Background

Pageant has been assisting a Women's Group in the Village of Busumbala by funding literacy and numeracy classes which help them run small businesses such as vegetable growing, tie dyeing and other craft products. However, so far, Pageant has not provided help in actually starting such businesses.

Over the past few years, many people in the world's poorest countries have benefited from so-called micro-loans, which enable them to set up their own small businesses. Micro-loans are offered to people who are too poor for normal banks to bother with. Though the start-up finance usually comes from outside, the micro-finance schemes are normally run by local committees, and the loans paid back by successful entrepreneurs are used to finance new loans. Micro-loans are a powerful instrument to lift third-world communities out of poverty. Micro-finance schemes operate in many countries of Africa, Asia and South America, but they are particularly common in rural South Africa, where many are coordinated by the Small Enterprise Foundation. Another example in South Africa is Women's Development Businesses (WDB), based on a successful scheme in Bangladesh. In Uganda, Village to Village Programs has achieved similar successes.

When Bakalarr headmaster, Bakary Gitteh, visited the UK in the summer of 2005, Pippa showed him a video describing a micro-loan scheme started by two lady missionaries in South Africa. Their idea was to lend a small sum of money - 1500 Dalasis* was ideal - to each of six ladies in a community, so that they could each start a small business. Each lady had to come up with a business idea that she felt she could manage and that would be supported by the community. Once it was agreed which ladies would get the loans, they were lent the money, interest free, for a period of six months. They had to agree to pay back one sixth - 250 Dalasis - each month, until at the end of six months all had been repaid. As long as ALL the money was repaid, it could then be lent out again, to six more ladies of the community - and so, it could be treated as community money, as long as it was always repaid.

Bakary was fascinated by the idea and had watched the video several times. The main drawback from Pageant's point of view was that it needed a local woman to be the go-between - a woman who commanded the respect of the local ladies and who could also talk to us and understand how the scheme was to work. A man would not do, so Kemo could not, in this instance, be our representative. Bakary said before he left that he thought that his wife, Mariama, might act as our go-between and he would discuss it with her. However, he had not mentioned it again, so we thought she had not been keen on the idea. We had also mentioned the scheme in a few places, but no-one had taken it up.

*When the scheme started, 1500 Dalasis was equivalent to about £30, but fluctuating exchange rates mean that in December 2007 1500 Dalasis was equivalent to about £36. You can check exchange rates here.
 

The Pageant Loan Scheme - Sika

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When Pippa visited Sika in November 2005, she was surprised to find so many ladies present. Bakary had been busy! Apparently he had told Mariama about the loan scheme, she had discussed it with the village ladies and they had talked of nothing else since! So, they were all here to start the ball rolling...

Bakary told Pippa all this during lunch - he also asked Pippa to address the assembled gathering so that they understood that the authority lay with Mariama as the local spokeswoman for Pageant. What a surprise - and Pippa thought she was there for a quiet day. Pippa takes up the story...

"So, we gathered in the sandy square in the centre of the Gitteh family compound and 'Pageant Loan' was launched. First, we were welcomed to the village by Bakary's father and also by the leader of the village women's committee. Next, Bakary spoke about how Pageant had come to help his school, how he had visited us in UK and had heard about the loan scheme. Then it was my turn - I had suggested to Mariama that we should do a sort of double act, with her translating what I said directly to the ladies, one sentence at a time. This, I felt, would ensure that all the villagers would understand that Mariama spoke for us and was authorised by us to act on our behalf in our absence. She did it beautifully and had all the village women hanging on her (and my) every word. The words that brought the biggest cheers were 'interest free' and 'business opportunities for women'.

The six women who had been chosen by the village to be the first recipients of the loan money now came forward and were introduced by the leader of the village women's committee. Each in turn explained her idea for a small business, and in each case we asked the rest of the villagers if they would support the proposed venture - which of course they did! The ideas ranged from selling dried fish and cooking oils (buying in large quantities, selling in small ones) to what they referred to as 'making and selling Omo' - this must be some sort of laundry product that can be made locally.

Each lady was then called forward individually and asked to say in front of the whole community that she understood that the loan of 1500 Dalasis was for business purposes, that 250 dalasis of the money must be paid back at monthly intervals until the whole sum had been repaid after six months and that the ability of the money to be re-circulated to other village women depended on complete repayment by everyone in the group. We also explained that if one member of the group was finding things difficult it was important to support and help her to fulfil her part of the bargain and NOT to heap blame on her - this is now community money and must be worked for with community spirit!

