During our meeting with Thomas Lubari on 18 September 2025, we had considerable conversation regarding the Koboko Loan Programme. This programme started very small with a US$1,000 input from BHW last year and a further $1,000 was to be added in July 2025. Because of the way that Bright Hope World restructured the payments and support for Thomas and Joyce, and a misunderstanding about allocation of funds a further $1,000 did not go into the loan programme in July. However, we understand the reason for this and acknowledge that Thomas can allocate our support in whatever way they consider appropriate.
Thomas indicated that the group was doing reasonably well. There are both women and men in this group. They are doing farming and small businesses, like restaurants and fish selling, etc. The interest rate is 2.5% per month, equating to 30% per annum. That is pretty reasonable in a culture where the inflation rate runs above 20% per annum.
The first group had approximately 42 people and was set up to be a table banking type programme, with the input from Bright Hope World forming part of the initial capital. Unfortunately, there was a clash due to various ideas among the people in the programme. There were 10 people who wanted to follow the loan and repayment system and maintain table banking. The others quite simply wanted a handout and to use that however they felt was appropriate. This has led to a split in the group and means that the actual group retains approximately 10 people.
The secretary of the group reported on earlier is no longer the secretary, as she believed in the handout mentality and had to be removed. There is now a gentleman who is managing the group and, in Thomas's words, “he is stingy”. This is probably an advantage.
The core of the group is doing fish and grain selling and other businesses that meet people's daily needs. One of the men is farming and doing extremely well with it. There is always temptation in an extremely poor culture to use the capital for domestic needs, but that issue does not appear to be relevant in the group at present.
With only 10 people presently repaying due to a split in the group from many having a handout mentality, approximately $500 of the initial $1,000 is still being used in the programme. This is probably a reasonable outcome at present given their very poor circumstances. Unfortunately, it is not always clear, particularly when dealing with very poor people, whether they will be faithful to repay in such situations. They have already lost everything, often including hope.
Thomas does travel fairly regularly to Koboko. He points out to us that every time he travels to the north and ministers in the refugee camps, he gets sick. He said that this was typhoid or malaria, although his medical advisor was not clear about this. He also at times suffers excruciating back problems, which can slow him down but does not stop him continuing. However, he does pay a high price for his commitment to caring for vulnerable communities. He is next planning to travel to the north in December of this year after the wedding of his daughter, Grace.
Thomas is in regular contact with the secretary of the programme and the programme is run by a committee to ensure integrity and honesty. We are not committed to contributing any further funds to the programme at present. However, it is included in our general level of support for Thomas and Joyce. We think that the total budget should remain for all of their activities and work at around US$40,000 for the current year, meaning that he can allocate funds to this programme as he considers appropriate. In this regard he is planning to allocate a further $1,000 from that budget to this programme and we will be able to report more fully on it next time.