You are not adequately prepared for the arrival to Uganda.  The vibrancy and intensity of color, sound and the scent of exotic spices cannot be taken in so easily.  Sunrises and sunsets are powerful and passionate, much like the women we met along the rutted roads into remote villages.  The land itself is lush with crops of maize, rice and papyrus bending in the wind.  The bustling market places are full with produce and housewares.  Winston Churchill called Uganda the “Pearl of Africa”; it is easy now to see this description as completely accurate.

Travelling half way around the world to discover the comfort of being with others unlike yourself but with the mutual humanity of caring for families- different in culture but sharing the same goals and aspirations of any woman anywhere in the world.

The integration of The Greater Contribution (TGC) US and Ugandan teams appears seamless.  In giving to the kindness of strangers, with hearts full of love and compassion- The Ugandan staff is sensitive, caring and diligent in their work to see that the women we serve are treated with dignity and respect.   The Healthy Periods Initiative (HPI), in partnership with Volunteer Action Network, provides girls with affordable menstrual hygiene products.  This in turn, empowers them to go to school all year round and gives them a better, secure and dignified future. Observing the faces of gratitude and the smiles of living a full life despite the barriers before them is truly astonishing.  We attended a primary school to distribute packages of these products and the girls were delighted to receive them.

With literacy and business classes and the continuation of micro loans, along with the HPI (Healthy Period Initiative) program for young girls, TGC is making a meaningful and long term impact.  Only by being in-country can one truly see the significance of improving another woman’s life.

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Hello Dear Supporters,

I’m just back from my 12^th trip to Uganda to oversee our program there and visit with the amazing women we serve.  The two major reasons for my trip were to speak at the graduation of 150 women from our two-year literacy program and to provide new micro loans to 250 women, bringing our total of active loans to 830!  Both very exciting events and I want to share some of those experiences with you.

The Graduation

I wish that you all could be with me on these trips to see all that your support provides.  The unbridled joy and gratitude of the women at this graduation was really remarkable and so touching.  They demonstrated why we all do this work.   At the graduation event, the women first greeted us with a banner announcing to their pride in their accomplishments and quite an accomplishment it is. These hardworking women work from sunrise to sunset to feed their families, run a small business (started with a TGC microloan), take care of their children and run their households and yet who found time to attend classes twice a week for two years!  Their joy and pride were further expressed as they came forward to receive their certificates of completion, hugging us and in some cases nearly knocking us over!  In a few cases, the women knelt to honor us and show their appreciation!  During all this, children in the audience witnessed their mother’s success, setting an example for them of the importance of education.

Loan Distribution Day

This is always a highlight of any trip I make to Uganda. On this trip we provided micro loans to 250 women!  By the time, this day comes along, the women borrowers have been selected by their peers to join to a loan group, they have been approved by village leaders as responsible citizens, they have attended three days of business skills training, they have been assisted in developing a business plan, enrolled in literacy classes and now they are eagerly awaiting the moment when they receive their loans; a loan that represents a dream come true, a loan that represents their only hope of getting out of poverty.  Their joy is explosive.  Here are some images from that day.

I hope you’ve enjoyed seeing a little of the joy and life renewal that your support brings.  In a world where 20,000 people a day (most of them children under the age of 5) die of preventable causes of poverty, these loans are life changing: giving hope, dignity and a chance for a longer life and a vastly better life with more meals, medical care, schooling for children and more!  Bless you for all you’re doing and for being a part of The Greater Contribution family.

Sincerely, Karon Wright

President, The Greater Contribution

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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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Dear Friends,

I feel guilty for having done such a poor job keeping in touch with you on this blog during this trip.  The internet signal seems to be weaker and weaker each trip making it almost impossible to get to my blog to write you coupled with  my exhaustion at the end of each day!  But enough whining.  Here are some photos to give you a look at what I’ve been up to… I hope you enjoy them.

My sincere thanks to Page Patten who was with me for most of the trip and took these wonderful pictures.

Karon, Page and the TGC goat presented to us by the women we supported in the VacNet literacy program!

We were honored to receive this goat, a very expensive gift, from the women of the literacy program in a small village outside of Gulu, in the northern part of Uganada.  The woman on the right is the local volunteer peer counselor.  She is now running for Councilwoman in the local district.  She credits her experience leading the women of the village in the micro loan program (headed by our partner Vac Net with support by TGC)  with her personal growth and courage to run for office!  Micro loans provide not only economic growth, but personal growth as well!

Every trip I take to UG, I take printed cards to encourage the women borrowers. Here is this years.

The chalk board where some of the women demonstrated that they could now write their names and more after taking the literacy classes TGC provided!

A brave member of the literacy class, standing, reading a story to demonstrate her newly learned reading skills. TGC hopes to bring this program to other villages. A woman who can’t read or write can’t progress as a businesswoman and can’t progress out of poverty!

Good bye for now.  More stories to share when I return on Sunday.  Thank you for your interest in TGC and the poor but amazing women who are working their way to a better life with your help. 

Karon

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Although I’m back in Uganda for the 8^th time, I’m still stunned by the depth of the poverty but also encouraged and delighted by the tenacity and hard work of our borrowers.

Spent the last two days attending the final repayment days of four of our groups and was touched by the gratitude of our borrowers and thrilled to hear the stories of how their lives have improved. One woman told me how she’s been saving for the two years she’s been in our program and that she has now bought land for a future home. “Me, I bought land” she reported with a sense of pride and amazement that reflected how impossible it seemed that she could ever accomplish such a feat just a short time ago. Most of the women are reporting much more humble accomplishments. I frequently hear, “I’m feeding my children well now”, “I can afford to send all my children to school now” or “I bought two chairs for my house.” Progress!

In addition to the material success that the women are experiencing, they are also growing as people. Juliet, one of our loan coordinators stood up at a group meeting and discussed the accomplishments of the group over the past year. She was articulate, confident and a great contrast to the Juliet I met a year ago when I asked her to assume the role of loan coordinator; the Juliet who then could barely look me in the eye and spoke with barely audible, hesitant voice. The Juliet I saw yesterday was a changed woman!

Over the past few days I’ve had the pleasure of getting to know and work with Maureen Businge, our new Program Director.   Maureen is a bright, energetic, delightful young woman with a degree in Micro Finance, experience in another micro finance institution and most importantly, a passion for helping others! She’s hard working and has jumped in with both feet, already making a contribution.   We are very blessed to have her in the organization. She is going to lead our growth in the next few years and allow us to help many more women.

Below, Maureen and I in our garden classroom at our hotel.

Loan repayment day in Lwaboba with Maureen on the far right, already assisting with loans repayments.

Today, we visited borrowers in their market place in the village of Kimwanga. It’s a large regional market that is open every Tuesday and attracts business people from all over the area. Many of our borrowers live in the area and sell at this market and then go to other regional markets on other days of the week reaching a broader customer base by moving to other geographical areas.

Here are some of the borrowers at their places of business:

Here is Mary Nambozo, one of our Loan Coordinators with her husband, Geoffrey in their shop. 

With their most recent loan they were able to by a small refrigerator for the business enabling them to sell cold drinks and attract more customers in hot Uganda. Her husband, son and daughter help her in her business as is common with our borrowers. The wife’s business quickly becomes a family business!

This is Anna Maboli selling a form of dough nut popular as a breakfast food. She also raises and sells goats like the one in the bottom right of the picture. This was a terribly hot day and she, like dozens of other women, was cooking over a wood burning camp fire. The heat combined with the smoke made for a pretty tough working environment and yet they all, like Anna, smile and keep working.

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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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