Things Are Moving Along...

Hello!

Here's the latest on what's been happening at the JUAf Village over the last several weeks.

Our JUAf Village Dog - Lily
We decided that life on the farm would be a perfect life for a dog. So, Asha and I went on the lookout for a village puppy. We found our puppy rather quickly. Over the period of a couple of days, I heard a puppy barking non-stop outside my window in town. I tracked down the barking sounds, and found a puppy trapped inside a metal box with the lid closed. She was being kept inside the metal box from her owner since he didn't have anywhere else to keep her. The owner was a little 10 year old boy from our neighborhood named Benson. He wanted the best for the puppy, but he didn't have anywhere to keep her. Asha and I asked Benson if we could adopt the puppy, and take her to our farm in the village. Benson agreed that life in a metal box wasn't the best life for a puppy, so he gave her to us. We asked Benson to name the puppy for us, and he decided to name the puppy Lily. Alas, we now have a JUAf Village dog named Lily. Life is good for Lily at the village!


Introduction of Village Banking
We introduced a second form of microfinancing called Village Banking to JUAf. To give you a bit of background on Village Banking....a Village Banking group is a support group of 30 members who meet weekly to provide themselves with three essential services 1) small self-employment loans to start or expand their own businesses; 2) an incentive to save, and a means of accumulating savings and 3) a community-based system that provides mutual support and encourages personal empowerment. Members of the Village Banking groups guarantee each other's loans and run a democratic organization. Members elect their own leaders, design their own rules, keep the books, manage the funds, and are fully responsible for loan supervision, including enforcing penalties for non-compliance.

Village Banking is being introduced to the rural areas by the Tanzanian government. We invited two members of the government training team to come out to our village, and educate the women on the model of village banking. The women of the village will be trained on the village banking model once a week for 12 weeks.

Village Banking is primarily introduced in remote villages where access to a traditional bank is non existent. The actual 'bank' is a metal chest with three locks on it. The chest (rural bank) remains at the house of a member between meetings, however, that particular member cannot possess a key to any of the three locks. Each individual key to the three locks must remain with three separate members in the group. These members cannot be from the same family, and cannot be close friends. This method provides of safeguard from the money being stolen.

The members of the Village Banking group meet once a week, and purchase shares. One share is approxinately $.75 cents, and each member can purchase up to three shares a week ($1.50) . Members of the group continue to purchase shares weekly, and all deposits are documented by the elected leaders. Each contributing member is then approved to take out a loan up to 3 times the shares that he/she purchased. The member has three months to pay back the loan plus 10% interest.

At the end of the year, the shares purchased by each member is returned to the contributing member, and the 10% interest is divided up amongst the group. Again, this is a method of providing loans to individuals to start small businesses, and it provides a method of forced savings with interest. It has been a very successful model in rural villages throughout Tanzania and Kenya. We are happy to offer it to the women (and men) of JUAf.


Microfinancing
I mentioned in my earlier posts that we provided microfinancing loans to 15 women of JUAf. We told that women that we would followup with their business in one months time. Hence, recently we spent a couple of days visiting their homes, and businesses. We conducted a preliminary review of their business model , and provided consulting feedback. Here's a short summary of a few of the women.

Juliet
Juliet was provided a loan of $75 to start a business of vegetable farming. Juliet's father-n-law gave one acre of land to Juliet and her husband. However, they were unable to cultivate the land, and grow crops due to lack of funds. She used our loan to purchase pesticide, seeds, manure and water. She decided to harvest eggplant. Juliet expects to harvest 10 large bags of eggplant a week, and sell at local markets. She expects to earn a profit of $38 a week. A harvest last 12 weeks, so her profit per harvest will be $456. She expects 2-3 harvests a year. Juliet will be able to profit $912-1368 per year for her family. She expects to pay back the loan within the month. Juliet hopes to use the profit towards building a brick house, and buying windows and doors.



Helen
Helen was provided a loan of $75 to start her vegetable business. Helen does not own land, so she decided to rent one acre of land from a local farmer for $35 a year. She has chosen to harvest Okra . She used the remaining funds to purchase manure, pesticide, seeds and water. Helen expects to harvest 10 buckets of Okra a week, and sell all 10 buckets at local markets for $35. She expects to harvest Okra for 12 weeks, and earn $420. Helen can expect 2-3 harvests a year. She will earn approximately $840-$1260 per year. She plans to pay back her loan within one month. Helen's husband is blind, and she is raising their daughter. She is the main income earner of the house. Her husband built their house when he had vision, but the house has remained unfinished for six years. Helen hopes to use the profit towards finishing her brick house, and buying windows and doors.



