Update from BHW Uganda Partnership Facilitator

Recent Events

COVID-19

The Lira loan programme is continuing despite the pandemic. This alone is quite a miracle, as far as I can understand, given the enormous restrictions people in non rural areas have been placed under. Parts of Lira are certainly much more rural than others and this has probably helped.

I am unsure what it means in terms of the lending out of money, repayments, meetings and people being able to carry on their businesses. My understanding has been that, during the lockdown, the markets have been closed except for essential food. In the outlying areas, however, people have been able to carry on and continue with some of the smaller food stores and similar small type businesses. So, at some level life has continued even though the country was locked down and people confined to home for most of 2020. It is only just opening up now.

Personal Stories

Consi, whom we reported on a couple of years ago, has now died as have a number of the other loan beneficiaries. Consi was in arrears on her loan at the time and this had been an issue which we had previously reported on. Because she was a very old lady she had been given some grace by Anna but had not been able to catch up her payments. After her death her son has now stepped up and taken responsibility to ensure that the payments are finally made. This is a wonderful outcome and is very unusual in this culture so we are very happy to hear this.

We also understand that the Kirombe Pentecostal Church, which I reported previously had some considerable difficulties with its loan group, is still continuing and has also recommenced payments.

Current Issues and Challenges

In Anna’s messages she has commented on lots of things recently and it has clearly been extraordinarily difficult for all of them. She has commented on the lack of food and said that in all of her lifetime she has never seen people committing suicide because of a lack of food but she is now seeing this. Because she has been low and dealing with multiple deaths and tragedies, her health has not been good either. She has also been stressed due to the death of Amos (one of the Hope Restoration Children UGA03) and it has been very difficult to get a clear updated report.

Last year we were able to ensure she received enough asthma medication to last her for 12 months. She is at a point in her life where asthma could threaten her life if she does not have the medication.

Comments

I do not have the financial information to be able to comment on the loan programme at present. However, I do know that one of the other very successful table banking programmes we saw when we were last in Uganda, but which is not supported by Bright Hope World, has come to an end because the group simply needed the money to sustain the individuals and it was unable to continue with its process. We find this extremely sad but it is a reflection of the extreme poverty which people have been forced into as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic.

From my perspective the fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic has been much worse than the actual pandemic itself. I am, at the time of writing this report, unsure how to address the issues here, particularly as we cannot visit and actually see what is going on there. It is unlikely that I will be able to get to Uganda at least for the next year due to the border shutdown but I am hopeful of travelling there in the second quarter of 2022. 

In the meantime I have asked Anna to give me an update on who is still able to do what in the programme and what the needs are.