Today we started the training sessions at Kihesa. All 20 of the new, existing, or emerging SACCOS
were represented at our session. Overall
we had 48 elected officials there with another 12 expected to arrive sometime
tomorrow. We are off to a good start!
The day started with devotions by the Kihesa pastor and
greetings from Chavalla, the general secretary at DIRA. Chavalla talked about how important the
SACCOS are to the poor in the Diocese and how valuable the program is to all of
the villages in the Diocese. We each extended our greetings to the group. Tom told them that we had traveled about 3,000
kilometers visiting 22 parishes, and that the assembled group represented
(almost) 1,000 members with about 120,000,000 schillings in assets. He also told them a few stories we had heard from
villagers during our visits about what the SACCOS are accomplishing in their lives.
Following introductions and greetings, the training sessions
began. The emphasis on Day 1 was
understanding the constitution of the SACCOS.
Each attendee was given a bound,
printed copy of the constitution we are asking them to use. The differences in the constitution for each
SACCOS will be the amount of the entrance fees, the share prices, and the
minimum purchases – and even those we expect to be very close.
Christopher Ugulumu, the Iringa Coop Officer presented the
first class in understanding the constitution.
It soon became clear that even those leaders who have had constitutions
given to them before have never really read them (no surprise). Christopher talked for about an hour and a
half before the group broke for lunch. After
the lunch break, the Coop Officer from Kilolo District gave the second class on
the constitution. The constitution and
the legal operation of a SACCOS were explained page by page. During the next two hours there were many questions. Finally, about 4:30, the discussion ended for
the day.
Our last task of the day was to take photos of the
attendees. We want to take pictures of each group of SACCOS officers, so every group
that had all officers in attendance lined up to have their group photo
taken. (So far there are 12 with all of
their officers here – the other 8 should finish arriving by tomorrow). We made sure we had their names correct,
along with the office they are holding, and wished them a good night! (It was good to note that we remembered
almost all of them from our recent visits.
Sandy even remembered which village most of them were from – Tom of
course did not!) It was good to meet the
new officers from Itungi. (You may
recall that when we were last there they were holding elections.)
We chatted awhile with the Kilolo SACCOS officer. He had been planning on going down to Nyanzwa
to supervise the election of new officials yesterday. Unfortunately he was called to a meeting so
he will not make it until next week. He
did tell us however that all of the loans, interest, and fines had been
collected. This means that with the
election of new officials Nyanzwa will be back in business and all of our
SACCOS will be running well.
There were 48 SACCOS officials in attendance.
Christopher Ugulumu explained the constitution in the morning.
After lunch the Kilolo Coop Officer took over.
During afternoon coffee Tom starting giving candy to the kids. Soon there was a crowd and Sandy took over.
Itiweni had a few closing remarks.
Sandy not only remembered the officers we had met, she remember which village they were from - Tom did not!
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