The New WIA Shop

WIA has decided to start another income-generating activity that will depend on customer activity from the Arusha area, as opposed to foreign support, as the beads-business draws upon.  Due to the generosity of Susan Green and Donald Spector (NJ, USA), the WIA Shop has a budget of 200 USD to begin its operations.  One of the permanent WIA staff will be chosen as the business manager and responsible for maintaining inventory and keeping track of revenue and expenses.  WIA has started the processes of researching various ideas for its shop.  WIA is considering selling stationary, photocopies, dry goods, and non-prescription pharmacy items.  Over the next month, these business scenarios will be analyzed.  WIA hopes to open the shop by the end of April.

The location of the shop will be in the same building as the WIA office, just adjacent.  All profits will go to WIA’s operating budget.

VICOBA: A Six-Month Review

March 28, 2007 marked the six-month anniversary of WIA’s two VICOBA (Village Community Banking) groups.  Six months ago WIA started these two groups with 30 people in each.  Of the 60 village community bank members, 51 are women.  Nearly all of those women are foster parents caring for children orphaned by AIDS, widows of the disease, and/or living with HIV/AIDS themselves.  There are 12 leadership positions between the two groups and 11 of those leaders are women.

Each group meets every Wednesday.  Over the first 12 weeks, the VICOBA members were educated on the rules of the village bank and trained on how to run small businesses.  Each week every member of the organization contributes a small amount of money as a share, usually between 1,000 and 5,000 TSH (~0.80 USD to 4.50 USD).  After at least 12 weeks, the members may borrow three times the amount they purchased as shares.  The loans are used to start or expand their own small business.  They must then conduct their business successfully enough to pay back the loans with a 10% interest in monthly instalments over three months.  The interest paid back into the village bank is kept as saving for the year and redistributed at the end of that year as profit for the members based on percentage of shares bought throughout the year.

After six months of operation, 20 of the 60 VICOBA members have taken loans.  19 of these members are on track to pay the money back on time.  Some of the various businesses include: selling second-hand clothes, fruits and vegetables, fried fish, custom designed t-shirts, embroidered clothes, chaco (similar to coal), maize, and many others.