Spirit in Action is honored to partner with amazing community-based organizations, run by people who are passionate and knowledgeable about sparking change in their own communities. Below is a report written by Margaret Ikiara, Founder and Program Coordinator of CIFORD Kenya, about the impact of a SIA grant on women in her community.

Grandmother Rebecca Ncekei (left) is proud to receive a water tank from Jolly Kathambi, the CIFORD Kenya Gender Issues Program officer.

Rebecca Ncekei is one of the grandmothers who attends the weekly meetings for the Muthara Guardian group*, which meets next to our office.

The group meets every Monday afternoon and has a total of 41 members who are all guardians. Rebecca comes from the furthest village, walking for almost ten kilometers [6.25 miles] to attend the group, and still she has been among the very committed members of the group.

Rebecca has received ridicule from the neighbors who laugh at her and tell her that she does useless work walking for 1oKm to and from for just a group meeting.

Margaret (in purple) acts as mentor to all the guardian groups.

But Rebecca knows the value of the group. On April 26^th she was among the people to receive the water tanks from CIFORD Kenya. When she went home with the tank, she became the hero of the village. Everybody wants to know where she got the tank from!

Talking about the value of the tank, Rebecca was quick to say, “I have been having problems with my legs when I  go looking for water, and I had to wait for my grandchildren to come from school to fetch water. Now the problem is solved.”

“All the people in my village can now see  that I have a group which can support the elder women in the society,” were Rebecca’s words.

I have decided to share this story from Rebecca because every time she comes for the meeting she has to tell CIFORD staff of a new group wanting partnership and the way the water tank has helped her be recognized in the society.

Rebecca has been an ambassador for CIFORD in the villages nearby. She has also been a catalyst for CIFORD, as those are groups that CIFORD had wanted to work; they were slow in making decisions and are now very eager to be active to work with CIFORD.

We thank all of you for making Rebecca a proud grandma and making it happen at CIFORD. We appreciate your continued support and encouragement.

Tanya’s note: The water tanks collect water in the rainy season, storing it to be used further into the dry season. This water storage reduces the need to walk far distances to gather water. Since many of the families in the area rely on small gardens to produce food to eat, these tanks can nourish a family and help them produce extra food to sell. The tanks are purchased locally.

*The Guardians groups are support and self-help groups for men and women who are caring for children (often their own grandchildren) whose parents have died from HIV/AIDS.

The guardians usually spend part of their time together dancing and singing.

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!

A happy Thanksgiving to you all!

This week, in the spirit of gratitude, we’re sharing a video of a woman who is very grateful for Spirit in Action.

Boyd and I met Justina in Manyamula Village, Malawi last summer where she shared this testimonial of how her life changed after receiving a Spirit in Action Small Business Fund $150 grant.

For more SIA videos click here.

This is an excerpt from a talk that I gave at Bonny Doon Presbyterian Church, sharing my personal journey and about my work with Spirit in Action. ˜ Tanya

If you’ve ever moved to a new place, you know that it can be really hard. New places can be uncomfortable; they force you to encounter new things and new cultures, even within different regions in the US. You have to find a new grocery store, a new bank, new friends.

SIA faces of compassion

And yet these moments when we are lost and lonely are moments when we are perhaps most likely to be touched by one of God’s angels on earth. Rachel has been one of those angels for me. A kind colleague of Boyd’s invited us over for dinner one Friday night. She gave me something to look forward to, she cooked a wonderful meal, and she gave us tips for things to see in the city.

Simple; but her smile makes me feel like we’ve already been friends a long time. And to me, that’s the blessing of moving. That’s experiencing God’s grace and love. If we’re standing in the same place all the time, it’s harder to meet new angels.

In a way, these angels, even though they are not the ones moving to a new place, are being emotionally moved. There are many times in the New Testament where we hear that Jesus was moved with compassion for people.

Del Anderson founded SIA, at the age of 90, as a manifestation of his drive to do good works in the world. He had lived a life filled with challenges – being a bi-racial man growing up in the early 1900s – and also a life filled with blessings.

Del was moved to compassion for people around the world who were lacking basic needs, like food, shelter, and a livelihood. He was moved by his conviction that people had the skills and drive to help themselves, and all they needed was encouragement and tools to get started.

He began his ministry by providing information to people – information about growing more food, making soap, planting fast-growing trees that could be used for lumber, fences, or shade. And sometimes he provided a small grant to help people pursue their dreams and improve their lives. (For more from Del on Compassion, read from his journal here.)

Through this work with Spirit in Action, I am continually inspired by people who are moved with compassion for their community.

Women in the guardian’s group with CIFORD Kenya.

For me compassion is embodied in an older woman we met in Kenya. She is a member of a self-help group within the local organization CIFORD Kenya. She is also a grandmother, taking care of five of her grandchildren whose parents died from HIV/AIDS. When I met her, I saw in her the loving kindness that comes from compassionate acts.

She was moved to care for the grandkids even in her older years. And she was at the self-help group (where we met her) because that’s a stressful job. How will I buy school uniforms so that my grandkids can attend school? Who will collect water so that we have clean water to drink?

The blessing is that this group of 20 to 25 guardians is there to support her. Their cooperative movement means that they are all there to support each other emotionally, and also economically, with a small loan fund within the group. And their movement, their action, means that the children are cared for by relatives rather than be sent to terrible, overcrowded orphanages.

As these examples show, being willing to be moved is to embody generosity and to allow yourself to be an angel to someone else.

Love Vinkhumbo has faced many challenges in life. So she had quite a story to share when Canaan Gondwe, Spirit in Action Small Business Fund (SBF) Coordinator in Malawi, asked about SIA’s impact on her life.

Love with her daughter Grace. “The family is very thankful to SIA for the timely support and continues to pray to God that her heath and the family be sustained.”

Love, born and raised in Manyamula Village in rural Malawi, was first married in 1984 and had three children – Grace, Rhoda, and Trouble. Her husband had AIDS and all the money they made from odd jobs went to pay for his medical care. He died in 2000, leaving Love widowed and HIV+.

Love was discouraged and “could hardly find food and soap to keep my family well” but she didn’t lose all hope. She banded together with other people living with HIV/AIDS and formed the Manyamula HIV/AIDS Support Group, designed to be a place of encouragement and sharing. It was through this group that Love met her current husband Fanuel Tembo who is also HIV+. 

Love in her new grocery shop, called “Love’s Bean Shop”

Canaan Gondwe, the local SIA SBF coordinator, went to visit this family last year. During this visit he evaluated this family’s situation against the established criteria for new SBF groups, which is individualized for each community where SIA works. “This family was chosen for SBF because they fit the Poverty Assessment Tool as the family had lost everything through the sickness and they needed external assistance to make up the losses. I assessed their potential and found out that they could manage the SBF.

“When they received the SBF training in January 2012 and received the first grant of $100, Love Vinkhumbo and her husband bought beans, tomatoes, and a few groceries to trade,” reported Canaan. “Together with their children, she kept on ordering and reselling groceries and beans and today a different positive outlook is noticeable.

Grace is excited to continue high school!

“After 3 months of operation of the business, the family is showing smiles and is bailed out of untold misery. Two of her children are back in school. The family’s potential on the economic and social status has picked up and they feel life very different from before. They can buy their food and send their children to school.”

In just three months the family earned $130 in profit and “with the extra funds that she finds, the family has managed to buy two goats which she expects to raise and keep more money.” 

All that from a $150 grant! I am honored to read of Love’s great perseverance in the face of challenges. In times of need, she has been able to seek and provide hope, working to make life better for herself and everyone in her family.

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