One of the best parts of my job is getting to hear from people who are putting change into action through their ideas, leadership skills, and open attitude.

And often the skills and ideas they have can also be useful for someone else who is working to improve things in another community. Making connections and matchings people’s questions and answers – fostering dynamic networks – is a vibrant part of the SIA model for change.

Recently I wrote a blog post for Amazon Partnerships, a blog collecting stories and new perspectives on community development, about two such Spirit in Action connections. I invite you to read the full post here.

Bringing together SIA Small Business Fund Coordinators from Malawi, Nigeria, Kenya, & Uganda in 2011 resulted in a lot of new connections, and some constructive dialog about how to make our programs better.

I love the new 50 second video from Oxfam America. It’s message is clear and to-the-point, “Aid is not the solution to poverty, people are.”

It’s not the big structures that help people out of poverty. Or the governments talking to governments….

Rather, we know that it’s the dedicated people, passionate for change, that make a difference. It’s the people, working with their families and organizing with others in their communities, that move step by step towards something better. It’s people supporting each other that bring hope.

If you need any convincing, consider these people who are solutions in their communities:

Women’s Self-Help Group with CIFORD Kenya:
Women in groups of 10-25 encouraging others;
sharing their challenges and solutions; combining
savings to help pay for school uniforms for their children and grandchildren.

Leaders of one of the self-help groups in rural Meru, Kenya

Nalu Prossy, SIA Small Business Fund Coordinator, Uganda:
Nalu works all day at a tailor’s shop; after work and on weekends
she trains and mentors new business groups to help them succeed.
She’s a good employee, so her boss sometimes lets her leave early to do this work for SIA.

Nalu and Tanya

Canaan Gondwe, Manyamula Village Savings and Loans, Malawi:
Canaan is the tireless leader of the successful savings and loans
group MAVISALO, which helps community members access low-interest loans;
he has been elected to the national board of cooperative groups in Malawi;
in June he’ll travel to Zambia to train another community to start their own local savings and loans cooperative.

Canaan (in blue) with members of the MAVISALO executive committee

Oxfam calls for us to “Support citizens’ efforts to determine and lead their own development.” And that’s just what Spirit in Action is going to continue doing!

Earth Day celebrations may last over a weekend but what about the long-term? Here are three examples of Spirit in Action partners promoting techniques that benefit the earth and their communities:

Ester shows the bounty from her family’s farm.

1. Intercropping in Malawi

Have you heard about the Three Sisters? Beans, squash, and corn grown together get the blue ribbon in the intercropping category. Corn stalks grow tall, beans use the stalks as bean poles, and squash leaves provide shade that  stunts weeds and locks in the soil moisture. Also, the nutrients in bean plants keep the soil healthy year after year.

More and more people in Manyamula Village are adopting this beautiful combination that is good for the heavily-used farmland and reduces the amount of fertilizer needed. We visited Saul and Ester’s farm in 2011 where we saw their flourishing intercropping of beans and corn.

Saul and Ester are members of the MAVISALO Savings and Loans cooperative and they share and learn with the other 150 group members about intercropping and other sustainable farming techniques.

Beans planted at the base of the corn use the stalks as support.

SIA partners from 5 countries are enthusiastic to try new bio-intensive agriculture methods.

2. Ukweli Training Centre in Kenya

Anyone who has met Samuel Teimuge knows his passion for simple methods and technologies that can help people produce more food and protect the environment. At his Ukweli Training Centre in Eldoret, Kenya, local experts show groups of people from all over eastern Africa a sampling of these beneficial technologies. For example:

• The kitchen garden plots use double-digging (a method of turning the soil before planting) and composting;
• A chicken pen extends over a fish pond and chicken droppings fall into the water to provide nutrients to the fish, increasing the size of the fish (more about chicken-fish farming);
• An agroforestry display shows about starting seedlings, and replanting and caring for trees; trees provide shade, fruit, and fencing, and absorb carbon dioxide from the atmosphere.

The poultry house over the fish pond provides plenty of nutrients!

Joshua shows off the great crops grown with compost and no other inputs! More food and less expensive to produce.

3. Side-by-side Comparisons

With such good results from simple agricultural techniques, why doesn’t everyone take on the methods? Joshua Machinga and his team at Common Ground know that old habits die hard, so they have planted two sets of crops to convince people to change.

The 5-year experiment places crops that use conventional fertilizers next to crops that use rich, organic compost to display tangible benefits of using compost for long-term soil health. The evidence right in front of people is pretty convincing!

*Spirit in Action has a number of resources about composting, double-digging, organizing model farm days, and intercropping available for free. If you would like me to send you any of these materials, please email the SIA office.

