Hello Everyone,

Thank You very much Barb for this very good news. For me it has been a great learning experience on the essence of patience in any undertaking. It has been approximately two year today since you set this up with nothing but hope that this task could be achieved for the benefit of these vulnerable families and the consummate belief in the power of human good.

I want to take this opportunity to thank from the very bottom of my heart all those unique individuals who donated through our givemeaning page (www.givemeaning.com/project/kabondo),the other group who donated during our Valentine Day Tweertheart campaign and to this wonderful individual who has topped up to enable us reach our target for the first 10 widows and other guardians of orphans and vulnerable children.The people of Kabondo and particularly our beneficiaries owe you a huge debt of gratitude and we will always remember you stood with us at our moment of need.

I am looking forward to working with our Facilitator Barb Briggs, our project committee and the local community in starting this up and making it a showcase in the community on how wealth can be created at household level to help lift vulnerable families out of poverty.

Sometimes words fail and become too superficial to express one's innermost feelings. Kindly accept all of you my THANK YOU today as my deep seated appreciation of your kind gesture and i am confident that when the story of success of these families will be told, you will all stand tall as people who took time to think of other less fortunate people.

Eric
Local Representative

Fantastic news! Three cheers for this rocking team! :)

WOW!!!! That's fantastic news Barb and Eric. I'd just like to say a big thank you to everyone who donated, and especially to the anonymous donor who has made it possible for this project to start.

Melissa

Dear All,

I got a very special opportunity to be educated on the work being done by very committed women in Nyakach Village on a micro loan project similar to the one Kabondo is setting up. James Omollo in collaboration with a small group of women sat together and came up with an idea that is changing the lives of these women. I feel if accepted by the women of Kabondo, the money raised for Kabondo will be able to reach more people and will help the women manage the loan program themselves with Kabondo committe only acting as overseers.

This is how it works; The orphan guardians are requested to organize themselves into groups of say 7 to 10. They could be three or four or five groups (each with a membership of up to only ten).Each group is given an amount say $200 to loan amongst its members. Each member in the group may take a small amount say $10 to $20 which they return at the end of every month to the group at an interest rate of 10%. Since they are people who know each other and they have come together based on trust, the risks of default are minimized since it is also the responsibility of the members to collect money from those loaned in their group. At the end of the month each group makes its payment due to Kabondo Poverty Alleviation Organization from the interest paid by members while retaining the original amount loaned to the group. At the end of 10 months, each group will have paid all their dues to KPAO for onward lending to others while the $200 initially loaned to the members will still remain within the group, so they are able to stand alone and continue with the work of empowering their members.

I found this to be a very good way of empowering people and wealth creation at household level as opposed to our initial plan of helping only 10 households at the beginning. I have asked James of Nyakach village and two of his beneficiaries to come share this with the women of Kabondo and train them on how best this can be initiated and managed next week. If this idea is adopted, we intend to start off immediately otherwise we will go along with our original plan.

Eric

Hi Eric

That sounds good, and very happy to see that you guys are working together!

I am interested to know whether e.g. $20 is enough for a woman to start up a business of her own, or will those who are beginning from absolutely nothing need to borrow more at the beginning so that they can get started? While those who are already earning a little money themselves will only need to borrow a small amount to expand things?

It will be great if James (or you, if Kabondo takes on the idea) can share the experience with other Local Reps too, as many Nabuur villages are working on similar things.

Mary

Hi Eric,

This sounds like a very good idea and it will be good to see the knowledge sharing between Nyakach and Kabondo! Let us know how things proceed as well as what we can do to assist.

Barb