TiaSimbora
TiaSimbora was provided a loan of $75 to raise sheep. She purchased three young sheep for $20 each. She used the remaining amount of the loan to buy deworming medicine for the sheep. She expects to sell each sheep for $60 in three months time. TiaSimbora can expect a profit of $40 per sheep in three months. She will continue to buy three sheep once a quarter. In one year, TiaSimbora can profit $480 on her sheep business, and will be able to repay back the loan within a couple of months. The sheep business isn't as profitable as vegetable farming, and we have consulted the local women who have chosen to raise sheep that vegetable farming will certainly provide a higher income for the family. TiaSimora hopes to use the profit towards moving out of her mud hut, and having a brick house built.



Uenike
Uenike was provided a loan of $75 to raise sheep, but she decided to use the loan to make her own local beer . She used the entire loan to buy 200 kilos of maize, and prepares the brew in her backyard mud hut. She sells the beer to the local villagers. Uenike profits $55 per month. Her annual profit is $650 year. Uenike has quite the business going in her backyard. We spent the morning at Uenike's place watching her make the local brew, and had the privilege of tasting it (tasted like oatmeal with alcohol). Many locals hang out in her backyard for the day, enjoying the afternoon sun, and drinking her local brew.



Grandma Christina
Christina was provided a loan of $75 to start a vegetable farming business. Christina is widowed and her husband left her with six acres of land. She has never been able to cultivate the land for crops due to lack of funds. She used our loan to purchase pesticide, manure, seeds, and water. She also rented some cows to plow the land for planting. Christina decided to cultivate one acre of her land, and raise bitter tomatoes and eggplants. She expects to harvest 32 bags a months which will generate $150 a month per harvest. A harvest will last four months, and she expects 2-3 harvests per year. If all goes well, Christina expects to earn $1200 -$1800 a year. Christina hopes to use the money to finish her brick house, and buy some furniture.



We plan to visit all 15 women regularly, and provide business consulting skills in order to enhance their businesses even further. Once the Community Center is complete, we plan to conduct our business classes at the center every week. We look forward to providing our second round of microfinance loans to an additional 15 women in September.


Community Center
We've been building our community center for the last four weeks using local materials, and local labor. We hired a villager to make all the bricks for the center which provides him a good income, and minimizes our transportation costs to bring the bricks to our property. The process of making local bricks is an interesting one. Dirt is mixed with ash and water to form a mud paste. The mud is then poured into a mold, and set to dry for a couple of days. It is then placed into an outdoor oven for burning. The burnt bricks are then set aside for a day or two for cooling. We are told that the local bricks can last up to 100 years. So, we hope our community center will be around for a while.

We recently purchased the doors and windows for the center, and the roof should be up within the next week or two. We expect the have the entire center finished within the next three weeks. We will plaster the outside of the bricks to give the community center a finished look.

We plan to use the community center for many purposes to support the village. Initially, we plan to use the center as a central meeting place to conduct small business classes and training. The women of the village will need continuing education on business entrepreneurship. Additionally, the center will also be used as a Nursery School (preschool) three days a week until we are able to build our own nusery school someday. Currently, there isn't a nursery school within walking distance of the village. We have approximately 35 children in the area. One of our goals over the next five years is to build a nursery school for the village children.


Water
Tanzania is experiencing a severe drought this year. The rainy season is between May - August, and the area has received little to no rainfall this year. Hence, all crops are dying, and locals are unable to earn money or feed their families. We rely on our crops to not only feed the local villagers, but also as a source of income to fund the various projects for the JUAf Village. Therefore, we will need to invest in our water and irrigation system next year to be certain our crops succeed. We plan to hire a consultant to review the land, install irrigation systems, build additonal water wells, and water catchment systems in 2010.

Asha and I feel that it's been a productive last few months, and we've accomplished a great deal in a short time. I'll be heading back home soon, and plan to be back at the JUAf Village in the near future. I'm thankful that Asha and her team live in Tanzania, and are able to continue their great work managing the various projects for the women of Kikwe, and JUAf Village.

Thanks for your support!

Judi McAlpine & Asha Mruma

Community Development

Greetings!

It’s been busy here on the project the last few weeks.

Here’s the latest update on the work we’ve been doing.

Microfinancing

We raised enough money to provide microfinancing loans to 30 women in the village, but we have decided to start off the program with providing loans to 15 women. This allows us to manage their progress more closely when in small numbers. If the program is working sufficiently with the first set of 15 women, we will then provide loans to the remaining set of women. Asha and I didn’t want to be responsible for choosing which women should get the initial loans. So, we asked the women in the village to do a democratic vote. They needed to choose the top five individuals that they felt were in most need of an immediate loan. After the women voted, we tallied all the votes, and informed the villagers of the 15 women chosen for the first set of loans.

