Dear Pastor Fred,

Which other areas do you refer to? If you were to make an assessment of the situation, what would you say is the ideal situation in terms of getting help for these women and what would you say is the most practical in temrs of the situation at hand. We'll have to take into consideration their circumstances and the reality surrounding ease of getting funds for example. Then the major question would be, in the event that they cannot get much outside help, what little can they do to make life less difficult for themselves and their children? You understand the situation a whole lot better than I do, I have references in my own mind but they are from a completely different Zimbabwean context. To make this work, we need more information to assess this properly.

Thanks for your response and the energy you put into all this.

Kind Regards,

Nonhlanhla

--
'If you are willing to change the world, let love be your energy.' Robbie Williams

Thank you so much every one here and i hope with time everything will be better let many join as and advice if possible.
God bless
Pastor Fred.

Barb - who gets the male pig to produce the piggies?? I know we only goat one male goat for 7 females, so I guess a village only needs one male pig to take care of several widows' pigs. Would it be like here in the states with horses and 'stud fees' - that the owner of the male pig gets a piglet as 'payment'. David suggested we set up 5 families (I think it was $50 for 2 pigs, which could be gotten from our Women's co-op) - 10 pigs total and that in 6 months they pass on piglets to other families and sell two pigs at market to pay back the loan. Also, I think goats are good for making/selling cheese.

--
Ginger :)

Hey Ginger ,

Your most welcome in Zabef village, just feel free to advice and recommend others to join this village, thank you so much to start at this step of Piggery project and i believe with you one male pig can do great work in more than 10 female , most of the owner of males others wants piglet as 'payment and other wants cash in Uganda well that price it may be in range of $5-$7 we can get pig for widows but our prayer request to every one here are how we can get organizations who can donate support and we start buying pig for the widows in Zabef Village or Micro-finance which can give loan in a year or two and they give back the loan plus interest. well if God opens the Heart of same one to donate one pig or more is most highly welcome and appreciated.
I will be very happy to hear from you more soon if possible.

God bless
Pastor Fred.
My email gidcco@yahoo.co.uk

Hi Fred

Have you provided any women with pigs already, and if so, how many, and how successful has this been - have they been able to look after them well, make a profit etc?

How many piglets does a pig usually have in a litter? I can find figures on the internet, but it may vary across countries and breed of pig.

What Nonhlanhla says makes sense to me too - look at what the women can do for themselves. It may mean they have to start on a very small scale, but its far better to start small and grow, than for them to sit doing nothing until you get funding from outside. That funding may never come.

And the more they cnan do for themselves, the more confident they become of their own abilities, they will start to believe in themselves, that they really do have the power to become independent people able to support their families.

As suggested, have you considered the possibility of the women working together in groups? You say a pig costs approx 50,000 Ugandan Shillings. So if five women got together to buy a pig, it would cost them 10,000 each. They need to have a very clear agreement on how they split the first litter of piglets between them. It takes good organisation skills but, if people are prepared to cooperate for the benefit of all, then it can be done.

Also, pigs may be the solution for some women but not for others. If 100 women get pigs, will there be enough demand for live piglets and/or meat i.e. will they all be able to sell what they produce?

Has anyone done a survey of the women to find out what skills and interests they have? For example, you may have one group who want to keep pigs, while another group would prefer to make things - crafts, cooked food items etc, keep other animals e.g. chickens, goats, rabbits, grow various crops, find methods of adding value to things they produce already etc etc.

Mary

Mary and every one here,

Your most welcome with plans and advices well what your saying we have started with same few women to contribute amount and we bought for then pig and their doing well much Market are available in Uganda and their able to get school fees for their orphans and Cloths, feeding and so on but others widows they can't raise anything because of their poorness well i speak according to the experience and we love to help them also you can advice more. well what we have seen we need to look at the profit making project then we go with that one and same how we use democracy in our communities , i remember Mary you advised me about other project which looks to be good but when it doesn't help more and many so we are following you are advices so that we are smart enough and much more we are getting from you people we are not remaining the same always.

well i remain on the point that we can look for those one who can't have initial capital to have also a pig, it's my prayer that you can look into my simple request on behalf of others women .

God bless
Pastor Fred.

