Today I accompanied David Munde, the head honcho at the Narok World Concern office, out to Naroosura to visit one of the Economic Development Projects World Concern has started (along with another Seattle-based outfit called The Fluid Foundation.) Now, this idea—of Financial Services Associations (FSA’s)--is a really cool idea and it seems to be off to a very good start.
World Concern has gotten out of the use of micro-financing/micro-loans as a way of promoting small business growth—micro-financing is all the vogue now and with its popularity the core reason for micro-financing has been lost. The whole ‘industry’ has taken on a business/investment model whereby lenders are motivated by profits received through interest rates rather than by would-be needy community business growth. World Concern is now focused on starting Financial Services Associations in very rural, isolated communities that have potential for small business growth but no access to traditional banking services located in bigger towns and cities.
An FSA is, essentially, a customer-owned coop-type community bank. World Concern provides the money up front for the initial rent on a bank-appropriate building, money to make security improvements to the building and to provide a safe to hold the cash. Community members buy shares in the bank—1,000 ks per share (about $10.oo.) Once the bank has had 200 shares purchased, it is launched; once an individual shareholder owns 10 shares, they are eligible to access bank services. Banking services include: personal and/or group savings accounts (holders of savings accts. are charged a small fee to withdraw money,) check cashing services, cashier check issuance (for paying school fees, bills, etc. to institutions that won’t accept cash) and small emergency and small business loans (which accrue interest at a nominal rate. Emergency loans must be repaid within one month; business loans within 2 months of starting the business.) This is all of tremendous benefit to these remote collections of villages as in the past people had to travel for hours to get into Narok town to do any kind of banking—which didn’t happen because either they had no transportation or they were afraid of getting robbed on the remote and very rough road into town.
The FSA in Naroosura—named ‘Nalepo,’ which means ‘lactating cow’ in kiMaasai—was started in October, 2009 and has seen steady growth in the community over the last 27 months. As non-shareholder community members see their neighbors benefitting from the services provided to shareholders, they, too, buy shares. Today was market day in Naroosura, and while we were visiting Nalepo, several Maasai men came in to deposit the cash they had received from selling cows and goats; women came in to deposit cash earned from selling maize and onions. This reflects a huge amount of community education on the part of World Concern and the community-elected Board of Directors of the bank as traditionally, the Maasai have kept their money stuffed in folds of their robes, hidden beneath the beaded bands on their wrists or stowed beneath their sleeping palettes in their mud homes.
I was introduced to David, a Maasai man who had been your run-of-the-mill Maasai cow herder. After he became a shareholder in the bank, he decided it was stupid to be selling his milk to a middleman that boiled it and then resold it to customers; David decided to open his own hotel(restaurant) where he could not only process his own milk and sell it, but also serve food. He found an unused market stall, sold 2 of his cows and combined that cash with a 10,000 ks ($100.oo) loan from Nalepo and enclosed the market stall with corrugated tin walls and roof, built a wood-fired cooking pit, enlisted his wife to help him cook and installed a small fridge and a 1970’s-era black and white TV. His hotel is centrally located in the market and he is enjoying quite a bit more prosperity than he was when he was just selling his raw milk.
The coolest part about this whole project is that it puts the responsibility for community development squarely in the hands of the community itself. This is a model that promotes solution-finding from within the community rather than solution-seeking (or aid-seeking.) I think it’s awesome and I’m proud to be from a city where there are such forward thinking and right-focused organizations.
Okay—long explanation. But I can’t sign off until I tell you about the medicine part. As I mentioned, today was market day in Naroosura and in the first row of the market were several people selling traditional Maasai herbs (which all looked like chunks of trees to me, but what do I know?) I had quite the conversation with one gentleman who patiently explained the uses of the different trees (the bank’s board chairman interpreted, as my kiMaasai consists of one single word.) The ground bark in a little cup is called ngooma; it is boiled in water and used to treat stomach upset and lung ‘problems.’ The tree branches (olkakola) are cut up into chunks and boiled; said to treat bone problems and gonorrhea. The bark of yet another stick, olmaroroi, is used to treat back pain. And the final piece of wood—a root that smells like a cross between a carrot and a pair of dirty socks—is used for an unlikely range of maladies that includes appetite stimulant, joint pains and as a cure for pretty much any sexually transmitted disease you can think of.
Oh, and since we now have reliable internet service, Kristin will be updating her blog today!
Photos: Nalepo-the Naroosura FSA; the 'road' to Naroosura; Paul and Regina, inside Nalepo; Naroosura street; bank customer depositing cash from her market sales; David inside his 'hotel'; exterior of David's 'hotel'; Maasai man and traditional healing herbs, Naroosura market.
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