Moving Through Mobilization

The past couple weeks of my project has focused on mobilizing the community of Bugembe to do ONE thing - attend a free training on savings skills. You even get free food out of it! What a deal.

Unfortunately, mobilizing has been harder than I thought. Despite trekking all around the community for over a week spreading the word about the training to groups, schools, and churches, we only received an attendance of 50 on Saturday. Out of a target group of 300. Did I mention that they all arrived 2 hours after the training was scheduled to start?

Fortunately, even though it was a small number, the training was successful and I feel the attendees earned a lot. Hopefully it will translate into a larger number of people attending the second training and signing up for lockboxes!

Part of this problem can be attributed to African time (aka the attendees showing up 2 hours late), and so it's something pretty much out of my control. The attendance is the frustrating part! It shows how essential proper mobilization strategies are in a community where formal advertising doesn't take place and is expensive. Word of mouth is the most powerful form of stimulating people - and it takes time and energy. It takes talking to the right people, talking to a LOT of people, and visiting groups. It also takes knowing that you don't have the easiest product to sell - can you see how difficult it would be to convince people to come to a savings training when they have a deep-seated mistrust of banks?

But the most rewarding part of that aspect of my project is making impact in the community by changing misconceptions and establishing appropriate savings skills! The project isn't just about increasing working capital for the SACCO: it's establishing new culture.

Wait - I Actually Have to Work Too?

Amid the excitement of being in a foreign country, have no fear: implementing my project for the SACCO is underway!

All the interns in our program have to create a workplan to address a problem in their organization and community. When I first got to my SACCO, I began my needs assessment/asset mapping of the organization, during which I would identify the problem that my work plan would address.

What I found is that my SACCO can't make loans sometimes because it has very little working capital; and the members have very little savings culture. They not only distrust the SACCO, but they also think that a person has to be rich to save effectively. Lack of working capital is really harming the SACCO, and forcing them to take out a loan from another lending organization to stay afloat. Most of the time, the loan repayment to that organization exceeds their operational costs - and my "little bank" hasn't made a profit the entire year.

My work plan is hopefully going to kill two birds with one stone: giving the SACCO more working capital and building savings culture for the members. We are going to make simple wooden boxes with padlocks and slits in the top. These boxes will be distributed to a pilot group of members, groups, and schools. Members will deposit their savings in the boxes, and at the end of every week, the loan officer will come with a key to the households and collect the savings. Before members can get the boxes, we will have two training sessions to educate the participants on savings importance and other financial literacy skills. If the pilot program takes off, the SACCO should have savings deposits of at least USH 6 million at the end of the month.

There are definitely some kinks in the program that we need to work out - mainly being the costs of the boxes. We need 325 boxes; my supervisor and FSD supervisor feel that any number lower won't be profitable. We can't have the members buy their own boxes; since this is a pilot program, the members won't be willing to pay to try it out. Another kink is simply the poor savings culture here in Uganda. People simply won't trust that their money is safe with our organization.

Finally, it's definitely been an experience working in an African office. We have to contact the 300 individuals, 10 schools, and 5 organizations before next Saturday when we have our training. Trying to get my SACCO mobilized has been like pulling teeth; but my hopes are high that we'll develop a sense of urgency soon!

Sorry for the business-y blog post: more fun later on!

Do you want Matoke, Posho, or Rice with your Chicken?

Or perhaps all three? During our week in Uganda, Laura and I have gotten introduced to traditional Ugandan food. In summary: carbs, carbs, carbs!

I always find that one of the best ways to experience another culture and become immersed in it is to try and take risks with the traditional food. Food is such a definer of an individual culture – it reflects the climate, geography, resources, values, even the religion of a community.

In Uganda, meals consist of a starchy, carbohydrate base – either rice, matoke (mashed and boiled plantains), posho (fluffy, tasteless rice extract), cassava, Irish potatoes, or sweet potatoes. Then added on is protein – which is either beans or meat. And of course there is no lack in abundance of fruit. I have had freshly picked pineapple, avocado, mango, and even passion fruit.

In my town, Bugembe, there’s only one Internet café so I haven’t had time to post very frequently. I have moved in with my host family, and started my job at Nakanyonyi Good Shepherd Savings and Credit Cooperative (SACCO). The SACCO is a small credit and savings cooperative that gives small loans and savings services to its members.

I start my day around 7:30, and by that time all my family members have left for work or school, except the babysitter Agnes and Precious, the two year old baby.

After a breakfast of pineapple and bread, I walk fifteen minutes down the road into Bugembe town to my work. People greet me along the way with calls of "Muzungu!" Muzungu has been a familiar sound to me - it means a white person.

I work in my tiny SACCO until 5:00. Right now, I am in the middle of defining my project. As it stands, I will be working on a savings mobilization project for the organization. After work, I walk back home, and relax with my host sisters in front of the television. Since I have muzungu hair, the main activity in the evening has been braiding it. I feel so pampered!

This weekend, I'm going to Kampala (the capital) overnight to see the Uganda soccer team take on Guinea-Bissau for a chance to qualify for the African Cup!

Siri Bulungi!

Four Days To Go!

Between getting all the papers I need, stockpiling the necessities such as medicine, and buying appropriate clothes, the fact that I would be leaving for the other side of the world in four days has snuck up on me.

My name is Mallory, and I will be a junior at the Kelley School of Business. I can't believe it was just three months ago that I received my offer from the Kelley Institute for Social Impact (KISI) to intern with the Foundation for Sustainable Development. Along with Laura, I will be in Jinja, Uganda - the second largest town in the country and gorgeously situated at the source of the Nile river on Lake Victoria.

I'll be working at a microfinance institution called Nakanyoni Good Shepherd Cooperative Saving and Credit Society, which lends small amounts of money to people in the community and provides training and support for them to start their own businesses. This amazing organization also provides child support, HIV/AIDS counseling to their members, and savings services to their clients. Nakanyoni's small loans and business training will create business in the local community, and alleviate poverty by generating income for the family and employing community members. As an International Business major, I'm especially excited for this opportunity to gain business experience working in Africa.

Since school has been out, it's been really

interesting to try and make the transition to living in Africa. All of my clothes have to be below the knee, which means lots of trips to Goodwill to find appropriate dresses for work. Before we left IU for the summer, Laura and I also bought fashionable headbands, since weather is hot and humid. A fair trade find too - very appropriate! (Mallory, left. Laura, right.)

As we get closer to leaving for Africa, I wanted to thank KISI for the opportunity to go overseas, and the Trockman Microfinance Initiative for providing me with a travel grant to help with my internship expenses.

The next blog post will be from Uganda!