Warm greetings to all our supporters and friends of Kwiheed. Thanks again for your many generous contributions. As the Holiday Season approaches let me update you on our on-going initiative to alleviate income and social poverty in Cameroon, now in its 8th year.
Current Activities
Women continue to open Savings accounts at our MUGCOF Bank. 2,228 women have savings accounts which pay 3% interest. $10,895 has been deposited. As I have reported before, as these deposits grow we will ultimately be able to use some of these funds to recycle loans, thus reducing the amount of money we need to raise from other sources.
Interestingly, we have found that it is easier to attract funds for HIV+ women (Women's Support Groups or WSG), and Chosen Children (AIDS Orphans) than it is to raise funds for women who are simply poor. We recently received ~ $112,000 from Plan International to vastly expand our WSG and Chosen Children programs. The total Grant was $ 225,000 which we will share with the Mission Hospital where I work for their AIDS program. Lee and I have supported several children in Cameroon through Plan International, one of whom lives in a village (Oku-Ibal) where we coincidentally have a group of loan recipients. You may remember that the Cabot Trust also gave us money that was designated for AIDS Orphans.
Since women in the WSG represent those who are most vulnerable to poverty, we are offering loans to them at a lower interest rate (5%). Some of the money from the Plan International Grant will, therefore, be used to bring the interest payment on loans to the 10% level that all borrowers must pay. It would not be prudent to give out interest-free loans, or loans at a reduced rate. Otherwise, no funds would be available to assure the sustainability of our program, a goal we constantly strive to achieve. Also, without income from the interest on loans to meet our overhead expenses, our program to help the women in Support Groups and the AIDS Orphans would terminate after little more than a year. The Hospital recently received funds from another source which enables their staff to treat the women in the WSG for their AIDS, thus virtually assuring them of a longer life expectancy, and hopefully, through raised economic status, lives of greater value for themselves and their families.
Some comments from the women in the Support Groups who are now receiving AIDS drugs:
"During our meetings we receive education, information and communication on HIV/AIDS, sexual issues, writing a Will, maternal and infant nutrition, and practical demonstrations on food preparation, strategies of living positively and coping with HIV/AIDS, and sharing of individual experiences". Mme Martho F.
"To learn how to make crafts is a way of providing skills for clients to do things for themselves in order to earn a living e.g. knitting of traditional gowns and caps, and gardening."
AIDS Orphans or "chosen children" as they are called to reduce stigma, are too numerous to incorporate all of them into families which become groups eligible for loans. Most of our funding for this group, therefore, will go to meeting school fees, medical expenses, nutritional supplements, clothing and psychological support. Half of the money from the Cabot Grant will be used for them.
"Top leaders need to listen and attend to the concerns and needs of infected persons. We are citizens; we are human beings and contribute to nation building. If top leaders fail to go to the support groups, the support groups should go to the top leaders and express themselves." Mme Martho F.
You might be interested to know that a Hospice program for women with terminal AIDS
has been created. Normally this role is assumed by clergy and family, but a group of interested women have been selected and given special training to take on this very important and difficult responsibility.
Our Impact Evaluation initiative is an on-going project and we have no news to report. However, I would like to call your attention to an article in the May/June 2004 Foreign Affairs magazine entitled "The Payoff from Women's Rights" by Isobel Coleman. A few excerpts: "Microfinance to women has become a powerful force for development. Its greatest long-term benefit is its impact on the social status of women. Women now account for 80% of the world's 70 million micro-borrowers. Studies show that women with micro-financing get more involved in family decision-making, are more mobile and more politically and legally aware, and participate more in public affairs than other women. Female borrowers also suffer less domestic violence - a consequence, perhaps, of their perceived value to the family increasing once they start to generate income of their own." We have anecdotal evidence from our program, and, hopefully this will be corroborated by our study, that more girls are going to school than before as the economic status of women and their families improve. "Girl's education may be the investment that yields the highest return in the developing world. Educated women have fewer children; provide better nutrition, health, and education to their families; experience significantly lower child mortality; and generate more income than women with little or no schooling. Investing to educate them thus creates a virtuous cycle for their community."
Staff Transitions
John West, the British accountant/auditor who formerly was a consultant for KPMG in the UK is now the overall Director of our financial reporting system. He also consults at our Bank (MUGCOF). He will supervise a Cameroonian finance officer who has also recently joined the staff to replace a man with less experience.
Recent Innovations
We finally have a women representative of the Loan Recipients on the WINHEEDCAM BOD, something we have been anxious to see happen for some time. Hopefully, this arrangement will work out to everyone's satisfaction. Communication between the loan recipients and the staff is close, but not with the Board of Directors of WINHEEDCAM. One of the oft expressed complaints of the women borrowers is the delay in receiving the next loan after the previous one is completed and paid for in full. This can prevent, for example, the women from purchasing seeds for planting in a timely fashion. Our staff is very busy, and action to relieve this problem tends to be taken more quickly when a loan recipient representative can confront the Board and explain the implications of late loan disbursement.
Kwiheed's Executive Committee consists of Sarah Richards (President), Taryn Vian (Vice President) and Charlo Maurer (Financial Adviser). I continue to serve as Executive Director. In the past 6 months we have met, at least once a month. One or all of us has had telephone conferences with WINHEEDCAM staff members monthly. This has been very helpful, as WINHEEDCAM expands and the financial reporting system becomes more complicated, and new people join the staff.
Donors may remember that a new software package was introduced last year, and that the transfer of records has been a difficult task, complicated by staff transition. The monthly telephone conversations have resulted in positive changes in the financial reporting forms that when complete, will increase ease of interpretation for internal use, and oversight by the WINHEEDCAM and KWIHEED Board of Directors.
A November visit to Boston by Professor Pius Tih, WINHEEDCAM Board member, gave the opportunity for direct discussion with the KWIHHED Executive Committee about goals for financial recording and use of statistics.
Plans for the Future
We are happy with the progress made in administrative reforms necessary to expansion over the past year. Our plans for 2005 are to solidify our existing client-base by distributing loans to groups more promptly, and to make improvements based on results of impact evaluation. Client education is an on-going goal, and now that we have more and better-trained field staff, they can re-enforce and increase communication about the loan services, process and obligations.
Our greatest need now is for funds to meet the needs of first time borrowers at $25. There are about 1,000 women out there who have applied for loans and found eligible, but we do not have available funds at this time to respond.
Also, remember we have many women borrowing for the 5th or 6th time. These loans are as high as $200. As I have mentioned before, we do not always have the funds available to recycle all the requests of these frequent high level borrowers. Higher donations of $1,000- $10,000 are urgently needed.
50 loans at $ 200 = $ 10,000
200 first loans @ $25 = $ 5,000
50 2d loans @ $ 50 = $ 2,500
This Newsletter was created through the combined efforts of Sarah Richards, Taryn Vian Munro Proctor and especially Charlo Maurer, all Kwiheed Board Members.
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