Visiting a women's group

An Inside View

Greetings!

Greetings from Tanzania.

I am so happy to tell you that the rains have finally started and the current drought is over!

All our women’s groups, now numbering 25, are buying bulls to get the cow fattening business cycle started once again.

The Longido groups are also buying goats for a quicker start for their businesses.

In celebration, I want to share a view from the inside. I hope to give you an idea of what it is like to work together with the people through these challenges.

I’m amazed and so gratified to see so much positive change, and thank you for making it possible.

With great appreciation,

Twende!

Robert Lange

April 2023

A visit to a Women's Group

Mesha Singolyo, our amazing organizer of women, likes to bring me along when she visits women’s groups.

Each of the groups has a weekly meeting which, in itself, is something special. There is a lot of difficulty in life here, and to have a group that is there for you every week means a lot.

When we drive up, the women come to us, shake my hand and welcome me warmly.

At the start, Mesha greets the women and talks with them. Then leaders and record keepers from the group give us reports. They tell us how things have been going, how many of their members can buy their weekly $2 share in their groups bank holdings, and how many are finding it a little too hard.

The group members tell us about the amount of money they are using in their loan program and how repayment is going.

Especially during the drought, there are women who just can’t buy their shares. Now that drought is over, we expect their individual businesses in the markets will once again provide the profit they need.

Providing a genuine start

We believe in “capacity building” for business, a common theme in development work.

What’s different for us is that we make sure the training for capacity is delivered alongside the funds needed to get started.

It is in the business itself that the learning becomes real, and the improvements in life get a genuine start.

When I visit our women’s groups, I sit with 30 or 40 women and usually three or four Maasai men who are especially interested and supportive of what goes on in the groups.

The women are very welcoming to me. They know I am not the leader, but that I help with the success of the groups. They know I have connected with you to make the work possible.

The happiness is palpable

Because of the existence of their group, there is more wealth and the women have new and better ways to earn money.

But sitting with the women, it becomes obvious that just having more money is not the crux of it. After all, no matter what the accomplishments, the full overarching reality of their patriarchal society has not been turned upside down.

What is so remarkable is the palpable happiness.

I see the women in the groups are obviously happy. Being together, learning together, trying new things, taking care of each other, and tracking the results brings happiness.

They laugh. They talk. They listen to one another. After the business meeting is over, they sit in a lovely circle in the grass, and don’t rush to get away. And the men who join are included, as am I. This is very gratifying.

Loading the truck in Arusha to take bricks and stove parts to Olmoti

More stoves to Olmoti

I recently updated you on multiple collaborations, including work with the Olmoti Project.

Founded by Diane Raleigh of California, the group has a wonderful clinic and school in the remote village of Olmoti. We continue with stove training and just sent a truckload of bricks and stove parts, along with one of our expert staff.

We are up to 100 stoves there and we soon hope to have all of the several hundred homes of the village improved with cleaner indoor air and firewood savings.

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