Loan Collection Day

Preparation for the Annual Celebration

Signing, Dancing and Celebrating the Loan Program All Day Long!

Netball Tournament Action!

Rural Women Promote Their Businesses at First Annual WMI Trade Show

Testimonies from Local Businesswomen During the Annual Celebration

Justine Namboga described her life before joining WMI, “I was nobody. I was forgotten. I worked for a tailor for very little money. Then I decide to obtain a WMI loan of 300,000 Uganda Shillings (UGX) (about $80) and I opened my own tailoring shop”.

That was 14 years ago. Now Justine has just received a One Million UGX Jumbo loan from WMI (about $270). She will use it to expand her small coffee farm and to grow her thriving side business of buying and selling scraps. She’s now had a lot of experience and is confident her small enterprises will continue to thrive.

 

Justine highlighted how the WMI training opened her eyes. The training gave her valuable information she has never had access to before about business operations and accounting. One of her proudest achievements is using her income to educate her children. Of her older children, one is a teacher, one is a nurse and one is a hairdresser. Her youngest are in secondary and primary school.

One of the keys to her success is that she saves money regularly. She owns a permanent house. She bought a motorcycle to transport goods for her business, followed by a car, which she has learned how to drive.

Justine emphasized that WMI is an organization supporting the people of the community. It is not just a rural bank. She was grateful that, “WMI looks at the whole person, not just how much money they have and how much money you can make from them."



Mary Nandudu is 54 years old and has six children. One has graduated college and the others are still in school. The school fees are 3 Million Uganda Shillings per year (about $800 per child). This is an extremely big expense for her family and she helps pay the school fees out of her business income.

Mary's friends had WMI loans and their businesses were doing well so she applied and started a business selling secondhand clothes at the big weekly markets. Using friendly sales language and selecting top quality clothes keeps her customers happy in these very competitive marketplaces. She finds it easy to repay her loan and continues to access new loans to buy inventory.

Mary’s is a two-income household. She and her husband sit at a table every week to discuss finances. Sometimes she brings more money to the table than her husband! She makes a profit of 500,000 per week ($135) in high seasons. With her income the family has been able to buy goats and chickens and build a permanent house.

Jennifer Nambafu, who is 78, looked to her WMI coordinator to translate her business journey. She joined WMI in its first year of operations, 2008. Only completing school through seventh grade, she had never had a business before but wanted to try. Jennifer started out selling bugoyas (bananas), eggs, and tomatoes. She bought the bugoya in bulk from rural small-scale farmers, transported them, and resold them in the marketplace.

Four years later her business had grown. Requiring more capital, she applied to a local bank for a loan. She recalled that the paperwork took all day and she was not sure of some of the conditions. At the end of the day, the loan was not ready. She returned to the bank again the next day but again it was not ready. She had to make a third trip to receive the funds. She had applied for a 1 Million UGX loan (about $270) and ended up with 920,000 UGX (about $248); about 8% of the loan amount, had been deducted to cover various fees. She saved regularly during the loan term but never received a clear explanation of when and how she could access her savings. In the end, she felt it was not a transparent process, plus she had to continue to travel each month to the bank to make her loan payments. At the end of the bank loan term she refused another bank loan, applied to return to the WMI loan program, and is a current borrower. 

Asked why she continues to work at 78, Jennifer replied: “How can I retire when I still have needs?” She pays for food, medical expenses and school fees for her grandchildren. With income from her business, she has managed to build a semi-permanent home and furnish it with chairs and beds. She concluded that the WMI loan program caters to rural women.

The Trip

For the past two years, WMI’s headquarters team in Uganda has been mentoring the inaugural leadership team at WMI’s newest loan hub, which serves rural women near Eldoret, Kenya. WMI partners with the local women’s NGO, Northern Rift Peculiar Women CBO (NORIPEWO), to manage this hub. Robyn and the WMI headquarter's executive staff piled into the WMI van to head out for a field visit to NORIPEWO. 

The journey started optimistically. After an hour’s drive the team stopped for a short visit to the home of Stephen Mukweli, PBU’s former managing director, just outside Mbale. Then reality kicked in. What should have been a four-hour trip to cover 115 miles turned into a seven-hour nightmare.

The truck traffic to the Malaba border crossing was packed with giant semi-rigs and tractor trailers freewheeling across both sides of the highway. Smaller vehicles, like the WMI van, simply waited for an opportunity to drive on the dirt-packed side of the tarmac road, headlong into the traffic, weaving around the trucks.

