We have been hard at work preparing for tomorrow’s final loan repayments for 3 groups and for new loan distributions!!  Karon and I can hardly wait to reunite with our borrowers of Lwaboba, Kimwanga, and Tororo.  It will be a very busy day, but one filled with love and gratitude!!  And how appropriate that it will be Valentine’s Day!!  I wish you all a very wonderful day of love and happiness.  I am so grateful for the support of my family and friends, and for all of the wonderful Greater Contribution supporters and donors who help to change the lives of many women 1/2 way around the world.  Thank you!!

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After 12 days of wonderful work here on the ground in Uganda, Karon and I decided to take a day off!  We went to Siipi Falls which is northeast of Mbale. Siipi Falls has 3 falls and I was able to see all 3. One from the vantage point of across the cliffs and the other two I hiked to along with William (our driver and dear friend) and our guide Martin.  Karon went with us to see the first fall and then stayed back at the Siipi Lodge to enjoy the amazing beautiful gardens and the gracious cool weather we found up atop Mt Elgon. It was a nice break for us and a very relaxing day, although the hiking in the hot sun was somewhat of a challenge for me. The falls were powerful, the sound of the crashing water and gurgling river was music to my ears. It was green and lush, cool in the shade, and the water was refreshing.

 

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This morning I was working in our loan office with our loan administrator when a borrower came in. Sharifa is a mother of two and a tailor – we would call her a seamstress. She loves her work but prior to getting a microloan last January her business was poor as she could only afford fabric and materials to make one school uniform at a time. We were thrilled when, one month after receiving her loan she was able to obtain a contract for an entire school. She is now finishing her second loan and came by to share the good news that she now has contracts with three schools and in order to keep up with the work is hiring local, village women to help her! Wow! This is microfinance at its best!

 

She reports that her children are now in very good schools and everyone in her family is eating well. She says she is happier now because she is providing well for her family and now dreams of building her own permanent house!

These moments are the reason we all do this work.   It really made my heart sing!

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The financial stress of meeting these school fees not only affect the family’s budget, but also the day-to-day businesses in every sector of the marketplace.  As families struggle to meet the cost of school fees they are forced to cut back on their purchases of food and other necessities.   The local markets and shops are void of buyers and revenues drop dramatically.  Businesses will now suffer for an entire month as families recuperate from the added burden of the school fee payments.  The Ugandan school session is just beginning now and as we visited our borrowers in Gulu, borrower after borrower shared the same report: “business is fair, times are hard during school registration.”  If fees cannot be met the children are sent home and not allowed to attend.

One of the many benefits of The Greater Contribution’s Micro Loan program is the training we provide. The trainings concentrate on the importance of savings and record keeping. We promote and encourage savings at every repayment meeting so that the women can better plan for their future and expenses. TGC’s goal is to teach our borrowers to manage their profits thereby allowing them to be able to pay their school fees while they continue to afford nutrition for their families. For many of our women the act of savings is new, and we have heard repeatedly from them how thankful they are for this new skill set!

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While all this is going, many, many people are working away behind the scenes, here in Uganda and at home in the U.S. to help make all this happen. I am very fortunate to have my colleague and fellow board member, Carolyn Corwin, with me on this trip. As you’ve read in her blog posts, she is a very compassionate, giving person. She is a great example of someone who gives her time, her talents and her money to serve a cause dedicated to helping others. And she does all of this leaving at home, a husband, two children, a very business she runs with her husband and like all TGC board members and volunteers, pays for the trips out of her own pocket!

While here, she works with our staff here to solve technology problems, bringing an expertise that I don’t have and that is desperately needed. She also keeps my technology running enabling me to blog, do email, make phone calls and more! This allows me to work on some broader issues like how to better use our strategy to move the needle of poverty for our lady borrowers. It gives me the time and energy to effectively meet and plan with our Ugandan partners. Her gifts to this program and the women of Uganda are immeasurable!

I am blessed to have many such women on The Greater Contribution Board and as volunteers in the organization. They don’t all come to Africa with me, but they work tirelessly behind the scenes, very day, to help change the lives here. Why do people give so unselfishly? Because they get so much in return. To be able to make a transformative change in someone’s life, is a great gift. I know that many of you have given financially to make this work possible. Thank you for being an important part of this work and I hope you’re enjoying the gift of being able to change lives!

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While installing printer software on a computer in our loan office, Carolyn noticed a small leak of printer ink coming from the bottom of the printer which quickly became a very large leak.  This in turn lead to a discussion about how our Loan Administrator can only get about 40 pages of printing from one ink cartridge!! Which lead to a discussion of the cost of ink and new vs. re-filled and other mundane details that I really don’t want to deal with but that have to be solved in a country where the simplest of tasks or problems can be unbelievably time consuming.  Annette, our Loan Administrator, is an incredibly dedicated woman who works very hard and deserves to have all the tools she needs to do a very taxing job — and tools that function well! So while trying to change the lives of poor women,   we deal with many of the same issues any office does!

Nonetheless, we were happy that were able to finish our first round of work with Annette, introducing her to the use of a cloud based file sharing system which will make our work with her more efficient and easier for all. We are proud that,  in a remote village in Uganda, which a year ago didn’t have internet access of any kind before we opened our loan office there, will now be using some petty modern technology even while struggling with basics like printer ink!

At noon, we headed off to Gulu, a small city in Northern Uganda, to visit one of our microloan partners.  This six hour trip was largely on a red dirt road with dust and dirt flying everywhere.  We were very grateful to be in an air conditioned car (not always a given in Uganda) with all windows closed against the dust and heat.  We are also very grateful to our driver and friend, William, who drives safely and carefully on very rugged and dangerous roads.

Tonight, we go to bed exhausted as we do most nights.

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