Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators

Key People:  Anna Ocen and Penninah Akello

This report is based on discussions with Anna in Mbale and also a phone conversation with Penninah who was in Lira.  We did not travel to Lira this year however plan to spend a longer time with our partners there next year.

Recent Events

Although the loan programme in Lira is generally going well there continues to be a large number of challenges. Anna gave generally positive feedback about progress with the loan arrangements and numbers of people involved in the programme.

There have been problems with the market. On Friday 8 July, Penninah told me there had been a riot in the marketplace as the police had moved in to close down an older part of the market. Tear gas was involved, at least one person was shot by the police and a large number of other people were injured in the clear out process. This was part of the older market in what is known as the “Senior Quarters” area of town, which has often traditionally been reserved for the Mizungu people. The Lira Municipality (just like the Mbale Municipality) has built a centralised market and is in the process of closing down all of the smaller and older markets. They do not exactly use gentle methods. There are forcible relocations and one of the real difficulties is that when the police are involved they simply confiscate everything that they can take and keep it for their own use. The part of the market that had the problem was the part that was selling second-hand clothes, which we visited a couple of years ago.

Anna reports that business in the markets involving the widows is actually quite low and there are not the customers there.  At the same time the loan beneficiaries are performing well and making regular payments although not necessarily fully up to expectations.  She reports that all of the loan beneficiaries are largely willing to co-operate and make payments.  

The loan programme at Kirombe Pentecostal Church is also doing well. Last year it started with 20 people and they have subsequently added eight more people.  Mary Taaka, who is one of the leaders of the group, wants to add more people but has not done that at the moment. The other group leader that we reported on last year (Grace Nam) has not proven trustworthy with handling the funds in the loan programme and they are needing someone else trustworthy to work with Mary. Anna is confident that there are other good ladies in the group at Kirombe who they will be able to work with.

In the group administered by Penninah there are more than 40 people.  Sadly last year Margaret, who was one of the beneficiaries of the loan group with young children who had HIV, died. She was quite an important part of this group and we had quite a bit to do with her on some of the visits. This group has not had the same challenges such as sickness and deaths as has the Mbale group. One of the challenges they do face is that there have been very poor crops in the Lira area this year due to drought. They are about to have the second harvest of the year but food prices are going extremely high. There is a lot of competition from buyers in South Sudan where there are significant conflict and famine problems. 

Loan beneficiaries in the area have all of the same problems as people in other loan programmes, such as thefts and violence, and the whole Lira area has a very difficult history which is reflected in current social conditions.

Anna and Penninah are willing to extend grace to loan beneficiaries who are simply unable to pay but most seem to be paying at least something, and regularly.

Personal Stories

Jackie

Jackie is in her early twenties and joined the micro-loan programme last year. When she was at school she became pregnant and the father did not want to have anything to do with her or the baby. Her daughter is now 7 years old. In March 2015 Jackie was offered a loan. She reports that initially her business did well and she took a second loan of UGX200,000 (US$60). Her first loan was UGX100,000 and she was able to pay this back. Jackie runs a small business selling cooking stoves and also collects plastic bottles which she sells to a collector. Both of these are done from a stall in the Lira market.  She buys one stove at a cost of UGX5,000 and sells this for UGX10,000.  She also has a different kind of stove which is cheaper and she buys it for 1,500 and sells for 5,000. There are other stalls selling similar stoves nearby. She said that while there was competition sometimes others travel to Lira and buy wholesale from her and then they take those off to other markets.

Prior to the micro-loan Jackie was struggling with selling the small bottles that she collected. However with adding the loan she was able to start up this business and increase her stock to include the stoves. Jackie’s mother and two brothers have died and she lives with her grandmother and her child. Her grandmother also needs her support. With the loan Jackie has been able to increase her income. She uses the profits from her business for herself and for her child, to pay back the loan and also reinvests into her business. When we met her last year we were impressed with her business and enthusiasm.

Anna reported that Jackie’s wellbeing improved considerably after she took her first loan. Her health, level of food intake, the way she dressed and her self-care improved significantly. Last year Jackie was praying that as she did her business and it growed she may be able to construct a home to live in and she also hoped that one day she would be able to help others.  

However, this year unfortunately Jackie has gone backwards. There is competition for spaces in the markets and people come from Kampala and bribe the police to evict people and destroy their stalls. This happened to her before the forcible relocation from the market referred to above. That other event happened in a different part of the market further away from the centre of town. Jackie lost everything and was evicted from her house, with her young child.  She had nowhere to go and came and stayed at Hope Restoration Centre (UGA03).  Anna and Penninah bought her some small produce items to enable her to start selling again and get herself back on her feet.  She is managing to do this, but has suffered a major, very sad setback.

I do understand that despite the unjust treatment Jacqui is persevering and has not given up.

Partnership's Influence within the Community

The main observation to make here is similar to last year. Anna is a highly respected woman in the community who works very hard, despite her own health problems, to promote the welfare of woman in both Mbale and Lira.  She travels to Lira quite often and regularly networks with the woman in both Penninah’s loan group and the other ones.

Current Issues and Challenges

- The significant lack of stability in the community.

- The police have not been just or fair, and neither has the Lira Municipality, in handling the small markets and relocation of the stall holders to the larger market.  

- Anna’s health continues to be an issue and Simon and Penninah also have health challenges.

- The food crisis means the cost of living is going up. At the same time those people selling food in the marketplace, and wholesaling, are not necessarily obtaining higher prices for their produce. While they are having to pay more to buy the produce there are pressures at the market to keep their selling prices down.

- There needs to be a greater uptake in Foundations for Farming in this area. At present Moses, who was at the FfF training in Jinga last year, is farming. Fiona (Anna’s daughter) and Emmanuel have also been doing Foundations for Farming and growing sesame (simsim) on approximately two acres of land. They had a good crop and got a good income from that which supported their studies.  FfF principles and practice needs to be much more widely disseminated.

There is a business conference scheduled for the Kirombe Pentecostal Church in October.  Anna is speaking and is going to encourage an uptake in Foundations for Farming pinciples.

Prayer and Praise Points

1) Many of these are as outlined in Current Issues and Challenges
2) For stability in the community. This area is not enjoying food security and there have been vehicle hijackings and murders over food, and increasing shortages. It is a worry.
3) There are concerns for Penninah, Anna and Simon’s health so continue to pray for them.
4) We think that there needs to be more sensitisation and an increasing uptake in Foundations for Farming in this area. Recently a newspaper reported that 2/3 of this country do not have food security.  Anna spoke about the impact of food shortages and drought in Lira. Some people even use the word ‘famine’ to describe what is happening in the north. This is exacerbated by people crossing from South Sudan to purchase food because of the war there. 

Comments

There is very little that we can add to the position at present.  In many ways the development of this loan programme is simply “business as usual”.  We do not see any need to change the funding arrangements at this stage and in fact think it is probably not advisable to do so, particularly given the economic difficulties in this area and also the fact that there are numbers of woman wanting to join the programme. This is particularly so in the Kirombe Church. The expansion of that part of the programme has to some degree been put on hold until a suitable replacement for Grace has been identified.