Income Generating Activities - Help Develop Criteria for a Micro-loan Program
Status: 
Step:
1
One of the strategies put forward by the community to address the long-term support of the children, is providing opportunities for income-generating activities. Through skills training and business management, as well as the provision of one-time loans, we wish to help the community and the children be able to provide for themselves long-term.
In addition, funds set aside from the IGA will be used to purchase goats, which will provide milk for the family.
In this first step, we would like to gather input for the community to make decisions in the following areas:
1. Developing criteria for the selection of participants in an Micro-loan project
2. Developing criteria for assessing and selecting business types and/or ideas
3. Developing loan terms and repayment terms
4. Develop terms of continued participation in the Micro-loan project
The task has been previously started with some discussion - but we would like to focus it more on the above 4 areas.
If you have experience with micro-loan projects or can refer us to sources, please help post!
The information will be compiled and provided to the community to help them guide their decisions.
Hi Barb
These might be of interest - some fairly basic business education guides for young people.
The Uganda Business Handbook one contains lots of potential business ideas although I don't know how relevant they would be in Kabondo.
Mary
As always, thank you Mary! I will go through these have Eric take a look and see what may work in Kabondo.
Barb
Reading that papyrus grows nearby and is used to make furniture, I got to thinking about how the ancient Egyptian pharaohs wore papyrus sandals. I couldn’t find any ‘how to’ instructions for them but did find something similar on a New Zealand site and wonder if papyrus could be substituted for the flax:
How to make sandals--http://teaohou.natlib.govt.nz/journals/teaohou/issue/Mao50TeA/c20.html
This organization seems to have a good reputation and is located in Kisumu ...
Opportunity International - Wedco Ltd ( OI-WEDCO)
The Financial Partner of Choice
P.O.Box 6711 in Kisumu
tel: 057-2021211
mob: 0722-205171
fax: 057-21680
Email: info@wedcoltd.com
No website
Ring Road,Milimani Next To Tom Mboya Labour College
The Opportunity International Network is a global coalition of microfinance organizations which provide transformational microfinance services to over 1 million poor entrepreneurs in 28 countries. For over 35 years, Opportunity International has provided its clients with access to financial services, training and capital to expand their businesses and their lives.
Opportunity International -- Our mission is to provide opportunities for people in chronic poverty to transform their lives. Our strategy is to create jobs, stimulate small businesses, and strengthen communities among the poor. Our method is to work through indigenous partner organizations that provide small business loans, training, and counsel. http://www.opportunity.org/NETCOMMUNITY/Page.aspx?pid=202&srcid=215
Hi Marge!
Thanks for this useful information. I will pass on the contact info to Eric and see where that leads us!
Barb
Hi Everyone,
After a lengthy discussion with Eric today and reviewing what has been put forward in the past on IGAs, we have decided to take a phased approach to implementing this step.
The first phase will be the implementation of a community forum. The 50 families/guardians will be invited to participate in a day-long forum to discuss the best ways forward, possible ideas for IGAs, what inputs are required, what skills already exist, what resources are available, and so forth.
In previous community discussions, they had agreed that the individuals and families should be able to decide what income generating activities they would like to engage in, with assistance from the project through skills training on business management as well as the possibility of micro-financing. This will allow the families to take control and responsibility for their own businesses.
To move ahead then with this phase we require the following:
1. Ideas
If you have any further ideas that would be good to present to the forum, then let us know! What has worked elsewhere? What hasn't worked?
2. Materials and resources for Forum
A few items are required to run the forum. This includes:
- Stationary and pencils for the 50 families/guardians
- Food and refreshments for the day. This is an important incentive to participate as well as necessary since some people will have to travel quite far to participate
- Reimbursements for travel. Since many guardians will have to travel, and their participation is vital, providing assistance for travel costs is necessary.
Eric will be putting together a budget for the forum.
If you are able to assist with any of these please contact me or post here!
Thanks to everyone!
Barb
:-D
Hi Everyone,
As promised, Eric provided a budget for the forum and the items that will be required
1 Newsprint @ 1,795 = 1,795 (US$30)
50 badges @ Kshs. 10 = 500 (US $8)
10 Felt Pens @ 130 = 1,300 (US $21)
50 notebooks @ KShs. 50= 2,500 (US $41)
50 pens @ 10 = 500 (US $8)
Breakfast (50 ppl X 150) = 7,500 (US$122)
Lunch (50 ppl X 300) = 15,000 (US$244)
4 O'Clock Tea (50 X 150 ) = 7,500 (US$122)
Transport Reimbursements
(50 ppl X 300)= 15,000 (US$244)
Facilitator Allowance = 2,500(US$41)
Transport for Mobilization = 2,000 (US$33)
Communication (Airtime) = 1,000 (US$16)
GRAND TOTAL = KShs 57,095 (US$930)
The Focus Group Discussion/Brainstorming Forum will have 50 participants and one expert facilitator, the Project Director, 3 Board members, one older orphan and the local Government official. We look forward to this unique opportunity of involving the community in laying a sound foundation for implementation of the income generating activities project.
