compulsory for teachers when they reach 60. He is two years away from that. When he ‘retires’ he is going to farm and has acquired 2,000 coffee seedlings to plant. Bonnke is assisting doing compost for the plantings. 

Current Issues and Challenges

Climate change (by this we mean extremely unusual weather patterns and the chaos that this creates) has not been good for Foundations for Farming in the Buhoya area. Some composted and prepared but the rains were too long and heavy and people got demoralized. They couldn’t see anything good out of the technique. However, in the second season last year Gorret planted and her maize did well. Other people have noticed and people may go back to mulching but not possibly to measuring etc. 

Comments

There are some challenges but also some good things happening in the work. It is challenging for them when other organizations come in and lure away churches in their network. Or when bad teaching or cults come in.  But at the same time they have also had an organization come and bring some skills training with no other strings attached. This happened in a church in Kafufu/Bugere.

We do not see that there is a need to increase the budget for the coming year and this seems to continue to be a well performing partnership despite many difficulties.