1,000 Microloans for Rural Women in East Africa

A week or so ago we were reflecting on the quarterly message we would send to you, our faithful donors. We planned to report that after almost two years of COVID-related challenges, our lending operations were pretty much back to normal. But after the latest news of the rapid spread the virulent Omicron variant, unfortunately we can’t be sure. A little background:

This fall, 18 months after the first nationwide lockdowns due to the Covid-19 pandemic, the women of WMI had started to regain a sense of normalcy. Toward the beginning of the pandemic, WMI made many adjustments to help our borrowers get through the pandemic safely, such as modifying loan repayment schedules and providing sanitizing stations and personal protective equipment to borrowers and staff. 

During the lockdowns, the ladies had to find ways to continue their businesses in some acceptable form, as transportation and any form of trading was restricted. Many of the women sell perishable products; others travel to other locations to restock. To continue selling their products, many women were forced to spend the duration of the lockdowns sleeping in the markets as they were not allowed to leave and return in the morning. 

When the last lockdown was lifted, there were still many travel restrictions in place, but operations at WMI offices began to pick up with new protective protocols and equipment in place. The overwhelming majority of WMI entrepreneurs amazed us with their sense of responsibility to continue some type of repayment on their loans and their inventiveness in pivoting to other income-producing strategies during the lockdowns.

WMI was determined keep our borrowers in business; we did not want to default loans when the economic crisis forced borrowers to skip sequential payments. Thus, we worked with our women individually to restructure their loans by extending the term or wrapping the balance due into a new loan. After restructuring loans and recovering as much as we could, WMI quietly forgave the remaining COVID-related defaults across all our East Africa programs.

Once new borrower training began again and businesses reopened, WMI borrowers were very enthusiastic and excited to get back to their businesses and daily activities. Despite the huge impact of the pandemic, the 2021 Factbook Survey showed that prior to receiving loans from WMI, almost 80% of women had monthly income between $0 and $50, but after receiving their loans monthly incomes doubled and tripled, to an average monthly income of $135.

Today, WMI’s loan hubs are operating normally while observing COVID safety protocols, but the latest announcement of the Omicron variant now pushing northward from Southern Africa has us concerned that the storm is not over. Vaccination rates in Uganda and Kenya hover around 5%, making our population very susceptible to the disease. Only a few of our borrowers have been vaccinated. Also, our loan hubs in eastern Uganda are located on the main trade routes north to Sudan and west to Kenya, with truckers passing by day and night. We are concerned this may become an Omicron transmission route.

Our message: WMI will continue lending and expanding on a normal basis to support the women we serve through any hardship and to ensure that they don’t spiral back into the cycles of poverty we have worked so hard to eradicate over the past 14 years. We are there for the poor rural women of East Africa, and we hope you will be, too. Your support is key to keeping our loan funds at full lending capacity. Wont you help us continue to build the vibrant support network that has become the lifeblood of these rural communities.

We wish you and your families a happy holiday season and a safe winter!

Life in a Maasai Village in Tanzania is never easy, but Women’s Microfinance Initiative’s goal is to help level the economic playing field for the women who live there. We do that by making loans to qualified women to help them start or expand small businesses that provide them with the income they need to purchase food they cannot grow, buy clothing they cannot make, educate their children, and attend to their family’s healthcare needs. To amplify our program impact, WMI often works in conjunction with other NGOs or community- based organizations such as a school or health clinic that are providing services in the village. One such program is in Nainokanoka Village in the Ngorongoro Conservation Area near Arusha, Tanzania, where we support Naiborr Omom Initiatives (NOI).

Recently, we made a small grant to NOI to assist with their goals of achieving community well-being through health initiatives. Our grant funds three community health interpreters who assist at the Health Center and local dispensaries. Most of our village women speak only Maa, the local language, while the health professionals speak only Swahili. This language barrier not only discouraged our borrowers from seeking pre- and post-natal health care, but they also tended to deliver their babies at home, far from often quickly needed medical care. When the women did seek medical advice or care, they reported feeling intimidated by the health care professionals, and unfortunately, sometimes the health care professionals were rude to them. Because of these negative experiences, many Maasai women would not seek needed medical care.

In the four months the interpreters have been working, the village has seen a huge impact in understanding and improving health care needs. In addition to providing one-on-one interpreting, the community health workers have been going out into the community to provide health classes, especially pre- and post-natal education. They’ve also gone into the schools to provide students with health care education, that they, in turn, share with their parents.

This service has played an incredibly important role in changing attitudes. We are already seeing:

• Families beginning to understand the problems associated with the practice of female genital cutting (FGC) and publicly pledging not to cut their daughters. Young men are pledging to marry an uncut girl now that the stigma of being uncut has been reduced.
• A 66% increase in the number of women going to the health center to give birth due to improved trust between the NOI team, health workers and the community.
• From seeing 12 women a month for family planning, 100 women now seek counseling each month. Women are feeling empowered and gender-based violence has been reduced.
• Women are adding fruit, vegetables, and nutritious grains to their diets to reduce complications resulting from deficiencies in iron and folic acid. They also have learned that undereating to keep the baby small for an easier delivery is not good for either the mother or the child.

Healthier women make better borrowers, and it is amazing to see that such a small investment has made such a huge impact to the community, which strengthens our lending program as well. These small community engagement projects bring us healthier, more confident women.

Your generosity in supporting WMI is giving African women the chance to work their way out of poverty. Please take a moment to think about the impact you can have with your small donation. Thank you!!