Changing Lives through Microfinance

The Story of Tobias Ogot

 

 

This ramshackle hut might not look like much, but for Tobias Ogot it has brought him great prosperity and hope! 

 

Come on in and have a seat, and get your hair trimmed clean and neat!

 

Tobias received a loan from Lalmba's microfinance program several years ago to open his barber shop. He purchased hair clippers, a solar panel, a battery for storing electricity (he needs electricity to run his clippers!), and the materials to build his shop.  Since the shop's opening, he has repaid 100% of his loan and his business continues to grow. It has grown so much that he trained and now employs 2 other villagers who were eager to learn a new trade.  With 1 microfinance loan, Tobias has brought himself and 2 others out of extreme poverty! 

 

 Matoso, Kenya

Oh, the beauty of microfinance! It doesn't just help 1 person out of poverty, but it spreads and improves an entire community 1 loan at a time. When Tobias is not working in his shop, he's working his farm on land that he purchased from the shop's profits. He is also able to buy school uniforms, books and pay the school fees for his 5 children.  I wonder what bright futures await these children, who now can go to school thanks to their father's tin hut barber shop?  What a success story!  When asked what he would have done without the loan, he smiled and said, "I don't know, but I do know that my life now is very happy! In the future I hope to save enough to open another shop in a nearby village." 

May Tobias' tin hut barber shop, hopeful spirit and work ethic inspire us all!

http://lalmba.org/microfinance.html

 

Oo Oo Oo You AIDS

AIDS has decimated much of Sub-Saharan Africa, and the communities around Lake Victoria are no exception. Ruth Achieng lives with 40 other children, all orphaned by AIDS, in Lalmba's Ongoro Children's Home. (1400 other orphans are supported through our RCAR program.)  Below, Ruth delivers a dramatic reading of a poem she wrote about losing her parents to this dreadful disease. 

 AIDS

Better to start from nowhere and go to somewhere,

but we started from somewhere and go to nowhere.

Oo Oo Oo You AIDS

What does a child need in this world?

Education,  

Health care, 

Protection 

Food,  

Shelter, and most of all....

Parental love,

 but you stole that from us!

You you AIDS.

One day, I cannot remember when,

a visitor came in our house and said that it was the time

He must separate us.

Oh Oh Oh You AIDS.

Our questions came flying

Who are you?

Where are you from?

Why do you separate us?

Where do we go?

What will we eat?

Who will stay in our wonderful house?

But we could not get the answer.

Oo Oo Oo You AIDS.

You You You AIDS

Why?

Why did you decide to take our parents to the grave

And ordered us to go back home

To start from Zero with our grandmums.

Oh Oh Oh You AIDS 

You must be ousted!

By: Ruth Achieng

Meskerem's Story

 

Let us tell you about little Meskerem in the Chiri's Children's Home. She joined the Lalmba family when she was just 2 years old. Her mother, who was very ill and an orphan herself, was trying to get to the Chiri Health Center for treatment when she collapsed on the side of the road, with her daughter in her arms. The toddler and her mother were found by passers by who brought them to the Chiri Health Center, where her mother died a few days later. No one in the community knew the mother or where she was from, nor did anyone know this little girl's name. Having nowhere to go and no one to care for her, she was taken into the children's home, and the children's home staff named her Meskerem (September) for the month she was found. Now she is 7 years old, in 2nd grade, and is happy and healthy (can't you tell by the picture? She is the one on the left). What would have happened to her if Lalmba had not taken her in? This is Lalmba at its best, caring for the most vulnerable who literally have nowhere to turn. It costs Lalmba just $340/year to pay for Meskerem's lodging, food, clothing and care. Now THAT is money well spent!

 http://lalmba.org/donate.html

 

Market Day Portraits

Essay by Jeff James

High up in the mountainous rain forests of southwest Ethiopia is the town of Chiri, where Lalmba's Chiri Health Center is located. Under the backdrop of heavy, seasonal rains, ankle-deep mud and an array of ramshackle shops, the town can feel like the place that prosperity forgot.  It's true that there is extreme poverty here, but there is also a richness of spirit that inspires hope.

Twice each week, thousands of residents travel, sometimes for several hours, to congregate in Chiri town.  People don their best clothes, boys court girls, offering to carry their heavy bundles of vegetables and grains to and from market. Men sporting fine and feathered hats drink local brew out of colorful plastic cups, laughing, dancing, and listening to crackling music from warped tapes and blown-out speakers. Women socialize with other women while trading or selling whatever they are able to produce in a week. Children chase each other through the streets, kicking plastic-bag soccer balls, dodging goats, horses, donkeys, and cows tethered to stakes in the ground. Market day reveals a brighter and happier side of life.

I had photographed at the market many times, but the milieu of make-shift structures made it difficult for me to capture the dignity of the person through the starkness of the environment. My goal was to extract each person from the environment and photograph them on their finest day, in their finest clothes. To do this, I set up a photo booth in the middle of the market and made a portrait of any person who wanted their picture taken. The booth was mobbed that day. I photographed women in colorful dresses, goats and chickens, the town policeman, little boys imitating their favorite action hero, distinguished and wise old men and women (rarities in an area where the life expectancy is about 40), young girls in pretty dresses, and more. All told, I photographed nearly 700 people this day. The ones you see here are some of my favorite portraits. In them, I see strength born from hardship, and pride born from ancient traditions.  I see hope, perhaps not for earthly rewards, but a hope born of faith, faith in a God who promised that in the end, the last shall be first.

*

 "Is it True?"

by Hillary James

    Dedicated to Birhanu Asrat

Some of my best memories of our time in Chiri are the conversations I had with Birhanu, our gardener, who enjoyed a good laugh at life's dichotomies as much as I did.  He often asked me questions about things he'd heard about life in America.  His questions always began with "Is it true, Miss Hillary?" 

"Is it true, Miss Hillary?  Is it true that in America they have a machine that washes your clotheses for you?"

Birhanu just laughed and laughed when I told him yes.

"Is it true that in America some families have more than 1 car?"

"But why?" Birhanu asked.  He couldn't understand, in a world where his whole village shared one vehicle, which was Lalmba's, why a single family would have more than one. 

 

"Is it true, Miss Hillary?  Is it true that in America some people have a whole room just for their clothes and shoes?" 

When I explained about walk-in closets, he just laughed and laughed.  "But how many shoes can one person own?" he asked.  "They only have 2 feets!"

Once we got back  to the U.S., it was our friends and family here who asked "Is it true?" questions about the folks in Chiri.

"Is it true that some people in Chiri have never seen a mirror?"  I remember the time we were transporting a fistula patient in our car, and stopped at a hotel overnight.  She told me she just couldn't get comfortable in her room, and who was that other woman in there with her?

"Is it true that in Chiri, if people want to eat meat, they kill the animals themselves?"  One day Jeff and I had a hankering for the taste of chicken.  Birhanu assured us he could find us some, and came back from market with a live chicken under his arm, and handed her to us.  How he laughed when we said we didn't know what to do!  "But haven't you ever eaten chicken before?" 

"Is it true that in Chiri they had rats in their houses?"  I remember the day our translator, Tariku, came to work upset.  His most prized possession, his pocket English dictionary, had been shredded by rats as he slept.  "I tried to keep it in my hand so they wouldn't get to it," he said.  And then he showed me his thumb where one of the rats had bitten him for good measure. 

While the differences between our lives were certainly noteworthy,  my favorite moments were those when the divide wasn't evident at all.  Those moments came most often when Birhanu and I were squatting side by side weeding the garden, laughing about what a strange, funny world it is where some people have rooms for their clothes, and others know how to slaughter a chicken.