East Africa Covid-19 Update |
The Covid19 virus is continuing to spread in East Africa: Uganda has 40,000 reported cases and 330 deaths. By comparison, Spain, with a similar population, has reported 65,000 deaths. Kenya recorded 103,000 cases and 1,800 deaths. Tanzania is not reporting virus statistics.
Undoubtedly, the death rates are higher than reported because of poor statistical-gathering practices; but if they were significantly higher the ladies in the villages would notice the increased burials and there has not been any surge.
Businesses are mostly operating normally with safety measures in place. Large gatherings are still banned. There is a 9 pm – 6 am curfew in effect in Uganda and from 10 pm - 4 am in Kenya.
Uganda schools are currently going back to in-classroom instruction in a staged re-opening; they closed last March. Kenya schools reopened in January after being closed for nine months but thousands of students failed to show up – particularly teen-age girls. The reasons are yet unclear but our local staff has reported a noticeable rise in pregnancies among unmarried teen-age girls in rural areas during the school closure so that could be a major reason for the reduced classroom sizes. Other contributing factors are pandemic related: with little household income during lock downs, students returned to farming and whatever trade they could manage. Additionally, parents may not be able to afford school fees, uniforms, or the PPE needed to send their children back to school.
For all these reasons, WMI has resumed loan issuance and training so women can generate much-needed household income. After halting loan issuance for six months, we began issuing loans again in October 2020. We believe it is imperative that we continue to make loans to women on the edge of poverty to support businesses operations. Without WMI’s ongoing program, rural women and their families risk spiraling downward into the poverty we have worked so hard to alleviate over the past 13 years.
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2020 Annual Report
WMI’s recently completed 2020 Annual Report is now available on the WMI website. Despite the many challenges presented by the Covid pandemic, WMI was able to continue to support the hard-working ladies in the loan program so that they were able to remain in business.
The virus disproportionately impacted the world’s most vulnerable populations, including the rural women and families we serve. WMI continues to provide the funds and resources necessary for rural women to build a pathway to financial independence.
Notable 2020 achievements:
- At the end of last year, cumulative loans issued topped 62,000, totaling more than $8,000,000 lent since we issued our first 20 loans in 2008.
- We constructed our eighth sub-hub meeting pavilion, including latrines (a big plus for village-level infrastructure) in Gombe, Uganda. The women of Gombe purchased the land and WMI funded and managed the construction. The new building was completed in time for the January 2021 training sessions.
- We engaged a CPA in Kampala to analyze operations and provide recommendations for the necessary enhancements to comply with Uganda audit standards. With our headquarters office becoming a registered NGO we are preparing to comply with the accompanying reporting requirements.
- WMI again supported efforts with our partners in Tanzania (WTWT) and Kenya (Lewa) to improve literacy and provide needed health education and mental health counseling for rural women.
- Graduating loan groups in Karatu, Tanzania organized their own sewing co-operative which WMI seeded with four sewing machines. Impressed by their business success, the local branch of Exim Bank offered the graduates fee-free bank accounts.
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Applying A Black Lives Matter Lesson to International Relief Efforts
On February 14, 2021, the New York Times ran an editorial entitled, Foreign Aid Is Having A Reckoning. It criticized the predominant system of world aid, which allocates billions of dollars in funding through a top-down hierarchy dictated by Americans and Europeans. The editorial cited the work of a network of organizations called NEAR, which “are trying to reinvent foreign aid by shifting money and power closer to the communities the aid is meant to serve.”
In the same vein, the January 11, 2021 edition of The Guardian featured an article by Dedo Baranshamaje and Katie Bunten-Wamaru highlighting the pernicious, global imbalance in the allocation of non-profit funding to locally managed outreach initiatives. "Worldwide, more than 99% of humanitarian and philanthropic funding goes to predominantly white-led international NGOs. Despite Africa’s growing and dynamic social sector, only 5.2% of U.S. foundation giving to Africa goes to African-led organisations.”
The Guardian article goes on to point out the roadblocks that keep locally led institutions from receiving international aid, such as: lack of access to donors; informal organizational structures; a predisposition to discount leadership based on real world experience as opposed to academic credentials; and, implicit bias. The authors suggest that as, “we see funders starting to apply new, equity-based approaches to funding black-led organisations and movements in the US, we must also apply those approaches to funding across Africa.”