NORIPEWO’S CHAIRWOMAN: EVERLYNE KOECH

The team was met in Eldoret by Everlyne Koech, a mother of five, who is a farmer and teacher, with a Master's Degree in Agricultural Resources. She had been trying for years to develop local workshops and marketing platforms to link village women raising small-scale crops to better outlets to sell their products. A network of rural women entrepreneurs was taking shape but there were no local resources to fund business training or provide capital.

CELEBRATING THE THRIVING NORIPEWO LOAN HUB

Launched barely 24 months ago, the NORIPEWO loan hub has now surpassed two hundred borrowers and is growing swiftly. Word of mouth has spread the news about the valuable skills and recordkeeping training and the success of the first businesses launched with WMI loans so that there is now enormous demand for loans by rural women in the region.

To recognize their progress, NORIPEWO organized a celebration to honor the achievements of the rural businesswomen they serve, and introduce more local leaders to their impact on the community. As it turned out, local leaders had been following NORIPEWO’s loan hub launch and attended the celebration to congratulate them on introducing such in impactful program.

The government ministers in attendance had keen insights into the WMI loan program’s impact over the past 2 years. The Chief of the Office of Co-Operative Associations was effusive about how unusual it was to have a loan program operating at the village-level and serving rural women in the region. He told the ladies there was simply nothing like it that he had ever seen before.

The Governor’s Representative praised NORIPEWO for how transparently they operate program and how honestly funds are handled. She said the biggest problem with the many schemes to provide loans in underserved areas is theft, fraud, mismanagement – that it is easy to take advantage of marginalized populations when you are promising to give them loans to solve their financial problems.

The Minister for Gender said they need to encourage younger generations. She wants them to follow the role models of the WMI loan group borrowers. “We need to pass on knowledge to the younger generation of women and they will empower the nation.” She also spoke passionately about how the loan program helped dramatically reduce domestic violence in the region because most altercations are the result of poverty.

Olive Wolimbwa, WMI’s Local Director,

noted: “Thet government leaders, Chiefs, elders, and different community leaders have seen the impact of the WMI program in this rural area. Because of this impact and the importance of the loan program, the government and community leaders attended the women’s celebration and sat for the whole day which is not very common at all. Usually, they leave right after they have given a speech. 

VISITS TO LOCAL BUSINESSES

The NORIPEWO ladies were eager for the WMI team to tour some of their businesses.

Winrose Cheptoo is 52 years old and has five children -some of whom work with her. She is a member of the second NORIPEWO loan group. With her first loan, she bought flower seedlings to start a landscaping plant business. She was always interested in horticulture and as an avid reader she researches information about plant cultivation. A self-taught farmer, she grows tomatoes, onions, broccoli and peppers. She learned maize, a popular local crop, is not very profitable so she focused on high value vegetables.

As her landscape plant business took off, she bought containers and supplies with her second loan. She sold the flowers she raised and made a $1,000 profit, which she invested in more flowering plants and decorative shrubs. She now takes orders for landscaping plants from her customers. She is also trying her hand at grafting apple and peach trees.

Winrose now knows how to keep business records because of the WMI training. She also knows how to save and makes regular deposits in her savings account.  

Lucy Kipanai is married and has four children, all attending school. Even in public school the children need educational supplies and she pays for them out of her income. Lucy reiterated that one of the biggest household expenses is education.

With her first WMI loan she started a small hardware store because she saw a lot of construction in the area and builders needed supplies. She stocked nails in multiple sizes and shapes. She did a very good business with the nails and with her second loan added hinges and locks to her inventory. They also proved popular and she expanded to buy a load of sand which she sells by the wheelbarrow.

Sand is a key ingredient in cement and local workers come to her to load up their wheelbarrows. She paid $1,000 for a big pile of sand, which fills 160 wheelbarrows. She charges $10 for each wheelbarrow load, making a $600 profit. She continues to plan about what additional supplies to stock.

NORIPEWO LOAN GROUP MEETINGS

In the Moiben quadrant, the women greeted the WMI team with songs and traditoinal dances. The best saver in this group of 40 borrowers, Mrs Everlyn Chesire, spoke on behalf of her loan group members. She said she has become a woman of substance because of WMI.

She moved to the area from a very different village and had to learn how to manage a donkey cart to carry water. In this very dry area, donkeys are crucial to fetching water. She learned this important skill and when WMI loans became available she bought a tiny plot of land to farm. It has transformed her life. She is a steward of the environment and advocates for conservation measures in agtriculture.

Both she and the local Chief asked that WMI increase the number of loans available as many more women in this rural area want to start businesses.

In the Segero quadrant, Margaret Otienio spoke for her loan group of 40 women. 

She bought small chicks with her loan. She raised them to 5 months and then sold them to buy a sewing machine, as her real talent was tailoring. She makes tablecloths and other household items for sale.

