Country Updates:

All three countries where WMI operates: Uganda, Kenya, and Tanzania, have been particularly devastated by USAID's withdrawal of services from sub-Saharan Africa. Though primarily focused on improving health outcomes, USAID funds also supported economic initiatives. According to The Council on Foreign Relation’s newsletter, Think Global Health, "For the region to maintain its economic growth without USAID support, countries should support local entrepreneurship and investment in agricultural, infrastructural, and technological development."  Article

WMI is accelerating its expansion of loan hubs and infrastructure projects to meet the needs of village women and their families in the face of this international funding crisis that is impacting their countries so severely.

The windswept high plateau surrounding the Ngorongoro Crater is a rugged landscape where water is scarce in the dry season, the wind is fierce in winter, and the sun relentless in the summer months. Thousands of Maasai families reside in this challenging landscape. Homesteads called bomas dot the hillsides where the domestic cattle herds share grasslands with zebra. Restrictive farming regulations coupled with climate change limit economic opportunities for the village women raising their families here. 

WMI has joined forces with WTWT, a British non-profit, (website) and Maasai Partners (website) to provide training and microloans to the rural women who live here. Over the years we have funded loans and training in five wards: Nainokanoka, Alailelai, Naiyobi, Esilalei, Ngoile/Olbalbal, each which has a population of about 15,000 people. This year we are adding over 400 new loans to these wards and expanding for the first time to Oltuki ward, providing health education, numeracy, literacy and business skills training, and the first microfinance loan issuance.

A loan group in Esilalei Ward is pictured above finishing a training session with their teacher, Sinyati Loromotu Ngamuriaki (end left) our loan group trainer for that area. And, women from that loan group, pictured below, show off their products at one of the weekly local markets, which have grown dramatically as more women start businesses and more households have income to spend at the markets. 

Twenty years ago, ‘not being cut’ was unheard of, it was a 100% the ‘social norm’ in the Maasi regions where we work. The reduction is partly due to our health education classes in schools, health centers and communities, covering all areas of health, including the harmful effects of FGM and child marriage. We have built a network that reinforces the fact that FGM has no medical purpose and that girls have choices and adult role models who support those choices. The reduction is also attributable to increased coverage of the issue in news and social media, which has raised general public awareness.

We are optimistic that families are gravitating toward a tipping point where the norm of being ‘uncut’ will lead to the demise of this harmful practice. Alternative rites of passage to womanhood are emerging so that young women can celebrate with pride and without being harmed.

Holding loan meetings in open air lean-tos, transporting books and records back and forth to meetings on the back of a motorcycle taxi, and counting loan issuances on the wet ground are not ideal operating conditions for a microfinance program; yet, due to necessity, this is how many of WMI’s rural loan groups start.

As the women’s businesses in a newly launched loan group grow, and the loan group adds members to become a regional hub, the ladies are able to pool a portion of their profits to buy a plot of land and plan for a small office building to accommodate their activities.

This is exactly what happened over five years in Kyegegwa village in southwest, Uganda, about a six hour drive from Kampala. Mentored by WMI’s southwest regional loan hub in Buseesa, Uganda, the ladies of Kyegegwa registered their own community association, Mpasana Community Development Center (MCDC) and the first twenty borrowers applied to WMI to launch a loan and training program. The women’s businesses have prospered. The loan program now serves nearly 200 women and continues to expand.

WMI raised the funds for the construction of a sub-hub office to serve this area and the Kyegegwa women were the critical force behind the successful completion of this project. Along with their financial contribution to purchase the building lot, borrowers utilized their experience, knowledge, and local contacts to manage the construction process.

Specioza Kemigisa, the dedicated chairwoman of MCDC, was instrumental in driving this construction project forward. Her leadership mobilized community support, encouraged participation by partner organizations, and ensured there was transparency in managing resources. Her vision is not limited to physical infrastructure development; she sees the office as a launchpad for expanding economic opportunities for the entire area.

Working together, the Kyegegwa community took the building from blueprints to full completion in less than 3 months. Local workers and volunteers played a vital role in the physical construction. Community members cleared the land, mixed concrete, fetched water, laid bricks, and provided general labor. Neighbors offered their homes for storage, meals, and bathroom breaks. The newly completed office now provides a dry, secure, and convenient home for loan program operations and a new venue for community events. It is a transformative watermark for the loan program and the community. 