Hello Pastor Fred,
I was wondering if there is a MTN VillagePhone provider already in the Zabef area? If so- do you tink there is room for one more provider?
If not, let me know and I can follow up with MT Uganda about where the women in Zabef can become owners of this service (small business).

Below is some very brief information for those who have never heard of MTN VillagePhone. It orignated from Grammen Foundation in Bangaldesh:

Grameen Foundation USA has formed a partnership with MTN-Uganda, Uganda’s premier mobile phone communications company, to create a new company in Uganda called MTN VillagePhone. MTN VillagePhone is partnering with microfinance institutions in Uganda to bring low-cost telecommunications services to poor rural villages in Uganda. Micro-entrepreneurs purchase a mobile phone, power solution, and prepaid-airtime with a small loan from their microfinance intitution. They then sell use of the phone to members of their community on a per minutes basis. Over 100 phones have been deployed to date and the program is on track to be fully sustainable.

The initiative has four simultaneous goals: 1) provide the rural communities of Uganda with valuable communications services to enable them to break the cycle of poverty; 2) to establish a general replication model for the Village Phone program; 3) to validate, measure, and document the model in a single country; 4) Disseminate this learning to the commercial telecommunications sector and the worldwide development communities so as to establish a global Village Phone movement. Over five years, we plan to introduce 5,000 new Village Phone business in rural Ugandan villages.

Thank you so much Carolyn DV,

Yes in Uganda MTN is the best in this issue and i advice you to go on with that is very better than others in Uganda in their serves , the women will be the owner because they will operate it them self, their orphans will get to go back to school from the profit they will get from this business, hope it will make our widows to be active in many things.

Thanks so much for the concern and i am happy that the website is up now have a look www.gidcco.co.nr
Let me hear from you.
Pastor Fred.

Hello Pastor Fred, I will investigate the possibilities of Village PHone for Zabef and get back to you as soon as I have anything to report.

The new website looks fantastic!! Great job.
I haven't finished looking though it however I did notice that when you click on PROGRAMS, it takes you to another website called www.enteruganda.com
Is this a mistake Pastor Fred? If so, it should be fixed quickly as this will take visitors the site away from the GIDCCO site.

Carolyn DV thank you for the good advice and fore sure Regan went in holiday but when he comes aback i will inform him a bout that issue of website taking as to other website and i believe he will work on that.
How is you and your most welcome in Uganda Africa any time from now.
God bless and i will be very happy when you have worked on MTN phone soon.
Pastor Fred.

Carolyn DV thank you for the good advice and fore sure Regan went in holiday but when he comes aback i will inform him a bout that issue of website taking as to other website and i believe he will work on that.
How is you and your most welcome in Uganda Africa any time from now.
God bless and i will be very happy when you have worked on MTN phone soon.
Pastor Fred.

Hi Fred

Regan is making great progress with your website!

A couple of things I noticed:

The Photo Gallery link does not work
Some of the pictures at the top of the Home page are not displayed correctly

Mary

Hi Pastor Fred, I heard back from MTN Uganada and they suggested the best way to get information about VillagePhone is to visit their head office in Kampala. Now this isn't easy since you are in Jinja, but I wonder if you have a friend or relative that could go to the head office and gather some infomration about the business opportunity adn what it takes to get one of the women to sign up?
There is an MTN Uganda office in Jinja- but I believe it is a service centre and may not be able to help.
There is also a phone number which could be a good start too if fidning someone in Kampala is not easy.
I was hoping there would have been some easy instructions on the internet however it looks like now that this program has been up and running in Uganda for over 3 years they are limiting it's access. I still feel that it is worth pursuing and gathering the relevent info.
please let me know what you think

QUOTE: "For you to acquire and get more information about the MTN village phone please visit our head office within Kampala, MTN Publicom located in Naguru."

Carolyn

Praise the Lord Carolyn DV,

I am happy that you got that feedback from MTN well i now that at first and i talked with Lia about it for me to go to Kampala head office and i get all the information but village phone she was not able to fund me to head Kampala well it costs $100 Transport going and back plus feeding and other quick communications to MTN people in field well if same one could stand with me let me know and i reach their to help the widow with village phone . well i hope to know from you what you think any way here is my email which i open all the time gidcco@yahoo.co.uk. more about how to send that support and other questions we need from MTN send them through the email.
Let me hear from you soon
God bless
Pastor Fred.