Hi Eric

Apologies, I haven't forgotten about the information i promised you, will aim to find you some contacts over the next couple of days.

Mary

I am probably putting this in the wrong place, but I have had contact with Childrens Garden Centre in Kawangware, Nairobi in the past (they are a wonderful place in the midst of the slum that is trying to improve the lives of the children who live there).

Anyway, they have started up a program for meat production from rabbits. Profits from the sale of the rabbit meat (and I guess some of the rabbits) goes into a micro loan fund to help the children who are looking after the rabbits.

Here is some information from there program.

Breeding Stock: 1 buck and 8 does
Meat Production: 10 kg per month
Project start: April 2008
Total Rabbit Count (Dec'08): 27
Sponsor: SIDA/Forum Syd (Sweden) & Globetree
Micro-Loan Fund: 2,950 Ksh

Here is a link to the project itself
http://www.globetree.org/africa/cgg/cgk/rabbit.htm

And a link to the Kenya Rabbit Network and useful links for Rabbits and Rabbit meat production
http://www.globetree.org/africa/rabbit-net/links.htm

Melissa

Hi Eric

Apologies for the delay. From searching the internet, I found a few groups working with micro credit in Kisumu. I thought there would be more, maybe I am just not having very much luck tonight!

You may already know of them all but, if not, they may be good people to learn from (not just for micro credit, but for other projects too), or your members may even be able to join an existing scheme if they want to.

Kisumu Medical Educational Trust (KMET)
http://www.kmet.co.ke/index.htm
Their main focus is on health, but they also have a revolving loan fund for their health workers.
Contacts: http://www.kmet.co.ke/contacts.htm

---

Opportunity International WEDCO Ltd
They are a large-scale microfinance organisation with a branch in Kisumu. Can't find a Kenyan website, limited info on main Opportunity International website http://www.opportunity.net/Members/Implementing/Africa/opportunity_inter...

Contact (from another site, hope its up to date):
P.O. Box 884-40100
Kisumu
Kenya
Phone +254-57-2021211
+254-721-840 737
Fax -
Email info@oibk.co.ke

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Women fighting AIDS in Kenya (WOFAK)
http://www.wofak.or.ke/
Main focus is on care for peope with AIDS. Have a centre in Kisumu. Have seen reference to them providing micro loans in Kisumu on other websites.
Contacts: http://www.wofak.or.ke/wofakcenters.html

Mary

Hi Everyone,

I have been working with a group of students from the University of Calgary and they have almost completed their work relating to microloans for Kabondo. They have been gathering research and information on the items listed above (criteria, terms, assessment, etc). They have also prepared a short presentation about Kabondo which we may be able to use to raise some funds. The will be providing myself and Eric with their compiled work in the next week. I hope this will provide a good basis for getting the microloan program running in Kabondo.

Thanks,

Barb

Hi Everyone,

I am just posting the completed work from the students and the University of Calgary, on the microloan project. They also put together a DVD, but I will have to figure out how to get that up. Will work on that... :-)

Barb

Revised Nabuur Final Project.doc

Hi Eric,

Just wondering if we can collect some preliminary information on the women right at the start of the micro-loan program (or before)? Much like the sanitary pad project, having information to back up everything will help very much in the future. Maybe someone could put together a list of preliminary questions on the women that will be taking part in the project as well as questions that about those interested in future participation. I think it's important to have a baseline of information to see if the loans are making a difference.

For example,

Current occupation
Current income
Family size

There are many other pieces of info we could gather as well.

Anyone wish to help out on this task?

Barb

Barb - do make sure that the women understand completely that this is NOT a revolving credit card. they must borrow enough and prepare a budget that will allow them to Continue the business after paying off the loan. You may also have to stress the fact that they may have to put off Making Money until their second phase. ie: they borrow and payback in 6 months with enough left over to repeat their business, but the difference is, the Second time around they get to keep the profits - and the Third, etc. I don't know if Kyomya ever learned this - it was supposedly taught, but I could never get a straight answer if the same women were taking out loans again - so really stress that. And I wish you good luck!

--
Ginger :)

Hi Barb,

I agree totally with this suggestion to have some baseline information at the beginning since we cannot impact what we cannot measure. This 'before' and 'after' analysis will help us gauge whether we have been able to change peoples lives. I invite neighbours to give contributions on what could form the baseline survey questionnaires or any data that could be collected at the onset. Thanks for starting us off with a few suggestions.

The sanitary towel project taught me that this is a very vital activity at commencement which should not be ignored.

