a full weekend

Last Saturday and Sunday we were fortunate to welcome a trained micro finance expert to talk to two groups of women. Alex works for a Norwegian NGO and himself comes from a poor community in Nyanza (bordering lake Victoria) where he has helped set up self help groups.

Women in rural areas are very disadvantaged by lack of education, lack of communications and lack of organization.

On Saturday Alex talked to a group of 58 (including four men) about planning, budgeting and resource availability. He has promised to return to help them set up specific income generating projects. This seminar was made possible by a targeted donation to Tembo Kenya from a friend in Canada.

On Sunday he repeated much the same to a group of about 40 in Kakamega. Whereas in the first group, most could read and write and had a good grasp of both English and KiSwahili, the second group had a majority of illiterate members. However,t his group progressed wonderfully and finished the day with three groups set up with very specific projects. They too want Alex to return to continue to assist them,particularly to learn more about bookkeeping.

So many projects with hard working people fail in rural Africa because of lack of careful planning and budgeting. We trust that these groups will succeed.

Also on Sunday we visited the well at Muluanda. It is placed on a compound belonging to a family who have signed over rights. The old couple living there could not stop thanking us for the water which will be handed over to the community on Saturday. They are both too old to fetch and carry water and they live alone.

Imulama well had to be blasted twice but they have removed the large rock and will continue to dig. The walls are damp, so water is close.

We now have a long list of communities requesting protection of their springs or a well. We are hoping to be able to check some of them out before we leave to make a priority list. then, of course, we wait to see what funding we receive.