Kitesangwa

We visited Kitasengwa last year when they were hoping to get a SACCOS going.  The members here are all small-holder farmers in need of loans for planting.  Last year they were working to collect money to get started.  They had 30 members who were struggling to raise enough capital.  At that time they had collected 200,000 TZS.  We told them that if they collected at least 1,800,000 TZS we would see if we could help with the rest.

Kitasengwa is an easy hour drive on the highway west of Iringa.  At the pastor’s house we met with several of the leaders.  Over the last year they raised 1,800,000 TZS ($1,200) and have done all of the paperwork for registration.   They should be registered within the next few weeks.  We have also met our promise to cover their expenses and sent them 3,200,000 TZS to complete the required 5,000,000 TZS needed to register. 

We discussed their new SACCOS and how it is going.  They have 36 members in their SACCOS.  The members had all saved enough to get loans for their farms.  As a result there were 36 loan requests – all of which were well done.  There seemed to be two basic approaches – give everyone an equal amount or rank them somehow and give as many as they can.  This group decided on a third course.  They estimated how much a minimum loan to help with planting should be (about $150) and then calculated how many loans of this amount they could make (16) then ranked the applicants (we were not sure how they did this) and gave loans.  Everyone seemed to think that this had been a good approach, so I guess it worked well for this SACCOS.  We asked them how much capital they felt they need.  Looking over their records they could have easily have used another 7,000,000 TZS ($4,500) – but everyone was very grateful for what they were able to do.

When we discussed the loans that were given, we discovered that this SACCOS had gone into the fertilizer business just like a few others.  What they did was have the SACCOS members all agree to take fertilizer rather than cash.  They then went to Yara and struck a deal.  They paid Yara 20% of the purchase price and Yara agreed to give them 9 months of credit at 0% interest.  They even got Yara to give them a little extra which they are selling from an empty building.  They think that they will earn 800,000 TZS (about $600) from this.

We left the pastor’s house and drove over to the meeting place.  This SACCOS meets in a municipal building located about 2 kilometers away from the pastor’s house.  The municipal building sits in a small compound with a medical clinic.  There was a political campaign going on so the police were here and a rally was going on. 

When the meeting started we had 17 members plus the officers in attendance.  We all gave introductions and then Itiweni gave the class for the day.  These members seemed well informed so there were only a few questions.  One thing that they wanted to understand was the structure of Iringa Hope and how their SACCOS fit in (a very perceptive question).  After explaining this Itiweni talked a little about our program on Radio Furaha.  Apparently this program is very popular here with many people mentioning they had heard Sandy last week.

After the meeting was over we went back to the pastor’s house to have lunch.  While we were there Sandy interviewed two members.  The first person she talked with was Welrardy Ngota, 63 and married with six children five in college and one in secondary school.  He is waiting for a loan so he can plant his fields.  Welrardy owns 8 acres of land.  4 of these acres are basically pasture for his two cows and a place to keep his chickens.  He wants to borrow enough to raise vegetables on his land.  He estimates that he can make a $1,300 to $1,500 profit from a $650 loan.  He has been helping his children through school from the eggs, milk, and meat he has been selling, but he is worried about next year and wants to be able to plant his field. 

The next interview was with the pastor’s wife, Dora Kinyunya.  Dora is 47, married to the pastor with 4 children.  She wants to borrow $160 to buy laying hens.  It will take 6 months for the chickens she will buy to start laying eggs.  At the current price of eggs she expects to earn $200 per month.  After deducting feed, etc. she will probably net about $100 per month or so.  Dora is hoping that she can earn enough to pay the school fees for all of her children.

We had lunch, said good bye, and it was time to go.  This afternoon Sandy is working with Peter on his English, Tom and Itiweni went to the University to work and, at 8 tonight, we have a radio show to do! 

The Pastor and his wife remembered our visit from last year.  They were happy to see us show us what has happened here.

We showed the Pastor and the chairman one of our calendars.  They are always a big hit with the people here.

We discussed how the SACCOS was working with the leadership.

Our meeting was held at the Municipal compound.

The chairman opened the meeting.

The village executive attended our meeting.  She wants to join the SACCOS.

Pastor Kinyunya asked that we take his picture and put it on the web.  "Maybe our partner parish in the US will see it" he told us.

Sandy interviewed Welrardy Ngota.

The first person Sandy talked with was Welrardy Ngota, 63 and married with six children five in college and one in secondary school.

The next interview was with the pastor’s wife, Dora Kinyunya.  Dora is 47, married to the pastor with 4 children.  She wants to borrow $160 to buy laying hens.