By Robert Oluka | Innovator and Project Leader
"My name is Margie, from Kacilo Village, Sangai Parish, Ochelakur Sub-County. I tried to borrow from many people from whom I hoped to get money from but I failed. I also had a group where we save some little monies, but it was like every member from the group needed money, so the group committee decided to put me on a waiting list that would make me receive that money after two weeks.
When I went to Robert, I was told that they will lend me money without disturbing me. That saved me a lot. The interest rate was fair compared to that of the group, since in the group we are charged 20 percent and Robert gave me at 15 percent. It relieved me a lot. I first borrowed UShs.10,000 (US$ 2.60) to top up on my business of tomatoes selling. I paid it back at the end of the month and I kept on borrowing and paying back just like that.
I am happy that my business can make me buy food for the family. At the end of the day, I buy sugar and salt and I am no longer like other women here in the village. I started with only tomatoes and now I grind and sell groundnut paste, mukene (dried silver fish), avocado, which I buy from Kalaki and then sell. I hope to progress with this business because it is helping me and my family a lot. Our men from this side are lazy at working, so they wait for food on the table. I think of borrowing more money to increase on the level of my business and also see myself develop even more."
I feel blessed that in a humble way I am contributing to helping very enterprising and hardworking women, such as Margie, in my home village. This is something that I would never have thought about before I benefited from the CPAR Uganda Mentoring Young Adults in Uganda into Innovators Against Poverty Project. I am grateful that as I contiune my mentoring journey with CPAR Uganda, I am learning and being motivated to raise funds to be able to benefit more disadvantaged women and also to be able to give bigger loans to them.
Thank you to all who have already made a donation in support of accessing finance to the women of Ochelakur. Every little bit counts for it will surely generate huge impact in the quality of life of the benefiting households. Margie's high self-esteem and pride as a self-reliant business woman is pulpable. And so, I make a plea, please make a donation to our project and help us to extend the much need helping hand to women of a traditionally fishing community, but who now have to diversify away from fishing, since their livelihoods from fishing on Lake Kyoga are no longer tenable.
Links:
Project reports on GlobalGiving are posted directly to globalgiving.org by Project Leaders as they are completed, generally every 3-4 months. To protect the integrity of these documents, GlobalGiving does not alter them; therefore you may find some language or formatting issues.
If you donate to this project or have donated to this project, you can receive an email when this project posts a report. You can also subscribe for reports without donating.
Support this important cause by creating a personalized fundraising page.
Start a Fundraiser