Related Articles:

• A Better Way to Grow Food (About methods that benefit small farmers)
• How does your garden grow? (About the farms we saw in Malawi)
• Planting trees for a “greener Kenya” (About the reforestation work of SIA SBF Coordinator, Dennis Kiprop)

“Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful, committed citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.” – Margaret Mead, American anthropologist

I never doubted that the small group of thoughtful, committed people who came together two years ago to form the Manyamula Village Savings and Loans (MAVISALO) group in Malawi could change their community.

In explaining how small groups can achieve big things, author Henry Hemming looks to the power of giving. “Groups that last longer consist of members who make an equal contribution, creating fellowship, camaraderie and value.” With everyone giving, people can achieve more together than they can on their own.

Collective action to achieve a greater good was the reason for starting MAVISALO.

Pet shows us his farm, which he was able to expand with a small MAVISALO loan. (Malawi, 2011)

One of the great needs in Manyamula Village was access to capital; money to start and improve businesses and farms, money to pay for school and medical fees. The most common way of addressing this need, commercial micro-finance with high interest rates, is usually counterproductive.

Instead, people in Manyamula were ready with their own solution: a locally managed and collectively run savings and loans group. SIA responded to this enthusiasm with an initial grant for an income-generating poultry project and information about starting the cooperative.

Two years later MAVISALO is growing, thriving, and learning. They are continually improving access to credit, encouraging savings, serving others in the community, and creating fellowship among group members.

Improving Individual Lives

MAVISALO Treasurer with chicken feed for poultry project

Canaan Gondwe, in his annual report of MAVISALO’s progress, shared some of the “eminent and noticeable successes and impacts on livelihood” among individual group members:

• Easy access to financial services
• Creation of self-employment among members
• Increased asset creation (i.e. better houses, motorcycles, bicycles, livestock)
• Food secure households
• Members afford medical bills in private clinics
• Members support their children with school fees

Business Investments

Tanya with MAVISALO group members in 2011 – all wearing the MAVISALO cloth uniform.

The group has also made a collective investment in a cloth project as another way to increase their loan fund. Together they agreed on a cloth to buy and then purchased the fabric in bulk at a wholesale discount. Cloth pieces were sold to members at retail price with profit going back into the group’s loan fund.

Through this process they increased the amount available to loan to group members and also created a de facto uniform for group members!

Audit

Always looking at ways to improve and be transparent, MAVISALO hosted two officials from the Ministry of Industry and Trade and the COMSIP Cooperative Union to audit their books.

Canaan reports that, “it was quite an enriching encounter for us for the first time to have auditors and look at our records in a comprehensive way. Their remark after a review was an impressive one, such that at national level they want us at the MAVISALO Cooperative to train many other community groups in effective and transparent recording. 

A page out of the MAVISALO expenditure records book.

“They were satisfied with our member filing system, cash receipts, payment vouchers, reporting, photography, and development of relevant forms for use.”

Perhaps most importantly for the small groups potential to achieve great things, the auditors also, “were surprised at the unity of the members and the way the Cooperative provides its services to the community.” Yes!

Congratulations to MAVISALO for all your accomplishments in 2012! I am confident that this year will provide many more opportunities for your small (but growing) group to achieve big things and change the world.

We have some exciting updates to share with you about Spirit in Action’s ongoing programs!

First, positive reports from the business leaders in Nawangisa Village, Uganda, sharing about their new enterprises started this year:

Ms. Tabisa Jese; Mat Making – “The demand has been higher than what we could supply! Now, I can provide better food for my family.”

Beautiful baskets in Uganda

Ms. Nankwanga Joy; Basket Making – “We have all participated effectively,” Joy says about the family business. A total of 8 people have benefited directly from the business and they have been able to repair their home with profits!

Ms. Magida Moses; Bricks Making – “We earned $50 in profit. Now we can take the children back to school.”

What amazing testaments to the power of a small enterprise to improve lives in a rural village in Uganda! Photos are in the mail from Uganda now and I’ll post them on the website and our Facebook page when I get them!

Girls Learning

Tanya meets with girls who have graduated from the CIFORD workshops. July 2011

A generous grant to Spirit in Action from the Charles Wentz Carter Foundation will go to assist CIFORD Kenya conduct more Girls Empowerment Workshops! We are so grateful for their support, which helps SIA serve this community organization in Kenya.

The Foundation said they were really impressed with the report last spring and so they are pleased to continue support of this great organization! A workshop for 150 girls is planned for this month. [Read more about CIFORD’s programs in our Spring newsletter.]

Upon hearing the good news, one of SIA’s Advisory Board Members shared her enthusiasm for CIFORD’s community work: “We are thrilled about the CIFORD project. Seeing that girls have the opportunity for an education in East Africa is especially dear to our hearts. To keep girls in school gives them a world of choices unavailable to those who aren’t able to attend. The project reports are so inspiring.”

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