Mariama has a book in which she will keep all the records of transactions and she and each of the six ladies will sign every time money is lent or repaid, so that there will be no arguments as to who has paid what!
We would like to go back in February to see how they are getting on - I do so hope they succeed. Even these small business ventures could make a big difference to the lives of these hard working women - if one has very little, then a little more has quite a large impact..."

We hope that first Pageant Loan scheme at Sika is a great success, and we will report its progress on this page. We hope it is the first of many such schemes, and that, with Pageant's help, the idea spreads to other communities in The Gambia.

When Pippa visited Sika in November 2005, the Pageant loan scheme was started with six local village women, Mariama Gitteh being the link between them and Pageant to manage the repayment of the loan at monthly intervals. Here is Pippa's report:

"We said at that time that we would like to go back in February to see what progress they were making and to find out if all the women had succeeded in making the first two repayments of their loans. Mariama had promised to make up a book to keep all the records of transactions to ensure that there would be no arguments as to who had paid what - would it have all worked out, we wondered, or would one or some of the women have found it impossible to make their repayments?

On the last Sunday of our February 2006 visit we set off once more for Sika - in some trepidation, I must confess, as to how we would find things were proceeding. We need not have worried - Mariama met us with smiles, told us that the women had decided to come to dance for us as a thank-you for having helped them and showed us her book where all the transactions had been entered. She insisted on us checking the book and counting all the money that had been given to her by the women - and all six women had paid their first two scheduled repayments in full - fantastic. One of the women had found it difficult to make one payment, but had been helped and chivvied by the others to do so. The village community had supported the six women and others were eager to be the next ones to take up the loans in June, by which time these first loans are scheduled to be fully repaid.

After breakfast, dancing, lunch and presentation of some gifts to the village community, the women assembled once more in the Gitteh compound. The six women who had become the first recipients of the loan money again came forward and were re-introduced by the leader of the village women's committee. They had brought with them samples of the products they were selling - in each case they had been able to use the loan to buy cheaply in bulk and then to repackage their goods to sell in small quantities at prices that were acceptable to the village community. We asked if the next six women had been chosen - they explained that they did not want to actually choose the second group until the first group had made their final payments - how wise of them, we thought. However, there was a general feeling of anticipation that many of the village women would eventually benefit... we do hope so.

Before we left Sika, Mariama told us that she was keen to see if she could get the loan scheme working in another village. She thought that discussions with the Bakalarr PTA chairman might well enable the women of Bakalarr village to be introduced to the idea and that they would probably be as enthusiastic about it as the women of Sika. As we said in November, we hope that, with Pageant's help, the idea spreads to other communities in The Gambia - maybe Bakalarr will be the next one."

During our recent trip, Mariama Gitteh updated us on the progress of the Pageant loan schemes in both Sika and Bakalarr. The Sika scheme is going extremely well - the third batch of women is just about to complete their loan, with all of them making full repayments on time. Six more ladies are eagerly waiting for their turn, and ALL the women of the first and second groups are still trading… a real success story. The first group from Bakalarr is just coming up to completion, and again, Mariama assures me that they are all paying back the correct amount and on time. The Bakalarr scheme was started during our October trip last year, when a very large number of women crowded into one of the Bakalarr classrooms to hear the details of the scheme.

We now have funding for two more villages - what we need now are other people like Mariama, who can be our go-between in each new village. It is important that this person is a female of local authority, who can both command the respect of the village women and be able to communicate well with us and understand how the scheme works. It takes time to find the right people, but they are well worth waiting for, as has been proved by Mariama.

Funding for the loan schemes

Each loan scheme needs 1,500 dalasis for each of six women. At the rate of exchange of December 2007 this is equivalent to about £36 per woman, or £216 in total. (Check exchange rates here.) Each 'loan' becomes community money - Pageant does not expect to get it back, but hopes it will circulate within each community for some time, to benefit as many people as possible. If you would like to make a specific donation for such a 'loan', please send a cheque to Pippa Howard. Old School, Worthing Road, Southwater, Horsham, West Sussex. RH13 9DT, UK. Please write 'Pageant Loan' on the back of the cheque. Also if you are a UK taxpayer, please send us a GiftAid form to allow us to reclaim UK Tax. You can also donate online using your credit or debit card by clicking this link