WMI concurs whole-heartedly. Since its inception nearly 15 years ago, WMI has directed 100% of its financial support and resources to African-led organizations. And, not just African-led, but also woman-focused and operating at the village-level, meeting the unique challenges faced by rural populations.
In our experience, highly effective rural networks created and managed by local leaders exist throughout sub-Saharan Africa. These networks are primed to receive international funding and apply it successfully to achieve organizational goals. To reach a comfort level with providing funding to grass-roots organizations, it is imperative that international donors build a relationship of trust with them by making a commitment to work alongside them and witness just how their impact reverberates throughout rural households.
Locally led organizations are intimately familiar with the systemic problems that hold back their members and restrain robust growth and development. Local leaders who experience the same day-to-day problems as their members have a profound understanding of how the problems impact daily life and insight into the range of options that can deliver lasting solutions. International donors need to recognize the critical knowledge base local organizations contribute to catalyzing structural changes that significantly reduce global poverty.
To achieve mission goals in full partnership with local organizations, international donors must be willing to invest “patient” capital – funding that is focused on building capacity and decision-making at the grassroots level, utilizing culturally congruent approaches. WMI believes that our approach of working at the bottom of the pyramid, embedded in local villages, has demonstrated that the best way to build a sustainable program is in complete solidarity with village leadership and management.
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A Basin of Balls: Table Tennis in the Village
Solid ready position, consistent strokes, concentration – all hallmarks of skilled table tennis players right in Buyobo, Uganda. Especially during the nation-wide school closure, the Buyobo tennis table program has been a bright spot for the children in the community.
They are learning new skills, self-discipline and gaining positive re-enforcement from successful competitions. Down the road, those who excel may win scholarships to secondary school and university.
Check out one of the rising stars as she returns a basin of balls without a miss. Watch video
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IRA Gifts Boost WMI Funding
In the first several weeks of the new year, WMI received unexpected funding from several extremely generous donors through distributions from their IRAs. If you are 70 1/2 or older, you can make a Qualified Charitable Distribution (QCD) from your IRA directly to WMI. By doing so, you can help the women in the loan program and also receive a tax benefit.
A QCD is a direct transfer of funds from your IRA payable to a qualified 501(c)(3) charity. The transfer must be initiated by the IRA custodian. The gift counts against your required minimum distribution and is not considered as taxable income. This is especially valuable for donors who utilize standard deductions, as well as high-income earners who lose the full value of their itemized deductions.
There are rules and limitations as to the types of IRAs that allow QCDs, timing of distributions, etc., so please check with your IRA custodian and your tax advisor to make sure you are making the right decision for your situation. The major IRA custodians explain QCDs on their websites and have the necessary distribution forms for your use.
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WMI’s Smallest and Newest Loan Hubs Weather the Pandemic |
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Arua is in northwest Uganda where there is widespread poverty, lack of education and ability to pay school fees, high rates of maternal mortality, and high incidences of deaths from malaria, especially for children under five. It is near the Congo and South Sudan borders, so there are many refugee living in the area. The ladies in the loan hub here received their last loans right before the pandemic lockdowns began. Business and loan repayments slowed in 2020 but now all except four ladies are back on track. The program leaders are traveling to Buyobo to receive refresher training and new loans are expected to be issued shortly.
The ladies in the tiny village of Kyegegwa in southwest Uganda have performed extremely well throughout the pandemic. Their businesses were small, nimble and catered to a local market. Borrowers here continued to maintain a regular loan repayment schedule. New larger business loans are scheduled to be issued mid-February.
In the Masaai Mara in Kenya, food insecurity hit hard after the tourist industry shut down and WMI set up a pantry to assist loan group members and the community. The loan program leadership did an admirable job of handling distribution of staples and locally harvested perishables. The ladies’ businesses are now open again, and we are working with them to restructure loans where necessary - many ladies are nearing completion of their loan repayments. We expect to issue follow-up loans again in the spring.
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These are indeed trying times - particularly for women living on the edge of poverty, who depend on their business income to sustain their families.
WMI is extremely grateful to all of our donors. All of you make WMI's work possible.
Your commitment is supporting rural businesswomen during the pandemic and helping ensure that their businesses thrive.
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Gratefully,
The WMI Board of Directors
Robyn Nietert Betsy Gordon Deborah Smith Jane Erickson
Terry Ciccotelli Trix Vandervossen June Kyakobye
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