Today we had the opportunity to witness what we have only
heard about in our travels! We were
invited to attend a women’s table top banking meeting in Kimoson. Due to the heavy rains the night before, we
decided to arrange a taxi instead of riding our motorbikes. This proved to be a wise decision because
once we turned off the “main road” onto the road where the meeting was being
held, there were many deep mud puddles which would have been hard to avoid on
bikes. By the time all the members had
arrived there were about twenty-five women participating in this group. It was so uplifting to see each woman come
forward to repay her loan (plus interest) knowing she had done well enough to
keep shillings for her household as well.
Next, each woman gave shillings which will go into savings for
them. This was followed by women paying
“fines” which they are assessed if they miss a meeting or are late to the
meeting. This is a way of keeping the
meeting orderly and on time. Lastly,
each woman paid a very small amount for “insurance” in case one of their
members passes away. This will go toward
paying off the funeral expenses for that woman.
Death is a very common occurrence here and coming up with the money to
pay for funerals places a very heavy burden on families. It was amazing to watch this process and see
how these women are benefiting from each other and the knowledge that comes
with this type of banking.
We dedicated our afternoon to “administrative tasks”. Establishing Rise Up Now as a NGO
(non-government organization) here in Kenya requires an enormous amount
of paperwork, coordination, and future planning.
Please pray with us and for us about the following upcoming
appointments:
- One final RUN board meeting has been scheduled for Tuesday afternoon. With much still needing accomplished, pray we are able to complete everything that needs done while Ellen and I are here, and that the board will be able to continue moving forward once we leave.
- Our friend Fridah emailed us that she has arrived back in Nairobi. Pray for her that she finds some kind of work soon, and that she will be able to study for and pass her CISCO certification test for computers.
No comments:
Post a Comment