Mwatasi

Mwatasi is a 2 ½ hour drive from Iringa with beautiful views of the mountains and terrible roads.  You go out the same road as Kitowo and Pommerini, but when you get to Pommerini you just keep going.  The road slowly climbs the hills, going through some forested areas, fields, by small villages, and along ridges.  As you come into Mwatasi you see the way it is spread out along a ridge.  The village looks bigger than it is due to the way it spreads out, but it is only a few hundred households. 

We got to the church and were greeted by the pastor.  He is an old friend from Ihemi, our partner parish.  We first met him ten years ago when he was an evangelist there and we were teaching at the university.  Tom jokes with him about the fact his hair is still black but Tom’s is all white. 

The view from up here is wonderful.  You can see for many miles in all directions.  There is a lot of timber in this area which accounts for the large number of trucks we had to pass along the way.  This is bean and cabbage country.  There is still some maize grown here, but not so much as elsewhere.  This means that last year when the low maize prices hit many of our locations, Mwatasi was not affected very much.

We first had a 45 minute chai at the pastor’s house and then went to the community building for the general SACCOS meeting.

This SACCOS has not yet registered.  They started the process a while ago but keep stumbling on their paperwork.  The co-op act requires that they do it, so we cannot do it for them.  Peter was here three weeks ago with the co-op officer to help them get going on it.  The forms are about 20 pages in length and although people may be used to keeping simple records, filling out that long form is daunting to them.

Nearly all of the SACCOS members had gathered to see us.  There were only a few members absent, and they had left their apologies for missing the meeting.  One of the issues here is their need to borrow more capital.  They current have enough capital to make small loans to 20 members.  The problem is that they have 33 members!  They have been taking turns and making their capital stretch.  They can all see that if they could borrow more their incomes would go up a lot. 

One thing they didn’t know was that their partner has sent more capital for them.  Peter had gotten the co-op officer to write a letter so that we could let them join Iringa Hope now rather than wait for their final registration.  As soon as that happens we will send them more capital.  With the new funds they will be able to make small loans to everyone.  Peter helped them finish the paperwork so we could take it with us.

As we come into the meeting we were greeted with singing and dancing.  The chairman told Tom that news of the gift had leaked out.

The meeting went on with lots of good questions about how they could increase their own capital, how they work within Iringa Hope Joint SACCOS, what is their next step towards forming an AMCOS, etc.  This group is involved and wants to move ahead.  We left the meeting with two members to interview while the rest of the group stayed to continue the business meeting.

We spoke with Maneno Gavile, 41 and married with 3 children.  Gavile has been a member since this SACCOS started.  He has taken out 2 loans.  His last loan was for $150.  He combined this with some money he had to plant and fertilize his field of beans.  He hired 2 laborers to help him plow and later weed his fields.  He and his wife harvested and sold the crop.  After repaying his loan and paying his expenses he found that he had earned a $350 profit.  He used it to buy bricks and mortar and metal sheeting for the roof of the new house he built.  He didn’t have enough money to finish the house, but they have moved in – even unfinished it is better than their hut.  He wanted to take another loan this year, but there just is not enough capital to go around – so he said he would wait until the next time.  Maneno is on the SACCOS loan committee and could probably have gotten a loan anyway, but he takes his responsibility very seriously.

We next talked with Cecelia Ngendelo, 42 and married with 4 children.  Cecelia has also been a member of this SACCOS since it began.  Her last loan was for $50 which she used to farm beans on ¼ acre.  She had a good crop but needed to hire a helper so she only earned $60 from her loan.  She used this profit to send two of her children to primary school (While officially free it actually costs about $25-30 to go to primary school here).  She did not take out a loan this year since she did not have a plan of how to make money.  She has been thinking about it and has talked with some of the other members looking for ideas.  She told us that she now has made a plan and so would be applying soon.  The SACCOS will not give anyone a loan without them having a plan as to how they will make a profit.  We are glad to hear that this rule is working to ensure that members make good use of their resources.

After they served us lunch, and Peter loaded the back of the vehicle with pears and potatoes that he bought, we headed down the road.  On our way to Iringa we got a call from Itweni telling us that the local USAID people want to have dinner with us tonight to talk about Iringa Hope.  We always look for opportunities to share the story, so it might be a late night.

Lots of lumber trucks on the road.  They tend to take their share from the middle so we need to crowd the ditch.

The scenery is beautiful as we drive along the ridges.

We drive by many "villages" consisting of 5-10 houses.

Spread along the ridge Mwatasi looks bigger than it is.

The view from the pastor's house is stunning.

Peter gave the chair some advice on finishing the forms for registration.  Though technically not legal the co-op officer decided this was OK.

The meeting room was full.

When the members learned that once they finished registration they could get more capital they broke out singing and dancing.

Almost all of the board members were here.  There were only a few who were out of town.

We spoke with Maneno Gavile, 41 and married with 3 children.  Gavile has been a member since this SACCOS started.  He has taken out 2 loans. 

 

We next talked with Cecelia Ngendelo, 42 and married with 4 children.  Cecelia has also been a member of this SACCOS since it began.