If anyone can assist with even a small portion of this, or has any ideas on how we can raise these fund or resources, please post or contact either myself or Eric directly
Regards,
Barb
Hi Barb
I suspect that raising $900 will be quite a challenge!
Is there any possibility of working with smaller groups, meaning that people will not have to travel so far and will maybe be able to take their own food?
Mary
Maybe some ideas on how to reduce the budget?
- Any chance anyone could offer a goat or a sheep so that everyone can share?
- Any chance they could work with their children's pens and notebooks?. Maybe just get a couple and work on a board at school?
- For badges maybe they can just but some stickers? instead of buying badges?
- For transport, I suppose there are not much alternatives.
Just some ideas, 900USD is indeed a relatively big amount if you think of the things that could be done with it.
Raul
Thank you very much Raul and Mary for your suggestions and your genuine concerns. I would have wished to bring all these guardians (care givers) in one place where they can share ideas, experiences and challenges aside from getting to know each other. There are other people also who only learn and get their full potential pricked and awakened in the presence of others.A brainstorming session would be a very ideal forum for the nature of work we intend to do. You get people ask questions and get direct answers from people who may have experienced what another has not.
That would be the ideal situation that would give us the best results. But due to funding constraints we can take up your suggestions to do something else at a reduced cost but which will still give something close to what we intended.
One as Raul suggests is to have the community donate food. I have asked them to donate food before and they responded positively though due to poverty we only got a little.It would be cruel to ask them to donate now given the current food crisis in the country for which we as a community have also made an appeal for assistance.
A good idea would be to have 3 community volunteers go to the guardians to carry out a one on one discussion forum with each of the guardians with a guiding questionnaire in hand and use of other information gathering methods. If we adopt this, the costs would reduce significantly. In this case we will only need Kshs 24,000 (approximately $400).This will only be lunch and transport of kSh. 800 per volunteer for 10 days each which is enough to have them comprehensively discuss the issues at hand with the beneficiaries because i would have wished to know what each of them thinks on an issue that should form the basis of the sustainable care of orphans under them.
Thank you all for your thoughts and i welcome more.Such thoughts open our eyes to avenues previously closed to us so feel free to bring them on.
Eric
Local Representatice
Hi Eric
Do some of the guardians live in the same area as each other? If so, you may be able to get them together in smaller groups (maybe 10 people) so that they can discuss ideas, rather than going and seeing them each individually.
If they have to travel to take their children to school, is there any way to hold the meetings at the schools.
Or do lots of them go to the same church - you could hold the meeting after church service on a Sunday.
It may be that you have to start by concentrating on a smaller group, then go out to more people over time.
These may not be ideal solutions, but may enable you to get things moving.
Mary
Hi Mary,
This is something we can try out.We wanted to start supporting children who were very needy so geographical location was not a factor during our selection of the first 40 families to be seriously engaged in the project. That is why in some cases we have guardians who are distances apart. We can start grouping them according to how many come close to each other so we can see what number we could work with.
In our budget we did not indicate hall charges. This is because we intended to have the forum in either a school or a church with the community contributing firewood, cooking services, cooking utensils, water among others.
Eric
Hi Eric
Thats good to hear - its looking as though you will be able to hold those meetings for a lot less cost than you originally thought and, with careful planning, you may be able to reduce costs further. Sounds like something for you and your members to discuss, see what you can work out.
Even if you are able to hold a meeting with one smallish group, this will be a good start and will give you an idea of what income generating activities people are most interested in, what skills they already have, those they want to develop etc.
James from Nyakach sent me a copy of their latest update report yesterday, saying that they have started some income generation projects with women in their area some of who have managed to get loans from a local microfinance organisation, and are starting a savings scheme. I assume you two are still in contact with each other, and are sharing ideas?
I also found some info on a solar cooking project in Nyakach where women are making and selling low-cost solar cookers.
Solar Cookers International with Nyakach Community Development Association
http://solarcooking.wikia.com/wiki/Sunny_Solutions
http://solarcookers.org/programs/multkenya.html
I mentioned this to James too - if you don't already know about thi sproject, it may be worth one of you following up to see whether it is something that would work in Kabondo, both for income generation, also as an alternative to cooking using wood, charcoal etc.
Mary
Hi Mary,
Thank you for the latest information. James is a person i see many times and i want to take up this issue with him the next time we meet.
Thanks.
Eric
Hi Everyone,
Things have been quiet here. Any other ideas on how we can get the forum together or find a way to raise some funds to either get the people together in one group or go out and visit smaller groups?
Barb