Report from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitators Following VisitThis report has been compiled after extensive discussions with Reuben and Justus in the afternoon part of our meeting at Explorers Hub. The Emmanuel Mission (EM) fund is still actually continuing, which is very pleasing. We previously reported that part of Emmanuel Mission had left, involving Congolese refugees, along with the money it had received from BHW. Also, the people at Ntoroko, including Amos whom we have previously reported on, have left too.
By way of background, Bright Hope World started supporting the EM fund with a view to this fund becoming a self-sustaining type of microbank, enabling people under the EM umbrella to receive small loans and establish businesses. Part of this fund was allocated in the early stages to Congolese refugees in Kyako camp in the middle of Uganda, in Ntoroko where there was a goat project, and also in Kayaterikera (another camp) among refugees. For a number of reasons, all of these have now evaporated. As previously reported, several of the leaders in that part of the programme have permanently resettled as refugees outside Uganda, in the US or elsewhere. Amos, in Ntoroko, who we previously reported on with his goat project, has also disconnected from Emmanuel Mission. In addition, all of the Congolese refugees that have remained in Uganda, left EM and joined with another organisation, as they are mainly French speakers. This has meant that the bulk of the funds that were in EM have been lost to the fund itself and are unrecoverable.
We discussed this in some detail. Reuben also described this being related to the beneficiaries having a ‘handout mentality’ and that they really did not understand that they were receiving a loan. We disagree with that observation, having met some of these people earlier on. Kevin met those in the camps and in the north, and Matt met Amos in Jinja and also Rukungiri. They did know that they were loans, but we would say that the circumstances of the Congolese refugees leaving were absolutely outside the control of the leadership of the EM fund.
The fund is left with a core group of 25 people, all of whom are making payments and it is still operating. The average loan size is between US$150 and $200. Our rough calculation would suggest that there is somewhere between US$4,500 and $5,500 in the total programme. They are not looking for this to be increased and indeed I made it clear that it would not be. The people have small loans, and they are doing small businesses. They are making an income and completing repayments. We should be grateful for that, and I think this is a good testimony to the present leadership of the programme.
At present, Justus is the chair of the programme and Reuben is secretary. There is also a treasurer named Jackson. Justus would like to pass the leadership/chairperson role to Derrick as he does not have time to do this role well. I think we need to accept that this is the case, and normally this is their decision anyway. Having met Derrick previously as a youth leader and active farmer who had embraced Foundations for Farming principles and was practising them, I believe that it is probably the right thing to do. I did indicate to Justus that the actual decision as to who led or ran the EM loan fund is not something for Bright Hope World to decide. It is actually up to them to make that decision and simply action it. It now appears that Derrick will become the chairperson of the programme and we would expect to receive reports from him on an occasional basis.
Justus said there has been a lot of hardship in the programme but that the current 25 members have been faithful and, in his words, “they repay in hardship”, even though living costs are high. The loan programme presently has a moderate loan term length with the interest rate being 1% per month. We did suggest to Justus and Reuben that if the loan programme amount was to grow and there was to be no further outside boost, then the interest rate should be reconsidered and possibly adjusted upwards to 2% per month. I am not sure whether they accept this is reasonable, as quite a lot of the people accessing the loans are small peasant farmers (their words) who have to wait for a considerable time to repay and 2% might take too much of their profit. We will leave it to them to determine what is best in this circumstance. However, we were gratified to hear that the fund is continuing, albeit on a lower scale, and is partially achieving its objective.
We had some general discussions with Reuben and Justus regarding other hopes. One of those was related to ongoing church planting and church work. I indicated that Bright Hope World was very unlikely to support this and this is something they have to make work themselves. There is some merit in considering support of leadership training, although I did indicate that the need is not so much for conferences or the like but for simple discipleship. Reuben talked about the fact that the gospel is being spread and the number of churches that are in the network was 15. Five were remaining after the Congolese churches (35) left, and 10 have developed recently. Although church growth is great, I do not think this should be a focus of BHW support, particularly as it would appear that although Reuben is still part of Rukungiri Chapel and involved in its leadership, he is persona non grata with Emmanuel Mission. It was not possible to get any clarity of his status even with the churches he said he is relating with.
The final request that was made related to the poultry farming project that Reuben has undertaken. I reminded him that he had received quite a considerable amount of support previously for various income generation activities and these had not come to fruition. He acknowledged this. It was however clear that the poultry farming project is actually doing quite well, and it is not appropriate to provide any personal financial support. I also indicated that, even though there are the occasional church planters that BHW provides personal support to, this would not happen in the current environment for anybody requesting pastoral church support.
The other thing raised by Justus was in relation to the expansion of the maize grinding mill to enable it to produce posho for feeding both schools, and this is an idea that actually has merit. I have asked him to provide us with a proposal. However, my own opinion is that this money should probably come from profit from the mill, once the schools are on a more stable financial footing, rather than being provided by BHW. Also, it does not seem to be happening already and could probably still be done at a smaller scale. While I can see that it would help stabilise the food costs for both schools, I am not sure how much we should be involved with it. It will be interesting to see his proposal when it is available.