At the University of Iringa

Today we held our annual “Iringa Hope Status Update” meeting at the University.  This meeting is designed to provide information to a variety of community, government, and NGO leaders regarding what we have been doing, where we are at, and what we hope to do this coming year.  We normally start with chai (tea) then move into a discussion of where things are at.

This year the update attracted about 50 people.  There were people from the USAID program, the NAFAKA program, the local and regional governments, a few businesses, and many others.  The District Commissioner of Iringa was at our meeting as was the Vice Chancellor of the University and a group of people from the Diocese.

The meeting opened with Tom giving a five year “Distinguished Service Award” to our volunteer Director, Interim VC of Resources Management, Enock Ugulumu.  Enock join us in 2011.  Since then he has served without pay as the Director.  Enock has been instrumental in many aspects of the program.  With over 17 years working in community development he knows many people and can get things done.  Tom presented Enock with a glass flame from the Board of Directors of Iringa Hope, USA.  We are sure it will be the first thing you see when you enter his office.

Tom invited people to interrupt him with questions.  He talked about the program for the next 90 minutes (he is a professor so what do people expect?) going over the various aspects of our work.  Joan Meyers from USAID was very interested in the broad reach of the program, the large number of women, and how it might expand further.  She asked about land holder rights, relationship to other programs, and a variety of related issues.   The District Commissioner wanted to know how we select locations and how he might get us to go to other sites.  He complemented us on, “The best run, most effective program in all of Tanzania.”  He asked if we might be willing to give training courses for other locations.  He wanted to know if we had materials that he might send to other parts of the country as a “model of what people should be doing.”  He was interested in seeing if he could get some of the communities ravaged by flooding, that the government is helping to rebuild, involved in our program. 

As Tom talked about Iringa Hope it became clearer and clearer to people that Iringa Hope is not a program, but is a part of the communities.   “Programs come and go.  They last one year, two years, maybe five years.  But Iringa Hope stays and is part of the community as long as the members find it helpful and support it.  It is a part of the fabric of the communities and helps them change to improve life for the people who live there,” Tom said.  The District Commissioner agrees 100% with this and says that this is really what Iringa needs.  He would really like to see Iringa Hope all over his district.

John Kiteve rose to tell the group that at the last national meeting of cooperatives Iringa Hope was cited as the “best network of SACCOS in the country.”  He said he was very proud that it is in his region.  He and the District Commissioner wanted to know if we might be interested in being a District level cooperative.  We are not sure what this would entail, but we tell them that we try to be sure that we can deliver on anything we promise, so we will have to think about it.

As the meeting broke up people were coming up and asking questions and expressing interest in Iringa Hope.  There were many suggestions of possible working arrangements, partnerships, and opportunities.  Mainly though, people seemed to want to thank Iringa Hope for the changes that they were seeing.

Tomorrow we start our spring training program.  We are expecting between 100- 160 leaders at this year’s session.  Itiweni is concerned that the heavy rains that occurred earlier this year might impact attendance.  She thinks that many of the villagers will need to be in their fields.  

We started with chai.  (It was actually a large breakfast.)

It was a very good meal.  The attendees took time to talk about what was going on.

We gave Enoch, our Director, a crystal flame award.  He has been our Director for five years now.

What do you expect when you give a professor an audience?  Tom talked about the status of Iringa Hope for 90 minutes.

District Commissioner Richard Kasesela would like to see us become a "District Level Organization."  We are not sure what that means.  He would also like to see if the government will give us some land to develop a "market center" here in Iringa for our members.

Attendees at the meeting included (from left to right) Anne Stella Mutoka (board member from Ipogolo SACCOS), John Kiteve (Regional Co-op Registrar), Richard Kasesela (District Commissioner), Dr. Joshua Madumulla (Vice Chancelor of the University of Iringa), Tom, Itiweni Luhwago (the MFI manager), Prof Enoch Ugulumu (Director of the MFI and the Interim Vice Chancellor of Materials Resource Management), and Pastor Nixon Mwitula (senior Pastor of Ipogolo).

USAID personnel were here as well (Joan Mayers from the USAID program shown greeting Richard Kasesela in the middle of this photo)

Itiweni with the group from NAFAKA (they have given us a grant again this year)