6/21/11 Amateur

Josiah, a Tanzanian man that grew up in Shirati and went to the states for college and then married Dr. Esther, told me that “sometimes when you learn to drive for the first time, it works ok, but sometimes you can end up crashing.” This analogy was taken as some good advice after I was talking about the different RFC programs, especially jumping straight into microlending and scouting out kids to sponsor. I appreciated his wisdom and eagerly took up his suggestions. The first was to meet with him and Killion and they would help scribe a list of the neediest families in the area to be considered for primary and secondary school. As Josiah mentioned, everyone here is needy of assistance, but you need to find the truly needy. He also then told me that Rosie, the administrative assistant at the SHED office actually has a background in microfinance. I was elated to hear this since being intrigued with microlending, I’ve been longing to start this branch in RFC but am not totally educated on the ins and outs like setting up with amortization tables for principal and interest payments, managing solidarity groups or even what is the ideal amount to start with. For those that are clueless about microfinance as I was until last year, it is the provision of small loans (usually $300 or less) to mostly women so that they can use the loan and start a small business and eventually payback the microloan with interest. Microfinance is one of the most effective means of improving someone’s poverty status while amazingly is financially self-reliant. Once the interest is recouped, the revenue can be used towards other social businesses.

I am planning on holding a meeting tomorrow inviting all of the women we interviewed with Killion last October and some we interviewed just the other day. The point of the meeting is to gather all the women and explain the idea of microloans and have them submit a sort of business plan so that we can choose the most sound plans to fund. Rosie suggested that the best method is to start with a small loan (about $20) and give the women 3 months to repay this loan on a weekly or biweekly basis. She also strongly agrees with me when I suggest that business classes should be held in conjunction to educate the women and ensure success. The women will also be required to meet amongst themselves on a minimum weekly basis.

I spend the rest of the day going into a smaller subvillage across from the airstrip where the girls practice and scout out kids that are in need of school sponsorship. After this, Sarah and I head over to soccer practice at 4pm. I get to give out all those shoes we bought from the market so the girls were thrilled. It was incredible to see this team of girls running around in cleats and sneakers with knee high socks…they looked and played so well! A range rover of a wazungu family pulls over and is excited about the girls team and we have a discussion. The mom is looking for a good sabbatical spot so they drive from Ethiopia to Tanzania and the dad and kids are tagging along for a ride…I thought that was super cool and see myself doing something like that when I have a family.