Tanya visits Camily's solar cooker shop in August 2011. People gather to hear about using the strange boxes to cook food.

Gaudenziah, whose husband Camily has received several grants from Spirit in Action to promote and sell solar cookers out of the front of their home, was recently inspired with a new business plan. She knew that solar cookers use the power of the sun to cook foods such as meat, beans, eggs, rice, and vegetables. Then, in October I emailed to the Wedendes a story from the Solar Cookers International newsletter.

The article, about the work of Light Gives Heat in Kisumu, Kenya, told of the great opportunity of baking with solar cookers. “Most people cannot make high-quality cakes because of the irregular temperatures of charcoal and wood stoves, but solar cookers bake perfect, moist cakes with very little worry of burning or over-cooking.”

Pat-A-Cake

The story sparked Gaudenziah and Camily into action! “We shall be selling cakes and tea and we will also be boiling eggs in the solar cookers and people can buy when they pass beside the cafe,” wrote Camily excitedly to me.

They already have the solar cookers that Camily made from wood, glass, and reflective tinfoil, and they were able to use some of the profits from their cooker sales to buy a few baking supplies and paint for a sign. “SEEING IS BELIEVING CAFE is a wonderful name,” declares Camily, “because people are seeing, testing food that has been cooked in the solar cookers, then they believe and then they end up buying the cooker!”

Gaudenziah pours sun cooked tea for a customer.

A Sunny Outlook

It isn’t hard to see now, in the sunny season in Eldoret, that solar cookers can produce good tasting local foods, without using expensive charcoal or spending all day walking to gather wood for a traditional three-stone fire. “Right now we are in the dry season and now our solar cookers can cook all types of food in a short time, like 3 hours,” says Camily, in the sales pitch for his hand-made solar cookers.

Proudly, Camily and Gaudenziah reported this month, “With the profits that come out of the business, we are able to pay school fees for David our son [in 10th grade] and we have some to put back into the business.”

I wonder how solar cooked cupcakes taste. Hopefully someday I’ll get to taste, see, and believe for myself!

Tanya visits Gaudenziah at her family's thriving Solar Cookers business in Eldoret, Kenya.

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Matthews (MAVISALO's Secretary) giving us one of his big smiles.

“COMSIP…” called out Matthews, holding his hand in the air. “…Chop!” responded the fifty people gathered in the meeting room, as they brought down their hands in a chopping motion. The group is the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans organization, or MAVISALO, which Boyd and I visited last summer. And COMSIP is a Malawian government program designed to reduce (chop!) poverty by promoting a culture of saving. After the cheer, a feeling of enthusiasm remained in the room as the group settled down to start the meeting.

I held this exuberance in my mind as I read Canaan Gondwe’s most recent report on MAVISALO’s progress. MAVISALO, which already works to encourage savings among members and provide local loans at reasonable rates, is growing rapidly. They recently welcomed 80 new members for a total of 130 members!

Capacity Building and Training

In addition to the initial “seed money” from Spirit in Action, MAVISALO also was awarded an $800 grant from COMSIP (Community Savings and Investment Promotion) for training in financial literacy management and business management. Some of the topics covered at the recent training for MAVISALO members were:

COMSIP training for MAVISALO members

• Savings mobilization
• Credit management
• Monitoring of financial operations
• Business idea generation
• Business planning, records, and evaluation
• Market research and marketing
• Product costing
• Planning for profit

“These trainings have impacted on the members positively,” wrote Canaan in his report, “in that members will operate their small enterprises with skill and positive attitude.” Many of these topics are also covered in the Small Business Fund program training and so MAVISALO members who are not involved with SBF also have a chance to learn these skills. Also, everyone who has received some training in the past can review, refresh, and evaluate their current business models. The MAVISALO Executive Team is working to certify the group as an official COMSIP Cooperative, which will open up even more opportunities for leadership building, business training, and community grants.

All this is part of creating a stable, prosperous, rural economy in Manyamula Village through locally led education and entrepreneurship. Canaan closed his report with a few words of encouragement, echoing that hopefulness of the group “chopping” together, “All is well as we work together to alleviate the suffering of many poor households.”

**Click on photos for a full-sized version.

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Women with fuel-efficient stoves in Ghana.

“Even though you might not see face-to-face how lives are changing, I want to let you know that your support is transforming so many lives in our community,” began Alexander Kedje of Shape Lives Foundation, Ghana in a recent email to me.

When we think of charity in Africa, big name organizations are probably the first to come to mind. We hear about World Vision, UNICEF, and Heifer International but it’s the small, unknown, local organizations like Shape Lives Foundation that are perfectly situated to help people in their own communities.

These local organizations, as the blogger Jennifer Lentfer points out, are able to best understand the situation on the ground, and are already rooted and integrated into the community. Where the large international organizations have to work hard to meet people and promote projects, local leaders like Alexander are already known and respected by the people they serve.

I’ve been in contact with Alexander and Shape Lives Foundation for two years now and I am always so excited to see the progress they are making toward empowering the poor and raising the standard of living for the women in their area.

