Village Enterprise

We are starting a new group through business training with Alex on Saturday.  It will be a bit of a mad dash getting everyone together, but I am confident (she says a little hesitantly) that we can pull it off.  We are inviting 100 people and hoping for 80.

I met with Grace from the Kakamega Rotary club this morning to talk about the women's groups that she works with.  Grace is a retired Head Teacher and a dynamo volunteer with Rotary and in the Community.  Since 2008, Grace has volunteered for an NGO based out of California, Village Enterprise.  This group provides grants to small groups of 3-5 members to start small businesses.  Volunteers like Grace, visit rural communities and identify groups that may be eligible for a grant.  The groups fill out a detailed application form, which includes a home visit for verification, to determine their living situation.  Some of the questions on the application are:

How many dependents do you have?
How many meals a day do you budget for?
How many times a week do you have meat? 
What is your house built out of (mud, cement, bricks, etc.)?
How many towels in your house?
How many mosquito nets?
Do you have an iron?

The groups that are selected are put through training in how to choose a business and location, how to get and retain customers, how to convert profits into savings to keep the business going, book keeping, etc.  Then, each group puts 1,500 Ksh in and Village Enterprise gives them a grant for 7,500 for a total of 9.000 to start a business.  The groups are monitored to see that they are keeping good records and the business is continuing.  After three months of good standing, the group is given another 3,750 Ksh to boost their business even further.  After another three months of monitoring, groups that are excelling are given a bonus 5,000 Ksh for their business.  Grace says there are only a few that qualify for this bonus.

New groups chosen every three months.  Grace says that most of the groups are still going strong, even after 3 years.  She has seen people rise out of poverty with even this very small start.  This is not microcredit.  These are grants.  Village Enterprise also pays their field volunteers like Grace a stipend of 1,000 Ksh per group application, and another small stipend for the training day.  The training is free, Village Enterprise provides lunch for all of the participants and pays their fare to the session. 

Grace says I can come with her to the training session in early February for the most recent approved groups. 

We had a good discussion about training with or without the promise of money for business.  The training that we are providing through Tembo lead by Alex is focused on starting from where you are and NOT waiting for a western donation.  Grace believes that without start up capital, training is meaningless -- certainly for the client group that Village Enterprise is targeting. 

We also talked about the very African idea of paying volunteers.  As mentioned in a previous post, this has been an issue that has come up with the Rotary Grant.  The Rotarians with the Kakamega Rotary Club do not think that KASFOOC should be paid for the work they are doing in co-ordinating the Protected Springs Project.  Rotarians are not paid a stipend, so neither should the CBO (Community Based Organization) that will be benefiting from the project.  They believe in pure volunteerism... which is all very well in theory, but as Grace pointed out, when she is working for this NGO, it means she is not able to work to put food on her table. 

Terry and I have found money for KASFOOC (I'm not sure which pocket it will come out of) because we know the incredible time and energy that they have put into this project.  It just doesn't seem fair to us that they not be compensated in some way.  We also didn't want to put up a fight with the Rotary Club, so we just gave them a small amount to keep them going.

It will be good to see training from two different schools of thought.  Nothing is black and white.