Together Everyone Achieves More

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We had another tailoring class today, this time we focused on hand sewing. They learned several different stitches that they will use when finishing projects. We also had our first customer! A man was walking by and saw what we were doing and came back with a pair of pants that needed a new zipper. Madam Abby is the most experienced in their group so she quickly did the project. The women were excited to see how quickly we had customers interested. They are talking about putting a stand outfit of our classroom to show off finish products, once they have some.



In the afternoon I met with the older group of women. During this class we focused on different places they can save their money: piggy bank, mobile money, bank account, or savings groups. Then we went over loan options: family and friends, mobile money, bank, or savings groups. Banking is not an option for most people here so we did not spent much time on that. Mobile money is an option they can use instead of a bank account. They can save money on their phone and pull out cash from a kiosks as needed. But, most do not use it for savings as it is too tempting to use that money on other things. They can also borrow money from mobile money, but it works similar to a credit card where the increase will keep compounding if they don’t pay it back on time. I did my best to explain compounding interest to the women so they understood the risk of taking out a loan on the mobile money.



Savings groups are very common with women here. They have a constitution that outlines how the group is run and if it is done properly it works quite well for the women. The members agree that they cannot take out money they have put in until the end of the year. The group will also make loans, primarily within the group and charge interest. This is an opportunity for the women to make money from their savings. On average they will loan $10,000 shillings ($3 USD) for a month. If it is paid back on time (from a member of the group) there is no interest. If they are a month late it is $11,000, two months late it is $12,000 and so on.



In the evening I took a nice walk since it was overcast. We had dinner at home and talked more about some of the other groups we plan to visit. One family in particular really showed how resilient children can be. There are 6 children, 3 of which contracted HIV at birth. When the oldest child was 8 years old both parents had died from HIV. After that, the children lived alone and cared for each other. The ‘older’ children did any work they could find to try to have the younger children go to school with the assistance of several organizations. The village knew about the children and would help with food or clothing when they could. RWO was told time and time again how kind and honest the children are. They might come to a neighbor's home for food or help with something, but would never dream of stealing what they need. The oldest is now almost 20 years old. She has a job and is getting married. The youngest is a teenager and is in school, getting treatment for his HIV and is still living with the siblings. It has not been easy, but their desire to survive and care for each other is an inspiration.

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