NEWS FEATURE: With Faith, Hope and Loans of $100 or Less, Uganda Battles Poverty, AIDS

c. 2004 Religion News Service NTUNGAMO, Uganda Generous Katagira, 26, says she should be thinking about getting married. Most Ugandan women her age have already settled down and started a family. But Katagira is not like most Ugandan women. A university graduate, she manages the office of a Christian microcredit organization, overseeing a portfolio of […]

c. 2004 Religion News Service

NTUNGAMO, Uganda Generous Katagira, 26, says she should be thinking about getting married. Most Ugandan women her age have already settled down and started a family.

But Katagira is not like most Ugandan women. A university graduate, she manages the office of a Christian microcredit organization, overseeing a portfolio of more than 1,000 loans, most for $100 or less, for some of her country’s poorest people.


In a country known as the home of dictator Idi Amin and the birthplace of AIDS, Katagira exemplifies the faith and determined optimism that has brought Uganda back from the brink and made it a model of how the battle against poverty and sexually transmitted diseases can be won. Like many of her fellow Ugandans, Katagira is not as interested in charity as she is in investing investing in people.

“Ugandans have been through a great deal, but we are strong,” she says. “I tell the women, especially, that they are stronger than they know and the future can be whatever they make it.”

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This is the country where the rate of AIDS infections has dropped most dramatically. But it is still high, and the rural poor are now the most likely to be infected. In microcredit groups like the ones Katagira oversees, AIDS education is required.

The AIDS crisis is everywhere in Uganda. But it’s most clearly seen in the faces of the orphaned children who roam the streets of every city and village, often carrying younger siblings and begging for food to make it through another day. Almost every family in Uganda has taken in additional children, severely straining their resources and creating the need for additional income.

The tragic situation is just one example of how poverty and AIDS are connected.

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UGAFODE, Katagira’s organization, is one of several nationally controlled, faith-based microcredit groups in the country that are attempting to address the poverty and AIDS crises in tandem. Part of the international network of Opportunity International which believes faith and small loans can change lives and even countries UGAFODE has the discipline of a formal financial institution but a compassion that drives it to work only with the poorest of the poor.

“The banks wouldn’t let most of our clients come on the front porch,” says Katagira, who spends her days managing a portfolio of loans made to people with little or no collateral.

It’s a situation most bank officers would find ludicrous. But to Katagira and her colleagues, the results are nothing short of miraculous.


“The first time one of our clients goes to a bank to open a savings account is always a time of celebration,” she says.

In the small village of Ruhaama, a 10-minute drive from her office, a group of 17 entrepreneurs is having its weekly “trust bank” meeting. The trust bank concept and microfinance in general are simple, but the results can be profound.

A group of individuals band together to seek small loans and support one another in their work and repayment. It’s effective when the group commits together to cross-collateralize the loans. Should one woman default, the others pay her portion.

Defaulting rarely happens. Instead, the individuals seem to form a community of support, encouragement and innovation. They buy materials from one another, share market stands and trade labor for food or products. In their weekly meetings they share their experiences, pay back loans and seek larger ones.

This group has named itself “Spirit Is Willing.” Like most, it’s made up largely of female entrepreneurs. Twelve women and five men have loans to fuel their craft, agriculture and sewing businesses.

“We have found that if we give a woman 100 shillings and a man 300 shillings, the woman will do more with her portion in a shorter amount of time than the man,” says Katagira with a broad smile. “Also,” she notes ruefully, “women are more faithful in repayment than men.”


The leader of this group is a woman in traditional dress who stands and speaks to a group of American visitors.

She tells of the loans received and repaid in recent months and their plans for the future. She talks about the faith that helps bind the group together and expresses gratitude about the training they have received, not only in business but also in health and in AIDS prevention. She then points to the 28 children assembled and sitting quietly in their school uniforms.

“These are all orphans,” she explains.

“Because of the loans we have received and what we have earned from our businesses, the members of our group are able to care for all these orphans, pay for their uniforms and hire a teacher for their schooling.”

In this southwestern Ugandan village, near the border with Rwanda, the children supported by this group are only a small portion of the orphans roaming the streets.

But here there is hope. If businesses continue to take off, the trust group plans to adopt more of these children. Members speak of this with matter-of-fact commitment.

A little girl rises to sing a song. The interpreter cannot keep up with the lyrics but she whispers broken phrases: “An orphan’s life is very hard … We lose the people we love and we have no one to care for us … We work hard but we never have enough to eat … We are very glad when someone takes us in …”


Katagira, who has been examining loan books and taking notes during the meeting, stops writing to wipe tears from her eyes.

“It is not about money,” she whispers. “It is about transformation.”

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At the next group meeting, the women begin to sing and dance to welcome the visitors. Generous Katagira lives up to her name in every way, embracing her clients and joining the dance with abandon. “Generous has many, many friends,” says one of the clients.

At times Katagira seems almost in awe of her clients as she visits the goat farm of one woman, noting the incredible progress, then examines the baskets of another woman, admiring the quality. “I call this my `blessing’ group,” she says. “They inspire me so much whenever I visit them.”

Those who receive loans from UGAFODE seem to appreciate the encouragement and training as much as the funds themselves. They know this is not a handout. It’s up to each of them to take the money and make a difference.

As she pauses at a client’s small shop, Katagira points out another group of dirty children in the streets, some carrying babies.

“We have much more work to do,” she says with conviction. “Maybe I’ll think about getting married year after next.”


(Dale Hanson Bourke is the author of “The Skeptics Guide to the Global AIDS Crisis” and founder of the AIDS Orphan Bracelet Project.)

MO/PH END RNS

AP-NY-11-24-04 1037EST

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