Training begins at Kihesa

Today we began our spring training sessions.  We are expecting to have 80 or so leaders at the sessions.  We started today with Itiweni reviewing the Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS report.  This is the first full year for the Joint SACCOS so everyone was very interested in what happened.  We also handed out a Swahili copy of the report on our visits from last week.  There were many questions and a lot of interest in what we had found.

The biggest thing today is the address to the SACCOS by John Kiteve, the Regional Registrar for all Coops.  John is a very amusing speaker – he kept everyone laughing.  He spoke for about an hour to the group.  He told them about the many SACCOS that have failed here – the government SACCOS, the private SACCOS, the Postal bank, and other NGOs.  “Only Iringa Hope is succeeding.” he told them.  “Iringa Hope is the only salvation for the economic well being of the region.”  (A little strong perhaps, but nice to hear.)

He went on to tell the officers, “If you kill Iringa Hope you will kill thousands of families (he was speaking figuratively, of course) – so be faithful and trustworthy.”  At one point he told the leaders that “Iringa Hope sends more children to school than any other program in the region. –We were pleased to hear such strong commendations from a government official.

The training session seems to be off to a good start.  Peter and Itiweni will be very busy these next few days, and we will finally have a chance to relax a little.  

We hold our training sessions at the Kihesa Life Skills facility.

We had between 65 and 70 at the opening session.  We are expecting over 80 to attend.

Itiweni went through the Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS report and Tom's summary of our findings.

John Kiteve, the Regional Registrar for all Coops gave the opening address.  

He told us about all of the other failures.  “Only Iringa Hope is succeeding.” He went on to say,  “Iringa Hope is the only salvation for the economic well being of the region.” He also told us, “Iringa Hope sends more children to school than any other program in our region.”

He kept everyone smiling.

John is a very senior official in the regional government.  Everyone was attentive to his talk.