Today we visited Ugesa.
Ugesa is a two and a half hour drive from Iringa. The first 40 minutes are on the highway
heading south west of town, after turning off the tarmac and heading south the
drive gets interesting. We passed through
small villages of mud huts, and then continued on to a logging area where we
shared the road with the trucks carrying large loads of logs or lumber. With
the top-heavy loads they carry, they don’t dare drive on the shoulder, so on
many occasions Tom veered off the road and on to the embankment to escape the
trucks. When we weren't sharing the road with trucks, we were often sharing it
with herds of cattle. In those cases we would creep forward pressing the herd
to the sides of the road. Young boys are
usually the ones herding the cattle, hitting the cows with switches. These boys are school age, which leaves us
wondering why they aren’t in school.
When we arrived in Ugesa there were a lot of members already
gathered for our meeting, but this being Tanzania, they all waited while we
went into the pastor’s house for chai. Tom gave a calendar to the pastor and everyone
having chai with us was eager to see the pictures of the people they knew. One of the officers asked if we could bring
several hundred of these for him to sell.
We told them that they are too heavy for us to bring so many, but maybe
we could get some printed here. Peter volunteered
to look into this.
There was good attendance at the general SACCOS
meeting. This group is always attentive
and does an outstanding job. There are a
little over 100 families in this SACCOS (about 600 people). They have developed a system where they keep
rotating loans so that there are several loan cycles in every year and everyone
gets a loan. This last year they again
had 100% repayment, which is normal for them, and earned over $1,250 in
profit. They are also good savers. Last year they grew their capital by over
$4,500 through savings. When we asked
what they would like us to discuss on our radio show, they suggested “Why
people need to save more”.
Ugesa has been operating for a while now. Due to their rotating loan system there are
many members here who have taken out 3-4-5 loans. With this in mind, Sandy decided to change
her interview questions, so instead of asking about one or two specific loans, she
asked how membership in the SACCOS had changed their lives.
The first person Sandy talked to was Anziti Longo, 48, and
married with 6 children and 8 grandchildren.
Anziti has been a member since the SACCOS began. She has taken out several loans. Her last two loans have both been for $300,
which she has used to expand her clothing store. She tells us that over the past few years she
has earned enough profit from her loans to build a new home, put in solar
power, buy a motorcycle, and send all of her children to school. She is now starting to build a new, larger
house. She plans to rent out her old home, and her new home will have a room to
rent as well. . She tells us over and over that the SACCOS
has changed her life, but we think that she changed her life – all the
SACCOS did was give her a loan.
Next Sandy talked with Elias Mgeyekwa, 46 and married with 5
children. Elias has also been a member
of this SACCOS since it started. He and
his wife, who is also a member, have taken out a number of loans. Two years ago they took out a loan of $400 to
plant potatoes. After paying all of
their expenses they earned a profit of $400.
They used their profit and combined it with another $400 loan to buy
land and plant 20 acres of trees. When
the trees are ready to harvest in 7 or more years they will be worth $2,200 per
acre. To do all of the planting he hired
three men full time. Now that the trees
are in the ground he is using his employees to go into the lumber business. He has applied for another $400 loan to
finance the purchase of trees for this business. He invited us to stop out and see his crew at
work sawing logs into lumber, which we were happy to do. Since joining this
SACCOS Elias has been able to send all of his children through secondary
school, has improved his family’s diet and their overall living standard and
has been able to build a very good home.
When he went out to have his picture taken he told Tom, “Thank you,
thank you, thank you.”
The two people that we interviewed not only improved their
lives and those of their children, but between the two of them they have
created five full-time, well-paying jobs.
If you include their five employees, these two members have improved the
lives of seven families. And best of
all, Iringa Hope still has the money it started with (plus a profit) for the
SACCOS members to use over and over again.
The SACCOS office here is so small that when Tom and Peter
met with the SACCOS officers to go over their records, Sandy had to go and sit
in the pastor’s living room. To pass the
time she asked for help learning the Hehe tune that the Mwatasi folks sang for
us. Pastor Fyataga and his wife are both
Hehe and were happy to oblige. After lunch and before our departure he
gathered the SACCOS members together for a Hehe song and dance. A great way to end our meeting!
Along the way home we stopped and looked at Elias’ lumber
mill. It is similar to the mill Christiania
Church bought for the diocese in 2002.
It consists of a large saw blade and bed attached to a diesel
motor. We were afraid of what this blade
might do to one of them if they were to slip, but there is no OSHA in Tanzania
and people do this sort of thing all of the time. We watched him and his men for a while and
then headed back to Iringa.
On the drive to Ugesa we pass through many small villages.
You don't often see two cows yoked to a wooden plow anymore - but you do here.
A basic road hazard here is the cows. Wherever you find cows you also find small children with switches.
There were lots of members waiting to greet us.
During chai Tom brought out some calendars. They are always a big hit here.
Over half of the members were here.
The first person Sandy talked to was Anziti Longo, 48, and married with 6 children and 8 grandchildren.
Next Sandy talked with Elias Mgeyekwa, 46 and married with 5 children. Elias has also been a member of this SACCOS since it started.
Sandy asked the pastor to help her learn a song. He did one better. He went outside to where our members were still sitting and started singing. Soon they all joined in and there was singing and dancing.
We stopped to see Elias's sawmill. OSHA would not like this at all!
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