...Empowering Chicks

Nine miles out on the Hoima road, she said.

We had so many home interviews of potential borrowers to do last Thursday, that I normally would have cringed at the thought of driving so far. But I'd met Josephine once already in the office, and had been enchanted. I was looking forward to spending more time getting to know her.

We passed through Kasubi market—carefully dodging the white mini-bus taxis that clog the roadside, escaping near misses with bicycles carrying their awkward loads. Carefully arranged heaps of onions, tomatoes and green plantains collected the dust stirred up by our wheels. 20 cents a heap—road dust free of charge.

Josephine sat in silence in back as we entered the long, beautiful stretch in the direction of her farm. Abdul, my friend and trusted partner in so many aspects of LiA's development, sat beside me as the landscape opened up brilliantly all around us. It was a crisp, clean morning after many days of rain. The green hills began to roll ever so gently, accentuated by proud banana trees lifting their showy leaves to the sun.

The last time I was out this way was 6 years ago, during my very first visit to Uganda. In those days, the road was a bumpy red dust nightmare that took hours to negotiate. It's now paved to perfection, a pleasure to drive. Funny how everything looks so much cleaner than it did then. Or am I looking through different, more seasoned eyes? I'd have remembered that two story school, wouldn't I? No, it must be new. Like the road.

We turn off at Kayunga to follow a track deep into the countryside. Through a tunnel of trees, past farms with acres of coffee shrubs planted under the protective shade. Fork right at the big mango tree there, just another half mile to go... past farm houses with lovely flowers planted out front, and cows watching passively as we make our way noisily over ruts in the road.

"You are welcome! Please come see my chickens," Josephine says. "You see how crowded they are, which is why I really need to build another shed." 200 egg-laying hens sit barely able to move in the tiny space. Another space— empty, just next door—is where her husband will raise his own chicks, since Josephine has already shown him just how profitable they can be. "Will you work together and share resources like food for the chicks?" I ask. "Oh no. No, no, no. In Uganda, a woman has to protect herself", she tells me. "He might take the money I need to repay the loan."

We settle down for the interview under a flowering tree in the yard. Roses, obviously tended with skilled loving care, surround us on all sides. Two cows look on from about 10 feet away, as Josephine enthralls us with poise and conviction. She struggles for words in English, until I encourage her to give over to Luganda. Abdul translates the parts I can't follow, but her body language says it all. Through the haze of the language barrier, I watch with awe as this Ugandan farmer's wife lays out her detailed and intelligent plan with incredible determination.

Five hundred chicks is the goal. First a larger shed, then more chicks. Then another space, and even more chicks. The growth will be financed in part by 2-3 micro loans she hopes we'll guarantee, and also by the business itself. She could have used a $200 loan now (the maximum we will guarantee for first time borrowers) but she'd heard her chances of getting into the program would be better if she applied for a lower amount. She's asking for $130 this time. "If I pay it off early, can I move on to a higher amount sooner?" she asks. There is urgency in her lovely dark eyes.

She points fondly to a boy across the yard, her first born of four. He's 14 now, and in his first year of high school. Her husband pays the fees for him to go to a village school, but Josephine wants better for him. "I need 500 chicks," she says, "so he can go to that two story school we saw along the way." Josephine's husband recently lost his job, and now relies solely on the farm for income. She knows he can't afford the better school for their son, nor for the other children later on. Since it's Josephine who really wants it, she has decided to make it happen. She needs her 500 chicks within the next year. If she could have access to a bit of credit, her dream would be within reach.

Josephine knows she deserves the guarantee we can provide. She's been careful and wise in her planning. She has spoken well. The interview is nearing an end and she radiates confidence, strength and hope. She is at ease with herself, knowing that she's done her very best. She is beautiful. The image of her looking at her son with so much longing for his future is one I think will stay with me for a very long time.

Empowerment is a wonderful thing to be a part of, but it's also intangible, and so often hard to measure. That day on Josephine's farm, I felt as though I actually touched it, and it was pure magic. Josephine came in today to get the results of last night's review committee meeting. Her loan has been guaranteed by Judy Larson of Alameda, California.

She couldn't wait to go home and tell her son.

Hope this finds you all well.

Christina Jordan
Kampala, Uganda
http://LifeInAfrica.com

P.S. I'd really enjoy your feedback on this or other Letters from Uganda at mzungu@lifeinafrica.com This story first appeared in (Christina's) Letters from Uganda, (and is the property of "Letters from Uganda" copyright 2000) a biweekly publication about life in East Africa which is available by free email subscription. Send a blank email to

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About the Author:
Christina Jordan

In October 1998, American born Christina Jordan-Haitsma moved to Kampala with her Dutch husband, Epko, and their two small boys, Thomas and Lucas.

Christina had always wanted to live and work in Africa, and has long had a professional interest in microfinance. She convinced her husband (an equally adventurous soul) to take a job outside of his professional field in Uganda, a country they had visited together and fallen in love with several years earlier. Christina planned to find work with a local microfinance institution, to put her theoretical experience in microfinance to practical use.

When Christina wrote her first letter from Uganda to her family and friends, she had no idea they would eventually become what is now The Life in Africa Foundation. The letters she originally wrote to her family and friends provoked an interest in life in Uganda and in microfinance that she never anticipated. Before long, the mailing list began to grow spontaneously to include people she didn't know. When donations began arriving to support her personal initiatives in loaning to the poor she knew and wrote about, she decided to establish The Life in Africa Foundation. For Christina, LiA represents a way to harness the goodwill and interest her letters generated, and use it to benefit African people in tangible ways.

Letters from Uganda offer a unique blend of multi-cultural and socio-economic perspectives, as a result of the life Christina has lived. Raised in a working class family in a small US town, she has experienced poverty in her own American culture. She has also experienced the fight to get ahead, and the gratification of achieving success on her own terms. She put herself through college and graduate school, and found innovative ways to work and study her way around the world. The perceptions and insights she shares in Letters from Uganda stem from her own desire to learn about, understand, and help others in the life struggles that strike chords with what she's experienced in her own past.

Christina has a BA in Linguistics from the University of California in Los Angeles (UCLA) and a Master of Science degree from the Georgetown School of Foreign Service in Washington D.C., with a specialization in development. She has worked at the United Nations in Geneva, for Price Waterhouse in Washington D.C. and Brussels, and as a Project Manager at Transtec, Belgium's leading multi-disciplinary consulting firm. Before moving to Uganda she lived most of her adult life outside of the United States in Finland, Germany, Switzerland and Belgium, and has traveled for extended periods in Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean Eastern Europe and Spain.

She is the President and Founder of The Life in Africa Foundation.
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