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Projects > Uganda_Apr94
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The reading of Friedrich Wilhelm Raiffeisen’ s work on “Credit Unions as an instrument to produce relief of poverty of the
rural population” and the friendship with African students during my
doctoral studies at the University of Notre Dame, USA, inspired the strong
desire to see if Raiffeisen’s principles - applied in an appropriate form -
could also help in the Ugandan context.
A
letter outlining my ideas that I had sent to Fr. Albert Byaruhanga, the
local development coordinator for the diocese of Fort Portal in the West of Uganda who simultaneously served as an advisor to Uganda’s
president Museveni, was well received. Having finished my degree, two years
later the way was free to undertake field studies together with Fr.
Albert’s team.
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Staying
at the homes of the local people for one month and visiting all kind of women clubs with income generating
activities as well as revolving funds,
farmer cooperatives, teachers and credit unions across
the diocese allowed gaining a deep inside into the opportunities and
challenges of estalishing a rural
financial network for savings and loans.
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Above: Women club producing honey.
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Left: A women club doing handicraft; Right: Production of clay bricks by members of a revolving fund
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Almost
all people in the diocese of Fort Portal could be reached due to its
excellent organizational structure linking the Small Christian Communities
with Sub-Parish Committees which in turn were linked with Parish
Development Committees and the Zonal Coordinators who reported to the
Development Coordinator. Working through this network the idea was to educate the people at the grass root
level about savings and credit
for small business in accordance with Raiffeisen’s
principles of Self-help, Self-organization and Self-responsibility
realized in form of small saving and
credit societies. The latter ones should be affiliated as a society on
parish level and the sixteen Parish Savings and Credit Societies should in
turn be affiliated with the at that time still to be established Fort
Portal Branch of the well known Centenary
Rural Development Bank (CERUDEB) with headquarters in Kampala.
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Rev. Fr. Albert B. Byaruhanga (12.06.1951 – 26.10.2009)
In memory of his incomparable commitment and outstanding work for
the people of Uganda.
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Even
though this project could not be funded in 1994, Fr. Albert never abandoned
the ideas developed. In 1998 he manages to get support from the Catholic
Relief Service in the establishment of a village banking program for
Fort Portal as well as two neighboring dioceses. In 2003 these three
village banking programs in the dioceses of Hoima, Fort Portal and Kasese merged
to become the microfinance institution HOFOKAM.
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