Thanks

Eric

Hi everyone

Collecting informaiton sounds like a good idea to me too. A few suggested questions:

* Name

* Age

* Number of dependent children/other family members

* Education

* Current family income, from what?

* Amount of loan requested

* Are they starting something new or expanding an existing activity?

* Information on what the loan will be used for, including a basic business plan, estimated monthly income, start up costs, ongoing running costs etc i.e. evidence that this is a practical, well thought-out idea.

* Have they ever had a loan before?
If so, were they able to pay it back?
If they were not, why, and what will they do differently this time to make it a success?

* Do they believe that the business they set up/expand with this loan will make sufficient money to meet all their needs, or will they be likely to require additional loans in the future for expansion?

Saw a news item posted by Kimilili that they have run a business-skills training workshop for women http://www.nabuur.com/en/village/kimilili/news/2009/06/kimilili-first-bu...
If you think it would be helpful, maybe you could ask them for a copy of their training material and the womens reaction to the training.

Have you worked out all the other practical details e.g. selction criteria, repayment period, interest rate etc?

Mary

Ginger,

Thank you very much for this timely advice. Borrowing is not supposed to be a perpetual affair but may be a one time process that takes one from point A to point B. Point B to me means a point where a beneficiary would for example be able to stand alone, refraining from further borrowing and using profits withheld from expenditure and reinvested into the business. While continuous responsible borrowing in business is not a bad idea especially if people are focused and leap incrementally into higher goals or business ventures, the level of responsibility, management and discipline has not been ascertained in our case here. We would therefore on the onset put heavy emphasis on the merits of saving for future investments or expansion.

I will take this into consideration as we talk with the initial beneficiaries. Thank you.

Eric

Hi Mary,

Thank you for this additional information on what should be collected before commencement of the project.
We had agreed on some basic criteria for selection but which we will need to refine. One of this is that the beneficiary has to be a guardian of either an orphaned and vulnerable child, willing to engage in a viable income project to provide for the basic needs of the children in the care, are members of some organized grouping that can act as a security for the loan advanced to him/her, is not very old as not to be able to carry out any income generating activity(70 and below) among others. We still welcome views on what this can entail and we will also be asking those selected and other stakeholders to give suggestions on how best to go about this.

The repayment period was initially agreed at a brainstorming session to be 6 months with a grace period of one month after the commencement of the business.

The interest rate was agreed at 3% at the same brainstorming session. As we start this proper i am also making consultations taking due consideration to the realities currently prevailing in Kenya and if there is need for amendments we will make them accordingly. I will keep neighbors posted on our agreements and findings.

Eric

Hi Everyone,

I have made the necessary consultations regarding the interest rate to be charged on the loan and most people suggested a 2% a month rate of interest. I also visited two micro-finance institutions, CENT SACCO and ADOK TIMO and was advised that this was feasible with that type of interest.

Now having settled this, we now need to concentrate on the initial information we need to collect or any other relevant information that may be useful as we start up this intervention in the village. Barb and Mary have started us off with very good ideas and i welcome your participation.

Thank you all.

Eric

Thanks Eric!

The final paperwork for the dispersement of the funds is in the works, so it shouldn't be much longer before it will be available in Kabondo, therefore we should try to finish the task of putting together the initial questionnaire in the next 2 weeks.

Is anyone willing to volunteer to compile the ideas into a questionnaire? Alternatively, if you have any further ideas on information to collect, please submit it here.

Thanks!

Barb

Hi Melissa
It has been some time since I login into Nabuur. I was doing a search on "Kenya Rabbits" and your message was one of the hits.

I am the project coordinator for projects elaborated in www.globetree.org/africa/rabbit-net . The web site is being updated. Between Dec08-March 2009, we did 4 more rabbit houses. see http://www.globetree.org/africa/rabbit-net/projects.htm . They all use the same concept where the sponsors provide the facilities and children care for the rabbits. Income from sales should go into the micro-loan fund. The concept sound simple and straight forward.

A lesson learnt and I wish to address all you foreign sponsors who want to monitor a/your project is that you need to test and be fully confident that there is regular email communications with your local project partners. They must already have the habit of communicating by email and have already been communicating with you. Dont accept promises, dont accept assurances because you will end up with just excuses. All the wonderful criteria and procedures you have spent time and thoughts in and have developed will be useless.
+++
P.S. I need to figure out how to get email notification from this group.
contact me at jacky.foo@gmail.com if you have the instructions.

Hi Jacky,

It has been a while! I thought The Childrens Garden rabbit project looked very promising. Is it still going well?

I will send you an email re: email notifications, but I don't think they are working at the moment.

Mel