We then asked all the women in the village to attend our 3-Day Microfinancing Class. We wanted all the women to attend so we wouldn’t have to repeat our class each time we distributed loans. The class was taught by our friend Elipidi. Elipidi is a local Tanzanian who has his Masters in Community Economic Development. Since the women in the village have limited education (primary school) they are not educated on basic business skills. Elipidi taught the women various subjects on business; profit/loss; small business development: capital investments; customers: business costs; expenses, inventory, agriculture development, harvesting, spoilage, distribution channels, competition, livestock development, and pricing. It was the first time that anyone had ever come to the village to educate them.

On the final day of classes, we asked a friend of ours, Efrancscion, a local Tanzanian woman to attend. Efranscion was given a microfinance loan from Asha & I back in 2007. We asked her to share her story with the women of the village on how she was given an opportunity to have a loan, and start a business. We needed a speaker to get the group motivated on the importance of how opportunities, combined with hard work, can lead to success. Efranscioni shared with the group that she was very poor, and had little opportunities. She was given a $20 loan, and was able to start a very humble tomato business. Over the last two years, she has now grown her business into one of the most successful businesses at the local markets. She buys her tomatoes at a very cheap price from the hill tribes in the rural villages. She then transports them to the city where she sells them at a very high markup. With a great deal of hard work, she has been able to grow her tomato business into a very successful enterprise. She is now approved for her fourth loan, which will be $200. Efranscioni has repaid every loan on time. She is a very successful business woman, and very proud of her work, and her accomplishments. Due to her thriving business, she has been able to be independent, and pay her own rent, electricity, water and educate/feed her children. She has also been able to start a second business outside her home where she sells drinks to the community; sodas, water, beer etc.

After all the classes were complete we then asked the 15 chosen women to form watano’s (swahili term for group of five). Each watano had to choose a group name, and the type of business that the group will conduct. Forming watano’s helps create better economies of scale for business. They can share in transportation costs, labor costs, material costs, etc. Forming watanos also creates a security in the loan payback system. Each member of the watano is accountable for paying their individual loans. If one member of the watano defaults, the remaining four members of the group are required to pay for the defaulted loan. This system creates individual, and group accountability to pay their loans.

Below is a snapshot of the names and businesses the women chose for their groups:

Group 1: Amani (kiswahili name for Peace). The Peace Group chose the business of farming vegetables. Each woman was granted a $70 loan. Their plan is to rent one acre of land per person from a local farmer. The women will use their loans to cultivate the land, plant seeds, purchase farming tools, and fertilize the soil. On average, each woman in the group can expect yearly revenues $900-$1200 (assuming a harvest of twice a year). A nice profit made by simply being given the opportunity to have a $70 loan to get started.

Group 2: Neema (kiswahli name for Grace) and Group 3: Maendeleo (kiswahili name for Development) . The Grace Group and the Development Group chose the business of sheep rearing. I mentioned in the previous blog that an infant sheep can be purchased for $20, and be sold three months later for $70 at local market. The women each have the opportunity to buy three sheep totaling $60, and sell them within three months for $210. Each individual in the group should make approximately $840 in the first year from a $70 loan.

Community Center

Plans are moving along for the construction of the village community center. We met with a local builder named Morris who agreed to construct our center. The first week of June, Morris’ and his crew started the construction of the center by preparing the foundation. The center will be made of local materials. The women helped with the gathering of materials for the foundation by collecting stones from the land. We hired the local villagers to make 4000 bricks that will be used to construct the walls of the center. All of the locals who are involved in the construction of the building are paid allowances for their labor. The center will be 35’ x 21’ and be able to accommodate 50 people. It will have an office, indoor toilet, and two outdoor pit toilets. We expect the center to be complete in three to four weeks.

Water

We have a stream that runs through our property, yet it runs through many farms. So, we have been placed on a communal water schedule. All the farms that use the stream must pay $20/year to be a member. Membership allows us to use our own stream once every two weeks for 24 hours. This is done so all farms are not using the stream at the same time, and depleting the water source. Currently, our scheduled day is every other Sunday. This water schedule isn’t going to be sufficient for our crops during the dry season, and we do not want to be dependent on the village water schedule. Therefore, we are building a well on our property so we can have access to water at anytime. The village does not have rights to wells built on private land, but they have rights to the stream. Hence, we hope to build many wells in the future in order to irrigate our crops sufficiently all year around. We’ve hired a local Kikwe man named Swalehe to build the well. The water table in the village is approximately 50-75 feet deep. We are paying Swalehe to dig the well at a salary of $10 a foot. Hard work, but a good salary for a local. We’ve purchased a pump to draw the water out of the well, and we will be investing in pipes to irrigate the land in the future.

Things are moving along…

Thanks again for all your emails, and support! Appreciate it!

Judi McAlpine & Asha Mruma

JUAf - First few weeks of the project

Greetings!

I thought I would create a blog to keep friends, family and donors involved in the work that we are doing in the JUAf Village of Kikwe, Tanzania. Here’s a bit of information about our project.

