1,000 Microloans for Rural Women in East Africa

Dear Supporters,

We wish you a Happy New Year and thank you for your support over the past year. WMI is eagerly planning its 2025 activities as it focuses on sustainability, economic participation, and using technology to improve living conditions for our borrowers. One of our exciting new collaborations planned for 2025 is featured below!

Maasai women in Ngorongoro face challenges in accessing both reliable energy and clean water. Many households rely on firewood and kerosene for lighting, which poses health risks and environmental concerns, while water scarcity requires them to walk long distances to fetch water. The community relies on seasonal rains for water, making access unreliable. Maasai women carry water on their backs from wells that can be several miles away. The ten-liter containers they use are then lined up outside their homes and refilled several times a day to accommodate bathing, cooking and cleaning for the entire household. During dry seasons, the women travel even further to find water sources, which consumes an enormous amount of time and energy.

The scarcity of clean water can lead to the use of contaminated sources, increasing the risk of waterborne diseases. This can significantly impact the health of families, particularly children. Water is essential not just for people but for livestock, which is crucial to the local economy. And, the time-consuming tasks of gathering firewood and fetching water take women away from their families and businesses for prolonged periods.

In collaboration with the Resilient Communities Africa Foundation (ReCAF) and the Village Community Banks (Vicoba) that manage the WMI loan funds locally, WMI is participating in a comprehensive solution that combines solar panel installation and water tank supply to enhance quality of life, support economic participation, and foster sustainability.

The initial phase will install solar panels in 100 households to provide clean, reliable lighting and reduce reliance on kerosene and firewood. Solar panels can be easily installed on the roof of the traditional Maasai mud and stick houses. The small panels provide sufficient energy to power lights and charge cell phones. They can also be disassembled and moved along with the semi-nomadic tribespeople.

Additionally, to improve water access we will source 2000 to 3000-liter plastic water storage tanks to allow Maasai women to store clean water, reducing the frequency and physical burden of long-distance water collection. The large and safe plastic water storage tanks will revitalize water reliability among the Maasai homes and relieve the Maasai women from the daily burden of long distance fetching of water. Both upgrades will empower the women to manage resources efficiently, allowing for greater economic and social participation within their communities.

With proceeds from their local businesses, the women will provide a 25% down payment on the panels and tanks. WMI will fund the remainder of the purchase prices. ReCAF will source bids for the provision of the products and choose a supplier. It will also oversee delivery and installation and training for the women.

This integrated project of solar panel installation and water tank provision offers a holistic solution to the daily challenges faced by Maasai women in the Ngorongoro area, driving health improvements, empowerment, and sustainability. Your support of this project will impact 100 families – more than 1,000 people. Thank you!

The WMI Commuity

Dear Donors,

One of the many benefits of the structure of WMI’s loan groups is the ability for the women to build community amongst themselves. Living in the same community and seeing other borrowers working hard in the community allows them to come together and even address communal issues. The women in WMI’s loan hubs in central Kenya exemplified this by forming self-help groups for a host of distinct reasons and found a path to the WMI loan program in different ways.

Neema Group (meaning Grace) was started by local village women in 2004 to respond to the HIV/AIDS epidemic. Many children in the area lost their parents and the ladies acted as guardians for the orphans. They supported one another and accessed a Save the Children program that provided education and nutritional supplements for the children for five years.When that program ended the Neema Group stayed together and members started contributing regularly to a group savings pool, lending the funds to members on a rotating basis.

The loans are used for small, short-term expenses and paid back each month. In 2009, Neema Group applied to become part of the WMI/Lewa microfinance initiative and with excellent internal governance and a good savings culture they were accepted into the loan program.

Members have never missed a repayment deadline since joining the loan program. They manage their individual businesses but continue to co-operate in joint ventures like potato farming.

They hired a shamba (farmland) as a group and are growing Irish potatoes. At harvest they will earn about $2,000. They will use the money to pay school fees and buy supplies for the orphans they still support. If there are any funds left over, they will use them for their internal table banking loans.

One of the members of Neema Group is Jamarose.  She is married and has six children, aged one and a half to eighteen. She is an onion farmer. Each harvest can yield 3,000-5,000 kilos of onions which sell for 50 cents a kilo at market. She can also store them in her root cellar and wait until prices rise if she does not want to sell them directly after harvesting. She usually plants three crops a year.

Jamarose also grows corn which is harvested at a different time of the year than onions. This way she generates a steady income stream. With income from the farm, Jamarose bought a cow which she uses for milk for her family. The cow is expecting and she will sell the calf and reinvest the profits in the farm. With past savings she was able to build her own house. Right now she is saving to send her oldest daughter to University.

Jamarose makes us all proud! Won’t you help her and women like her? 

Thank you so much for your ongoing generous support. We wish you a happy Autumn.