Country Updates:

Uganda – Uganda recently released FinScope 2023, which is a national survey of how individuals earn their income and how they manage their financial lives, including use of financial services. It provides insight into attitudes regarding money management and financial products, as well as the financial needs, preferences, and behavior of people. 

The report revealed that: trade is by far the dominant source of income and close to 50 percent of Ugandans earn their income seasonally and daily. A whopping 90 percent of Ugandan adults still transact in cash, which reflects the largely informal nature of the country’s economy. Disappointingly, the report indicated that the percentage of Ugandans who were able to access credit reduced to 36 percent in 2023 from 46 percent reported five years ago. Access to credit and financial services continues to be a critical problem in the country, particularly for women living in rural areas. FinScope 2023 Report

WMI is out-performing most financial service organizations in providing access to rural women. The income the ladies earn, their savings rates, and other items we survey exceed what the report found most Ugandans are experiencing.

Kenya - After weeks of political drama, Kenya swore in a new deputy president, Abraham Kithure Kindiki, after the previous deputy was impeached. The government announced plans to re-introduce some of the tax hikes that sparked violent protests earlier this year which left 60 people dead and hundreds injured. Kenya is struggling to manage $80 billion in national debt and searching for new sources of revenue from its citizens. News Article

Tanzania – In its continued effort to urge the Maasai to relocate from their traditional homelands in the National Conservation Area, (NCA), the Tanzanian government has reassigned new polling stations to the pastoralists who live there. The new locations are hours away from their homes, making it very difficult for them to vote in the upcoming November 27 national election. The government claims the continued presence of the Maasai herders threatens the fragile ecosystem but protesters and international watch groups contend the government wants to develop the land for safari parks and trophy hunting ranches to bring in more revenue. Maasai leaders contend that their people live in harmony with the land and they continue to protest the forced evictions. News Article

A study recently conducted by University of Michigan scientists and published in the journal, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, found that, “The Maasai’s pastoral practices had almost no discernible positive or negative effect on the ecological well-being” of the land. UMich Study. The press release for the Study is entitled: “Cattle raised by Maasai farmers aren’t the conservation villains they’ve been made out to be”. Study Press Release

Eldoret, Kenya Loan Hub Expands to Kabuson Village

Background

The WMI loan hub serving the rural area around Eldoret town in western Kenya was established in 2022 with our local partner the North Rift Peculiar Women CBO (NORIPEWO). Under the conscientious leadership of Chairperson Everlyne Koech Cherobon, and her dedicated staff, the hub has grown and is now expanding to serve Kabuson Village in Kiplombe Ward, Uasin Gishu County.

Everlyne and her colleague, Lucy Mwei, conducted a fact-finding visit to the Kabuson Village and spoke with women there about the local economy, the need for small loans, and the lack of access to financial services for rural women. The area has a predominantly agricultural economy, comprised of small-scale farmers who grow rice maize, beans, tomatoes; raise sheep, goats and cows, and engage in poultry farming.

It is a paternal community where Everlyne reported, “Men lead the households and women follow their guidelines. However, there is an increasing number of single mother families due to teenage and unwanted pregnancies that is on the rise. The issue of increasing cases of single mothers is present in all areas of our rural communities because of changing lifestyles and cultural shifts. More and more women are seeking to gain some level of financial freedom and more and more of them are initiating their own economic activities mostly in poultry, vegetables, livestock and small shops.”

The Visit

During the visit, the WMI staff met with forty eager businesswomen assembled by the leader of the village’s informal women’s self-help group. Everlyne observed that, “The women were enthusiastic. We had discussions about what small economic activities they do and their plans and aspirations. After the meeting we did a farm tour on the farm of their leader, Madam Sally, and we found her to be very progressive. The women were inspired by what Sally is doing on her farm where she is successfully raising and selling vegetables and livestock. With support from WMI, the women can replicate what Sally is doing."

Findings

In providing a written summary, Everlyne found:

1.  Madam Sally has mobilized a total of forty women who all attended the meeting.

2. The common activity is poultry and sheep on a small scale and traditional vegetables.

3.  Dairy farming isa popular activity but the majority of this income goes to the husband.

4.  A few have small retail shops; a few will be starting business for the first time.

6.  They rely on middlemen to enable their produce to reach the market.

7.  There is great potential in this area as well as in the women.

8.  We will develop a market access plan to help deliver their goods without the middlemen.

Conclusion

Based on their findings, NORIPEWO recommended that WMI issue loans and conduct business skills trainings for the forty women they met so they could scale their current economic activity. The WMI Board agreed and two new loan groups of twenty members each will inaugurate the expansion of the WMI loan program to Kabuson village.

Table tennis

Check out the two minute video from our very popular Buyobo Youth Table Tennis Club. These young ladies are learning character traits that will help them mature into strong, independent women. 

• Kyegegwa Loan Hub Purchases Land; Office Construction Planned

 WMI’s fastest growing loan hub is in Western Uganda, with operations overseen from our regional headquarters in Buseesa. Because the service area for loans and training in this region is so vast, and the road network is so ramshackle, it takes from three – five hours to reach some of the rural sub-hub loan group locations from the headquarters.

The oldest and largest sub-hub, with nearly 150 loan program members, is in Kyegegwa village about three hours from Buseesa. Launched in 2019, the day-to-day loan program activities are managed on the ground by the local women’s group which has registered with the government as Mpasana Community Development Centre. Led by the dedicated Chairwoman, Specioza Kemigisa, a 59 year-old single mother of six grown children, women in the program have flourished and are operating successful businesses. The woman in Mpasana continually save and expand the program through the formation of new loan groups that they fund to supplement WMI’s loan funding because the demand for loans is so high.

Members currently carry out loan program transactions under trees in the village center, which with the growing number of borrowers, has now become a risky environment for the members and the leaders. Currently, the sub-hub lacks a central place to keep books and records. The ladies endure adverse weather conditions during rainy seasons when the members continue gathering outside for loan meetings.



To continue to support the growth of the loan program in Kyegegwa, a small office building is required. The members contributed their funds to purchase a plot of land, 60 X 100 feet, and proudly shared the hand-written purchase agreement with WMI. They commissioned drawings for a small building that will include an office, meeting room, and storeroom. WMI will provide construction funds. The Mpasana loan group will be responsible for maintenance and upkeep of the building, which they will pay for with the interest on the loans they issue.

Maasai women carry water on their backs from wells that can be several miles away. The ten liter containers they use are then lined up outside their homes and refilled several times a day to accommodate bathing, cooking and cleaning for the entire household. The community relies on seasonal rains for water, making access unreliable. During dry seasons, the women travel even further to find water sources, which consumes an enormous amount of time and energy.

The scarcity of clean water can lead to the use of contaminated sources, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases. This can significantly impact the health of families, particularly children. Water is essential not just for people but for livestock, which is crucial to the local economy. The large and safe plastic water storage tanks will revitalize water reliability among the Maasai homes and relieve the Maasai women from the daily burden of long distance fetching of water. 

Many Maasai homes are lit by firewood, which produces heavy smoke, posing a health risk to the entire family. Solar panels can be easily installed on the roof of the traditional Maasai mud and stick houses. The panels provide sufficient energy to power lights and charge cell phones.