Zesui, Uganda Loan Group Receives Jumbo Loans

Years ago Dorothy, 34, established a small pharmacy and after following a strict savings plan, she was able to build a patient clinic. With her jumbo loan, Dorothy hired two additional nurses to meet the growing demand in the community for healthcare services. She is pleased to report that she is able to pay her children’s school fees and provide medical care for her family. Her biggest challenge is not enough capital and she is ready to move up to an even larger loan to expand her operations.

Nulu, 38, started a second-hand clothing shop when she first joined WMI. With her jumbo loan she diversified her inventory and added shoes and sweaters.

With the income generated by each woman’s business venture, the borrowers’ household living conditions improved significantly. Both Fatuma and Dorothy were able to purchase livestock with their profits. In Uganda, livestock are valuable assets to own because they can always be sold for cash. All three women hope to receive larger loans in the future so they can continue to build their businesses.

Tree Planting Project in Southwest Uganda Loan Hub

Once those preliminary tasks were completed, the next step step was the painstaking planting of each seedling in a small black container bag. First the bags had to be filled with enriched soil. Village youth helped with this labor-intensive job.

Next a small seedling had to be inserted into each bag. This was quite a painstaking process as the seedlings are extremely delicate and easily damaged.

The tree nursery bed is now finished and being monitored, mulched and weeded while the seedlings grow. In August, the seedlings will be potted and distributed to the first 600 loan program participants for transplanting on their agricultural plots. We are confident that this project will not only mitigate the loss of trees but will also promote sustainability and environmental responsibility among WMI borrowers.

Nareto Women's Group in Kenya Shares Their History and Dreams

Village women in the rural Laikepia region of north central Kenya face many challenges, including: providing enough food for their families, finding funds to pay school fees for their children, locating reliable water sources, coping with erratic weather patterns that damage their small-scale farms, and fighting discriminatory policies, customs and traditions that limit their access to education and financial services. To support one another in these harsh conditions they frequently band together to form self-help groups which can provide emotional and financial support, as well as a platform to launch small income-generating projects. 

The Nareto Women’s Group is one such safety net that was formed in 2002 by a determined group of 15 village women in the Laikipia region. The members were very young when they started meeting over 20 years ago. Each contributed a tiny amount of cash to create a pool of $40. They invested in goat-rearing, which turned out to be very successful. From there the group slowly and steadily just kept growing and the ladies registered with the government as a community-based organization (CBO). Today Nareto is over 75 members strong. WMI has funded loans and business skills training for the women so that they each now have an individual business as well as their jointly run projects, which diversified to include beekeeping.

When the group first formed, husbands and local leaders were wary of the idea of a self-help group for women. So the ladies made a strategic decision to include two men as original members. To this day, one of them attends Nareto’s meetings and any of the other men in the village can ask him about the discussions and projects. With this reassurance, the husbands and local leaders no longer felt threatened by the women’s activities and they have come to wholeheartedly support their wives’ participation. If a woman is watching small children when the monthly meeting rolls around, her husband will take over so that she can attend. The Nareto village women are now empowered and no longer need to rely on their husbands to feel financially secure. 

As the daughters of the original members reach maturity and marry, they are granted membership in the group and begin to learn business skills from their elders. Mothers-in-law introduce the wives of their sons to meetings so they can learn how the group operates and then they can request to be admitted. Knowledge is passed on from one generation to the next. 

When the group first started none of the women had continued school past the seventh grade. Now all of the new members have finished secondary school and many are going on to university because their mothers have the funds to pay school fees from the income generated by their businesses.

This younger generation can come back to the community to serve as medical officers, schoolteachers, or community development trainers. But jobs are hard to come by and the pay is minimal: self-employment remains the most viable option for a village women to earn enough income to support herself and her family. Nareto Women’s Group and WMI loans and training continue to provide the access to financial services and business knowledge that village women need to succeed as entrepreneurs. 

Elizabeth, the vice president of Nareto, reported that their group is very active: “Our CBO does many things. When we got micro finance from WMI the ladies started owning their own items. They never did that before. We are Maasai and Maa customs said women could not own anything. Now that has changed. If women in our group have an issue we can help each other now. We can pay for a child to go to school or the hospital if they cannot afford to pay. Our group has regular monthly savings; each member contributes $7.50/month. We have $850 in our account and can give families emergency loans.”

Elizabeth said their biggest issue is that they do not have enough bookkeeping and financial knowledge. They are hardworking and numerous and convinced they could grow bigger if they had access to more training. They long to travel to some of the larger towns and cities in Kenya so that they can see how other successful village women are creating bigger enterprises. WMI hopes to invest more capital in this area to expand the resources available to motivated women’s groups like Nareto.