Starting Up At Kitowo

Today we took an hour’s drive south of town, down the Pommern road to Kitowo.  A mist was rising along the hills and cows kept claiming the road as theirs.  Kitowo is a typical rural parish.  They have five preaching points with 1,000 members.  The main church is an attractive looking brick structure – however they have a large new brick building they are working on.

Pastor Hezron Kiswaga met us when we arrived.  He has been here 2 years now.  Surprisingly Sandy did not have him in her class at Tumaini and Itiweni did not know him!

 

During chai Pastor Kiswaga started telling us why he thought that a SACCOS was a must for his parish.  “The people here have nowhere to get capital for their shambas (farms).  They see how well the CVP plot is doing and want to use the same methods.  It seems they are stuck in poverty without some way to get capital.” 

He went on to tell us that in his parish most members have 4 acres to plant.  It costs them about $80-90 per acre to plant “using traditional methods with CVP spacing.”  After harvesting and selling their crops they get about $190-200 per acre for their crops.  Most can only afford to plant part of their land (3 acres or so) – so they make about $300-350 per year.

“We have seen how we can make much more using the CVP methods.  If we can borrow $300 we can plant one acre using the CVP methods and 3 acres using our older ways.  When we harvest we will get $800 from the one CVP acre and $600 from the other three acres.  This means that our members could make $850-900!”  He was clearly excited for his parish.  Just think, a $300 loan could take his members from extreme poverty to being “lower middle class” by Tanzanian standards!

After chai we went next door to the church for the meeting.  After prayers and introductions Itiweni gave them a seminar on how to organize a SACCOS.  The members were somewhat subdued – they had been working in their fields all morning and were tired.  Still, as the seminar went on you could feel the excitement building.

After Itiweni had finished speaking the pastor got up and spoke to his parishioners about how this SACCOS was their chance for a new life.  He expressed his pleasure over having Tumaini, the diocese, and Iringa Hope helping them.  After he finished we left the members who continued with their meeting.   If they decide to elect officials they will be able to participate in our training session next week.

We went over to look at their CVP plot – what a stark contrast with the fields planted the traditional way!  The corn in the traditional fields was about 4 feet high.  The CVP field was over 6 feet and lush.  On the way we had passed a building with a sign over the door announcing “Kitowo SACCOS.”  I asked the pastor about this.  “Yes,” he told me.  “There was a SACCOS here at one time.  It only served one extended family and was closed when they moved.  Later on there was a government SACCOS nearby – but they did NOT offer long term loans (i.e.-6 months) and were no help to our members.  It is gone now too.”

We left Kitowo expecting to see them at our upcoming training course and went back to Iringa.  Once in town we got busy making arrangements for next week’s training session.  First we stopped at the Iringa cooperative store.  We have decided to provide all of the attendees with the proper paperwork to keep their records.  Most of the established SACCOS we visited are using plain paper for keeping their records, and the newly organized groups don’t have any of the necessary supplies.  Since we are insisting on consistent record keeping and auditing we want them to get a good start. 

It was a good thing we stopped at the store ahead of time because there aren’t enough record books in stock to supply our course.  We need to have 23 copies, which is more than they normally sell in months, so the books will be shipped to us from Moshi. 

We wound up the day back at the University making arrangements for printing constitutions, copying various papers, etc.  Next week’s training sessions are coming fast!

The mist was rising as we drove along towards Kilowo.

As we approached the church we were greeted by a group of women working on their shambas.

It is an attractive brick building.

While we had chai the pastor told us why he believed they had to have a SACCOS.

At first the members seemed tired and worn out, but as Itiweni gave her seminar they started to get excited.

After the seminar the pastor told his members that this was a chance for "a new life!"

On the way to their CVP demonstration plot we walked by the new church they are building.

The CVP corn is over 6 feet tall - the other corn is maybe 4.

When we got back to Iringa we went to buy the forms that we are planning to give the leaders next week.  Lucky we went now - they did not have nearly enough on hand.