Part of Del Anderson’s mission for Spirit in Action was to encourage and promote local leaders and so, although we have not given a grant to Shape Lives Foundation, I share with you a few highlights from 2011 so that you too can appreciate their local work and service:

* Twenty-five women are now employed in their Moringa Processing Center, plucking the leaves and grinding them into a powder. This great video shows how they process the Moringa leaves into a highly nutritious dietary supplement.
* 1200 Moringa trees have been replanted to grow more leaves to process in 2012.
* Seven women received fuel-efficient stoves and training. Not only will the stoves produce less smoke, they also make it so the women do not have to gather or buy as much wood to cook meals.

Congratulations, Shape Lives Foundation! And we stand with you as your continue your important work in 2012.

Take action, for it is your duty, and we are with you; be strong, and do it. –Ezra 10:4

Related posts:

• Moringa in Prison
• Moringa = Miracle Plant
• CIFORD Kenya: Compassionate Community Action
• Local Realities, Local Adaptation (On How Matters blog)

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How’s your garden coming along? In Minnesota, our garden (mostly cared for by our wonderful housemate, EB), is at it’s best right now. We have tomatoes, kale, carrots, and much more. You may be surprised to know that this is very similar to what you might see in Malawi!

“Hungry Season”

Tereza now can feed her two children all year long.

About 90% of the population in Malawi live in rural areas, so there are farms and “kitchen” gardens everywhere you look. Many of the SIA Small Business Fund grants in Malawi provide families with the necessary start-up capital to start or expand their farms. This is important source of both income (from selling vegetables) and food security for the families.

When we met Tereza Zimba, she told us that “at home, there is plenty of maize” after she and her husband opened a grocery stand at the Manyamula market in 2008. She was so grateful to be able to feed her family and have enough maize stored up for the “hungry season”.

The “hungry season” happens at the end of the rainy season when the crop is planted but not yet ready for harvest. Growing and storing enough maize to make it through the year is a great accomplishment for a Malawian family. Like Tereza, many other people shared that with SIA’s help they are now “food secure.” This is the powerful impact of our programs.

Beautiful Tomatoes

As in Minnesota, tomatoes, kale, maize, and green beans are all common crops in Malawi. Check out these amazing tomatoes on Light Banda’s farm!

Light is a member of the Manyamula Savings and Loans Group, which was started in partnership with Spirit in Action last year. He learned techniques for growing tomatoes and maize in the rocky soil from fellow group members. When Light harvests and sells the crops from his .75 acre plot, he expects to bring in over $1,000 US dollars, which he will use to improve his house.

Working together, encouraging each other, and providing low-interest loans, the Manyamula Savings and Loans Group ensures that everyone has enough food for their families to eat until they are full!

Light Banda proudly showed us his tomato farm.

Related posts:

• MORE THAN WEALTH: JUSTICE - about the Manyamula Savings and Loans Group

• SEEING IS BELIEVING - about our visit to the Manyamula market

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“Imagine your life without financial services…” This started the dialog about the microfinance crisis in India between Lawrence MacDonald and David Roodman on a recent Center for Global Development podcast.

Sometimes we forget how critical financial services are to our everyday lives. What if you couldn’t use a credit card and had to carry cash around all the time? Where would you store money if you didn’t have a savings account? Could you buy a house or a car if you didn’t have access to loans or financing?

Roodman went on to point out that financial services are even more important for poor people who often have volatile incomes that change from day to day and season to season. This makes it even harder for them to save money in the good times so that they have it when they need to expand their business, pay for medical care for a critically ill family member, or celebrate a marriage. It is therefore essential that micro-credit institutions help people with financial services – not just loans.

This discussion sparked my interest in light of Spirit in Action’s most recent Community Grant to help establish the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans Group (MAVISALO) near Mzimba, Malawi. SIA helped this driven, dedicated group with a small grant to start a poultry farm. MAVISALO will soon be able to make small loans to its members through a centralized pool of money made up of business profits and membership fees. The group has already gathered together 35 members and opened a collectively held bank account at the local bank!

Encouraging safe and small investments by group members, MAVISALO members can add additional savings into the centralized pool, which then allows them to apply for larger loans when they need them. However, the group has a wide, holistic goal beyond simply providing financial benefits or getting a good return on investment. Canaan Gondwe, the first President of MAVISALO and long-time SIA Small Business Fund Coordinator, say that, “The biggest goal of the poultry and MAVISALO micro-loan project is to attain a self sufficient life in the lives of poor households; [focusing] in the areas of economic, physical, decision-making (political), and spiritual dimension.”

The Manyamula Village Savings and Loans Group near Mzimba, Malawi

Through this project, SIA isn’t only supporting a wonderful, local, grassroots organization in Malawi, we are also showing that we understand the importance of financial services and value the ability to save money as well as borrow it is times of emergency and celebration.

Related posts:

• Interview with Canaan Gondwe – SIA Small Business Fund Coordinator and leader of MAVISALO: http://godsspiritinaction.org/interview-with-canaan-gondwe/
• SIA Small Business Fund – explained: http://godsspiritinaction.org/sia-sbf-explained/

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