This is my last night in Uganda but the journey does not end here.  The work will continue.  The Greater Contribution and I are committed to continuing this work.   The incredibly grateful women who tell me the stories of how their lives have been changed by the loan program and the literacy classes re-energize me and send me back home with more determination than ever to keep this program going.   These visits always remind me of why I do this work.

I spent the last two days with our Program Director, Toffister Aloyo. Toffister and I took a lot of time to look at various aspects of the program and to reflect carefully on ways to improve our work.  Now I will go home and work to improve our work in the U.S. including the never ending process of raising money!

So as I type this last post, I’ll leave you with some favorite pictures from this visit.

I spent some time doing some individual interviews with some of the borrowers.  They are truly astounding women.  With just a little help they make big changes very quickly.  They are determined to better their lives and the lives of their children and they get moving doing just that!

Ladies come, gathered in their loan groups, to make their loan payments.  They are proud that they’re able to take these loans, to put the money to work in a business and repay the loans in full.  This is very empowering for women who’ve been told they’re only good to be “kitchen women” and to have babies!   They are rightfully proud!

It is remarkable how much a little loan of $50 can do!  I am still in awe of the power of the human spirit to rise above incredible adversity with just a little “boost”, as my Uganda friends would say!  So please give a “boost” to another woman who desperately wants a better life.  When you do your end of the year giving, think of these women and give them the gift of a future!

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My stress was building as we had a group of 120 borrowers waiting for us, women who, in many cases, had walked through mud for miles to attend the meeting! I hated keeping them waiting and away from their businesses and badly needed sales.  Glad to be underway again, we took the alternate route, optimistic that we’d be at our destination soon, only to have our trip again come to a halt.  Before us on the road was a giant gully.   The road had been completed washed away and in front of us was a gully of about 75 feet wide and about 30 feet deep!  Here are our two drivers, William and Emmy on the edge of the precipice!

Okay, we turned around again, hoping that the truck had been removed from the original route.  The truck had been moved to the side of the road!   The prisoners had off loaded all the materials from the very large truck, pushed it out of the mud and cleared the way!  We continued along the original road eventually reached our destination, only 3 hours late!!

Obviously this was difficult for us despite the rugged four wheel drive vehicle in which we traveled and other modern resources at our disposal.  But the average borrower in our groups has no such luxuries.  They are traveling maybe on a bicycle, maybe in a crowded public bus or more likely on foot and encounter this type of situation and  they too have to find some way to get to their destination.

What’s the lesson?   Uganda is a country that teaches flexibility and determination.  Our borrowers are often faced with this type of challenge:  Roads are blocked, roads wash out, electricity is non existent, a heavy rainy season may destroy crops and months of income.   To work their way out of poverty, they must be flexible, creative in their solutions and remain determined to rise above their circumstances.  I see these qualities every day in Uganda.

I continue to be impressed with the strength and determination of these lovely, kind, friendly people.

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to collect the money and record all the appropriate data.  Our borrowers work very hard to make their repayments.   Currently we have a 97.2% repayment rate! The borrowers give us the most gracious welcome at each loan center.  The Nwoyo Center yesterday greeted us with a song, “welcome TGC,  thank you for all you have done for us” and more!   It brought tears to my eyes.  At each center, I address the groups and encourage them to keep working hard. 

The success of this program is not just the loans we give but the strength of these women to work hard to develop their businesses and be able to repay the loans and our goal is not just for them to repay the loans but for them to be successful and truly pull themselves out of poverty.   We hear truly amazing stories of how they take care of large families, get the children fed and to school, take care of a husband and run a business in an area with no running water, no electricity, no sewage system and dirt muddy roads they must travel by foot to go anywhere!   It’s a tough life and yet they rise to the occasion and do all they can to use the opportunity the loan gives them to improve their lives and the lives of their children.  They are very determined to better themselves.

One of the greatest joys during this trip was watching some of our borrower’s who are also in literacy classes, demonstrate their new knowledge by writing their names and reading them aloud!  Adult women who have had no opportunity to learn are shut out of society in so many ways and theses classes truly change their world!

They are excited to now help their younger children with their homework, read simple signs along the roadway and write notes to their husband when they leave the house!   Simple tasks that we take for granted, up-lifting and empowering them.

Occasionally, we meet the husbands of our borrowers who tell us how much their wives new business means to the family.  They will sheepishly confess that initially they were suspicious of the program having seen other loan program which were not supportive of borrowers who were late or missed a  payment.  They witnessed lenders going to borrowers homes and seizing their possessions in lieu of the payment.  They praise our program for our work to support them to solve the problems preventing them from repaying.

This morning I’ve off to another loan center where we’ll conduct refresher training with some borrowers and some leaders.

Sincere thanks to Jim Carey who shot these wonderful photos and is also shooting video for us.  More about that tomorrow.

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Our Project Manager did a great job, giving my fellow travelers a summary of the fine points of the program. Elaine Himelfarb, Board Member seen in the photo above taking notes, was new to Uganda and so it was especially valuable for her to learn about the program in greater detail and to meet the very dedicated women involved in the day to day running of the program.

In the afternoon, we visited The Gulu Main Market, a very large, three story concrete structure which houses dozens of small stalls for independent business women and men including some of our borrowers. It was great to see some of the borrowers and learning about their particular businesses.

They were all so grateful for the help from The Greater Contribution and were proud to tell me how much the loans meant to them and their families. We heard many reports of women able to send their children  to school for the first time, families able to eat more nutritious meals and great pride in their accomplishments. These are the reasons we all do this work!!

Tomorrow we head out to some of the remote villages where we have loan groups!  It will entail a long drive, over very rugged road followed by energized, touching meetings with a lot of borrowers!   Can’t wait!

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Tomorrow I leave on my tenth trip to Uganda. I have dubbed these trips the “Gratitude Journeys”. On each trip, over and over again, I see and experience so much to be grateful for. I am grateful for good work to do, for all the wonderful supporters who make this work possible, for the love and gratitude I receive from our borrowers. I’m especially grateful to experience the amazing resilence of the human spirit in the face of so much adversity. The ladies we loan to work so very hard to transform their lives and the lives of their children against incredible odds. Many life lessons there!

I’m delighted to be traveling with Elaine Himelfarb, a Board member and her 17 year old daughter, Maria. We will also be accompanied by Jim Carey, renowned documentary film maker who will be creating a video story of our program!

I’ll be sharing my observations and reflections, posting as often as the sporadic internet signal in Uganda allows. I’ll be in airports and in the air the next two days, arriving and able to blog again on the 8th. Stay tuned!

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