Our Family Support Project has established women’s groups in Igombe, Chole and Mayega. This adds up to six in total. Around two hundred families have been supported. Building on this success, we launched a Sharing Christmas appeal, and, well beyond expectations, the response from our supporters has allowed two new groups to go ahead.

One will be in Mayega and the other in the village of Mukuyuni.

Our Assistant Project Leader, Julieth Godwin, said, ‘Mukuyuni is new to us. It is about 6 miles from Igombe and inland from Lake Victoria. It is not a fishing village and people rely on agriculture, collecting firewood, making charcoal and breaking stones for gravel, to make a living. About 500 people live there and they have a primary school and dispensary’.

Julieth is working closely with local leaders. Together they identify women who will benefit from group attendance. Julieth’s visit to Mukuyuni in January was affected by the rainy season weather. Julieth said, ‘it was raining so hard we couldn’t reach many families. I visited three and then had to give up but I’ll be back in February to complete the assessments. The families are very poor and the soon our group starts the better’.

The main purpose of a group is to have a vicoba (Village Community Bank) that can provide business loans to women members, allowing them to grow their small businesses. A group of 30 women can expect £750 from Busega Scotland, over a period of a year, and members add their own savings and loan interest to grow the capital. The vicoba is owned by the women.