Check out the Lady Panthers’ reaction to their first-ever NCAA tournament bid. Priceless:

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
_____________________________________________________________________________

VSLA
During our pre-service training, two volunteers came to talk to us about a program called VSLA which stands for Village Savings and Loan Association. This program is designed to give people who live in a rural area and do not have easy access to formal financial institutions the opportunity to save money and borrow money.

Here’s how it works: around 30 people get together, buy a metal box with three places to lock it, and meet regularly to save money and give out loans to group members from their savings. There is a separate fund that members contribute to weekly that exists for emergencies that pop up such as sickness or death in the family. Loans taken from this emergency fund are not charged interest. Members choose a base amount for savings, which we call their share value. Then at each meeting, members are supposed to save from one to five shares per meeting.

The good things about the program are that it encourages savings in a culture that typically does not save, it gives members access to loans that they can put into business ventures, the interest paid on loans stays within the group rather than going to a bank and it is self-managed. I was pretty much sold on the concept by the time the volunteers left our training session, so I was excited when the women of Nagongera mentioned that they wanted to learn how to save.

The Toolkit
Despite the good sales pitch by Josh and Eric, I was still nervous starting the VSLA. The last thing you want to do is start a project that flops, especially when you are dealing with someone’s hard-earned money. The toolkit consists of the metal box, three locks, 30 passbooks, two bowls, ink pens, a record keeper journal, an ink stamp pad, a bottle of ink, a stamp and a ruler. It all costs 90,000 shillings (about $45), so I was worried about the women having the money to get started.

A standard VSLA box kit

I quickly discovered that my worries were unfounded. These women were serious about saving. They had their money collected for the box kit and all of the members recruited and in place at our first meeting. The first few meetings you have, nobody saves, because you are training and setting up the VSLA. At each of those first few trainings, the members were so eager to start saving. They elected officers, and soon saving was underway. I came to all of the meetings I could make during the first few months, but soon the women needed very little guidance from me.

Next time: A big move … and VSLAs expand!

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Another False Start
The second false start came when the women said they were interested in being trained in poultry keeping. There is an organization in Uganda called the National Agricultural Advisory Services (NAADS); their sole purpose is to educate and support Ugandans regarding agricultural practices. I went to the Nagongera sub-county offices and met with the NAADS officers and asked them if they would conduct a training for the women in Nagongera on raising poultry as an income generating activity. The NAADS officers agreed and said they would make sure to spread the word that there would be a training.

I had notified my “counterpart” at MIFUMI to let her know when the training would take place, but somehow wires were crossed, and a domestic violence advisor training session was scheduled for the same time as the poultry training. This meant that the two women that I counted on to help me with translations would be gone, and Hellen, who was also very helpful, would have to be at the Advice Center and also could not attend the poultry training. I was disappointed by this but still felt optimistic about the training.

Food and Payment
The morning of the scheduled session, I went to the office. When the women began showing up for the training, they were asking where the food was. One of the local officials came and told me the women were hungry, and that I should provide some food. Well, there was a budget of zero for this event, but I hopped on my bike and rode down the street and bought a bag of chapattis for the women. They were quickly gone, and as more and more women arrived, the same official told me we needed more. I told her the food was only for people who showed up on time, and we needed to go ahead and start with the training.

It wasn’t that simple though. The two men from NAADS asked me for their money. Um, what money? It turned out they wanted me to pay a “facilitation fee.” This was news to me, since when I arranged for the training no one mentioned any sort of fee, and providing advice to their community members regarding agricultural practices was precisely what their job was suppose to be.

I was angry, frustrated, and near tears, but with over 100 women who had traveled quite far waiting for a training, I agreed to pay their fee. Being the nice guys that they were, they agreed to give me a “discount” since no one had mentioned the fee prior to the event.

What Did He Just Say?
I’d like to say the money was well spent, but the men seemed ill prepared. The training was in dhopadhola, so I didn’t know what was being said most of the time except for the brief summaries the men would say to me. I do know at one point the guys were talking about sex instead of poultry, so I think it is probably best that I couldn’t follow most of what was being said.

After they finished, the men asked me to pay them in the privacy of their office, which just made the whole encounter feel even creepier. They were all smiles and handshakes and told me to let them know if I needed them for any future training.

At this point, I was down, but not quite out. I had one more idea before I was going to throw in the towel … and this one was a winner!

Check out KWC students Marybeth Powell and Matt Mistretta in this 14 WFIE news story about Owensboro’s attempts to attract college students to town:

Laura Leach ‘95 is working as a Peace Corps volunteer in Uganda. She is sending updates to KWConnect about her experiences in Africa. Click here to read her story from the beginning.
_____________________________________________________________________________

Breakthrough
My breakthrough at my site came when I met a lady named Mary Asili. Mary was one of the domestic violence advisors in Nagongera and also worked with a group of women called the Nagongera Women’s Guild. Mary was the first person within the MIFUMI organization that I met who genuinely seemed interested in working with me, and I was definitely ready to grab at any opportunity that came along at this point.

We scheduled a meeting for me to go to Nagongera to meet the women Mary works with and talk to them to see if there was some project or goal that I could work with them on. The day of my meeting, Akoth Thereza, who is a volunteer at the Mifumi Village Advice Center, hopped on her bike to lead me to Nagongera. It was about a 45-minute bike ride.

When I got there I was greeted by Margret Rembo, the other domestic violence advisor at that site; Hellen, who is a volunteer at the center and also a young mother with a baby named Obama; and Betty who was one of the leaders within the Women’s Guild.  There were probably between 30-40 women there for that first meeting.

Nagongera Women's Guild

I introduced myself in dhopodhola and went as far as I could on my own before I sought help with translation. At first the women were quiet, but when I asked them to tell me about themselves, one by one, women raised their hands to tell me what challenges they were facing. One of the biggest concerns shared by most women was inability to pay school fees. Some women had been abandoned by their husbands who were now not contributing at all to provide basic needs for the women or their children. Some women had been chased by their husbands, after their husbands had married a second wife. Some were widows who didn’t have any help or any way to provide for themselves. Most of the women who spoke had experienced domestic violence in some form or another.

By the time the women were finished, I was completely overwhelmed. I remember trying to compose myself to say something coherent, but I also remember wondering what I could possibly do to help these women with their problems.

False Start
I have to admit I had a couple of false starts before I actually found the right project to work on with the women of Nagongera. First the women showed me a kitchen that they were given by the Catholic Church in Nagongera. The Nagongera Advice Center is located next to the church, and the Nagongera Women’s Guild started out as a prayer group for the women.

I need to clarify what I mean by “kitchen” It was an empty building – no electricity, no stove, no furniture…nothing. But it was a “kitchen” to the women, and they wanted to start a catering business from this kitchen. The first thing I asked the women to do was to make a list of everything they thought they would need for this business and the price that it would cost.

At first the list started off with the typical things you would associate with a catering business such as pots, pans, plates, bowls, cups, etc., but soon that list was several pages long and included jewels and gowns for their catering uniforms. I’m not sure where that list ended up, but I made it the responsibility of the group members to search out the prices of the items for the business, and I never saw that list again.

Next time: The Pay-Off takes place …