Margaret explained that many microfinance organizations advertise around Eldoret town but the interest rates and fees are very high and they are not transparent in their dealings. She said that now the husbands of the borrowers are happy. There was a lot of stress at home. The ladies struggled during business training and to make business plans. But they have learned so much and they are doing so well.

Other borrowers commented that the WMI training stopped blind spending. It taught them budgeting and saving. Their eyes were opened. Their parting request was for additional funding so more local women could participate in the loan program.

Lastly, Robyn visited the 2,000 + borrower loan program WMI operates with LWC on the Laikepia Plateau in northern Kenya. With 23 women’s groups in the villages surrounding LWC, this hub embraces the community conservation approach to preserving Kenya’s wildlife heritage. The women’s groups are well organized and engage in numerous revenue-generating projects and community initiatives. 

LWC was WMI’s first loan hub to transition to a digital loan issuance and payment platform. The impact is impressive. Women are now skilled at managing and transferring funds on their phones. The convenience of making payments without travel or cash has been a big hit. Plus, digital tracking of accounts is simple, real-time sensitive, and transparent. 

CHECKING IN WITH THE FIRST WMI LOAN GROUPS LAUNCHED NEAR LWC IN KENYA IN 2014

Naibala Group - Chairwoman Pamela Kilua organized twenty group members to discuss the Loan Group’s history and future goals.

Pamela met Robyn in 2014 after a travel guide connected WMI to their self-help group of village women who had organized to support one another. The group had no access to any financial resources to begin an enterprise project.

In Pamela’s words: “When we met Robyn, we were doing nothing. Absolutely nothing. With the first $100 loans offered to each of the twenty members some of the ladies were afraid to take a loan. Others wanted to start with just $50. In those days, we were crawling. Now we can stand. We are able to repay loans well because our businesses are doing so well.”

It is with great sadness that we report the recent death of Betty Bigala, a long-time WMI loan program coordinator and champion of financial inclusionacy for village women.

Betty was born in 1956. She was one of a pioneering generation of village women to seek a higher education in order to purse a professional career. She attended secondary school at Dr. Obote College – Boroboro, near the northern Uganda town of Lira, and after graduation pursued a secretarial course at a tertiary institute in Nairobi, Kenya.

Betty opened a secretarial business in Konokoyi, Bududa District, Uganda and for the last 15 years also worked as an administrator at the Bududa Vocational Academy (BVA). Leveraging her skills and network she worked with WMI to launch a loan program pilot in Konokoyi to serve rural women in this mountainous area of Eastern, Uganda. Betty was a generous and dedicated champion of village women. Her smiling face and compassionate heart will be sorely missed.

In a groundbreaking achievement, the Buyobo Table Tennis Club has secured prestigious scholarships for its talented young players Emily Nambafu & Rinnah Nambafu. This remarkable feat not only celebrates the Club's dedication and hard work but also paves the way for a brighter future for other children in the Buyobo community.

The scholarships to St. Michael International School – Wakiso, cover tuition and fees, room and board, healthcare, and training expenses. With this financial support, the sisters will be able to focus on their academic and sporting pursuits, and their family will be relieved of the financial burden that quality education places on rural households.

WMI sponsors the table tennis team and professional player, Kevin Mafabi, a native of Buyobo, volunteers his time to coach the students.

Are you looking for an adventure this summer while also supporting WMI's outreach to village women?

Consider volunteering for a month at WMI's headquarters in Uganda!

WMI typically hosts U.S. college interns in Uganda each summer to analyze data from the borrowers in the loan program, create impact studies, interview women about their businesses, and teach at the local primary school. Due to policy changes and cutbacks in internship funding provided by colleges and universities, we may not have any interns in Uganda this summer.

If you are interested in spending a month at our headquarters building in Buyobo, collaborating with our local executive team to complete these summer projects, please email us at: wmicontact@gmail.com

Staying in a guest house next to our headquarters office and being embedded in Buyobo village for a month is an experience you will never forget. From a former intern:

"The highlight of each week was when we interviewed our borrowers. Hearing their stories and how passionate they were about their businesses, seeing the joy evident on their faces when they shared that they could now afford to send their daughters to school – that was the most incredible part of this experience. My work didn’t feel like work when I knew it was supporting an organization that is doing genuinely good work and making tangible change in the lives of thousands of women each year."

Details about the summer projects, accommodation, and costs are included on our web site: Summer Volunteer

Thank You!

The WMI Board of Directors is extremely grateful to our donors - you make WMI's work possible. Thank you for your thoughtfulness and commitment to supporting WMI's program to empower rural women and families in East Africa. You are providing a lifeline that is truly making a difference in reducing global poverty.