The JUAf Village was founded together by Asha Mruma, and me. I met Asha, a native Tanzanian and close friend, in 2006-2007 when I was living in East Africa for 16 months working for various non-profits. After spending many months talking about life in Tanzania, and the lack of opportunities for women, we decided that together (with the help of others), we could make a difference. We both shared a similar vision – to create a village of resources to empower vulnerable women and children to succeed and eventually escape poverty.

JUAf (pronounced joo-off) is a Kiswahili name with a dual meaning. It means ‘to understand’ and ‘the sun’. We named our village JUAf because we believe that all vulnerable women and children need brightness in their life, be understood, and be given opportunities to succeed.

The village of resources we envisioned together would entail buying land in very poor rural village where the people had no resources for income. We wanted to empower the people of the village to assist in the build-out of their own community through agriculture, livestock and microfinancing.

With the help of donors, Asha and I were able to purchase eight acres of land in a rural village called Kikwe which is located approximately 10 miles outside of Arusha, Tanzania. We chose the village of Kikwe because the community members have limited opportunities to earn an income. They earn an average income of approximately 1000 TSH or $0.75 cents per day. It’s a very vulnerable community in need of income generating activities and resources. Currently, JUAf is the only non-profit serving this community.

The plan for the build out of the JUAf village is for the community members to work collaboratively to prepare the eight acres of land for crops to harvest for market. The profits generated from the crops will go towards the build out of the village. It’s important for them to be a shareholder in the development of the village, and understand that the profits from their hard work will help create a village of resources for their community. We’ve also been paying the women a small allowance while they tend to the crops.

We purchased the land in February, and over the last few months, my partner Asha, has been busy working with the locals to clear the land of its many rocks and brush, and preparing the land for crops. We hired our first local villager, a young man named Moostaf, who is in charge of making sure that the land is prepared for irrigation, and cleared of rocks and brush. He is also responsible for making sure that all villagers are caring for the crops and educated on harvesting.

After Moostaf and the locals cleared the land, Asha hired a tractor to prepare the soil, and plant seeds for the upcoming harvest. We were able to cultivate all eight acres. With the help of the community, we planted corn, onion, cucumbers and beans. The rainy season begins in June and we expect to have our first harvest in August, and ready to bring the vegetables market for sale. We purchased land with a river running through it for irrigation so our crops are well watered.

Since the eight acres of land will generate the profits for the build-out of the JUAf Village, we then needed to create income generating activities for the villagers in order to empower themselves individually. We’re doing this through Microfinancing loans.

Microfinancing involves providing small business loans for the poor to assist in poverty eradication. It’s frequently referred to as’ banking for the poor’. Across Africa, 90% of the population do not have bank accounts since they do not have the funds available to open an account. Without a bank account, they are unable to take out a loan to start a business. With an 85% unemployment rate nationwide, it is vital for Africans to have access to bank loans in order to get out of the vicious cycle of poverty, and care for/educate their families.

We were able to raise money to provide microfinancing loans for 30 women in the Kikwe village. We held a meeting the other day with the women to discuss the details behind microfinancing, and the need to sign up for our microfinancing education classes. The typical microfinancing client takes 6-12 months to pay back the loan. JUAf Village charges a 10% interest on the loan monthly while a traditional Tanzanian bank charges 20-25%. In general, when microfinancing is supported in conjunction with educational classes, a payback of 96% is achieved. The classes consist of educating the locals on the loan repayment process, profit & loss, inventory, credit, agriculture development, livestock development, beehive development, and small business entrepreneurship.

The 30 women chosen for the loans were thrilled! The loans will be 100,000 TSH ($70) per person. The women have chosen two primary businesses: chicken rearing and sheep rearing. A baby sheep in Tanzania costs approximately 30,000 TSH ($21), and after three months, they can sell one sheep for 100,000 TSH ($70) at the market. A quick profit. They just needed loans to get started.

In addition to the land, we’ve raised enough money this year to build a Community Center for the villagers to meet and collaborate on ideas, future business, and plans. Currently, they sit outside on the ground under one of the large trees to discuss ideas. As you can see, they are in need of an actual building, especially during rainy season when it rains for three months straight. We plan to start building the Community Center in June.

To prepare for the build out of the village, Asha and I met with a Planner/Architect in the city of Arusha named George. George will help us design the JUAf Community Center and provide plans for us on the build-out of the entire JUAf Village once funds are raised. George helped design one of the local hospitals in town, and he has agreed to give us a good price for the plans and construction management since our village project is a not for profit.

I’ll be sure to provide updates on the building of the Community Center (with pictures), and provide updates on the Microfinancing businesses in the next few weeks.

Thanks to all of you who have supported our project with your generous donations of financial funding, and laptops. Thanks for your support.

Asante Sana.

Judi McAlpine & Asha Mruma