Monday, March 16, 2015

An Iringa Hope Update

This morning we were at the University to give a report on what we have found during our village visits this year.  Every year we go to as many village locations as possible to check on what is happening at our SACCOS.  In prior years we have been able to make it to all of our locations.  But this year marks a turning point.  We have worked in a total of 42 villages, but we didn’t have time to visit all of them this time.  There are 37 nearing the point where they will be able to give loans, and 31 that should be registered soon .  Three of our SACCOS are in the Southern Diocese, which is in the Njombe region.  A visit to those three SACCOS would have required three days, which our schedule didn’t allow.  Our schedule allowed us to visit 27 of the SACCOS, but we made it to 25, due to a last minute conflict at Idete and Kidabaga.

Our meeting was held at Blomquist Hall, where we started out with chia so that we could “meet and greet” our guests.  This year there were about 40 people in attendance, including government officials, cooperative officers, NGOs, University officials, representatives of BKB and DIRA, and future suppliers (in this case for our new AMCOS).  This meeting was a good opportunity to let everyone know where we are at and where we are going. 

Our Director, Dean Enoch Ugulumu, gave an opening statement followed by Itiweni Luhwago, our senior coordinator, who introduced a number of the people present.  Then Tom stepped up to give a status update.  He covered a little about the background of Iringa Hope, how the Micro Finance Institute (MFI) came about, and what our status review was based on.  This year we visited with over 1,200 members; interviewed over 70 of our elected leaders, interviewed members, looked at loan documents, etc.  Our overall comments and estimates are based on these visits and the data we gathered.  You can see the entire presentation in PDF form here 


One thing that we announced at this meeting was that, starting this year, all of the costs of the Iringa Hope network and all of the management will be done by the members of the SACCOS.  This means that the Iringa Hope network is now 100% self-sustaining!  This is the 5th year of operation of the Iringa Hope sponsored MFI.  Among our 5 year goals were starting 30 SACCOS; forming a network from them; and getting the network to be self-sustaining, all of which have been reached.

Following the presentation Prof. Ugumulu welcomed questions from the audience.  The first question, “What is your biggest problem?” was easily answered.  Our biggest problem has always been, and continues to be, raising the necessary capital needed by our SACCOS’s.  We have over 600 families qualified and waiting for a loan.  That is 3,600 people who have made a good plan, saved their 1/3 of the loan value, gotten 2 friends to cosign their loans, and are waiting.  The hardest thing we have to do is tell these people that we will do the best we can and they will have to wait. 

A second question, “What is most rewarding?” was again easy to answer.   The most rewarding part of what we do is visiting with our members and hearing their stories of changed lives and improved living conditions.   A more specific question dealt with the occupations of the people who are getting loans.  “Will you be expanding to support fishermen, cattlemen and various other occupations?”  Our answer,  “We go where there is a group of people who can organize and are willing to do the work to form and run a SACCOS.  It just happens that most of our members are farmers, but we have supported fish farmers, and lumbermen, dairymen and egg producers, shop owners and bakers.”

The questions lasted almost an hour – it was great to have so many interested people at this meeting.  Enock closed the meeting by inviting a few members of the audience to give some brief statements.  One man in particular gave a very interesting statement.  He told us how proud he was that Iringa Hope was managed and supported by its Tanzanian members.  He thanked all of us for realizing that this is the way things should be and for working to make it happen. 

After the meeting broke up we had the opportunity to talk some more with the folks from USAID, Yara, and Syngenta.  USAID is the funding source for our recent grant.  Its representatives were very positive and wanted a copy of the presentation.  They told us to expect many more grants in the future if this one went well.  The Yara representative told Tom that he would be pushing as much as he could to get us the support we have asked for from Yara.  He also asked for a copy of the presentation so that he could send it to their headquarters in Dar Es Salaam.  He asked if we could meet with Yara representatives in Dar in two weeks, but unfortunately we will be gone by then.  The Syngenta representative listed for us all of the many things that they would like to do with us, such as giving courses, sending out samples, doing demonstrations, etc.  He promised that they too would have a good package for us to look at.

It is hard to know what might come of this meeting.  We think it serves a very good purpose in giving us an opportunity to let people know what we are doing and where we are at.  The questions were also very helpful in identifying things we should be thinking about or things we may have forgotten. 


Tomorrow our leader training sessions begin. 


We started off our meeting with chai - coffee, tea, mandazi, chapati, eggs, and samosas.


There were a little over 40 people attending the meeting.


People paid close attention to our presentation.  Everyone seemed very interested.


There were lots of good questions at the end of the meeting.  This gentleman rose to give a very eloquent speech.  "It makes me very proud that Iringa Hope is supported by its members and managed by the people here.  This is the way it should be."  He told us.


As things broke up Joan Mayers of USAID stopped to talk with Tom.


To see a PDF of the presentation, click here Status 2015

2 comments:

  1. What a great report and exciting news. The momentum you've developed is awesome. I'm so proud of you both. Your long, hard and persistent work is really paying off. It has finally gained the attention of NGO's, people and other organizations that recognize the practicality, effectiveness and self-sustaining personal and community economies Iringa Hope provides. Jim Christian

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  2. Wonderful!! Congratulations to everyone on great success!!!

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