The Pendeza Story; from inception to present-date.
There comes a time when love is challenged to become an actor, a compulsion to become uncomfortable and do what needs to be done to meet someone else’s needs. For Pendeza Uganda, this moment of realization that something needed to be done happened way before it was officially registered (in 2014) as a community-based organization.
The Pendeza Uganda journey started most unexpectedly. There was a Child Survival Programme (under Compassion International) that supported expectant mothers and their children below the age of three years. Great as it was, still it could not meet all the needs of the families under it, and often, those who did not meet the conditions for being helped were left out of the program.
Do not get us wrong, the program was already doing a good job, but even then, much more needed to be done. The trend of giving handouts and further making the women dependent on a handout needed to be broken because, many of them could not even afford to buy charcoal to cook the food delivered to them, or buy the necessary ingredients needed to prepare the meal.
Moreover, a lot of the women who were being supported were starving and or living with HIV/AIDS and had been abandoned to live alone with mouths to feed, yet with no employment at all.
What later became known as Pendeza started with a few (about 10) women saving as little as two thousand shillings per week and then records logged in a savings book.
By the end of 2011, up to five million Uganda shillings had been saved and in 2012, a joint account was opened up in Psave, a savings and credit cooperative society (SACCO) whose main objectives are to pool savings for its members and in return provide them with affordable credit facilities.
As you can guess, nothing great happens without challenges, and for the vision-bearer, Mrs. Christine N Walubo, this came in the form of discouragement from those who thought this would not work, because they did not think poor and needy people could commit to a saving culture, let alone be able to work diligently to repay micro-loans offered to them.
Luckily, this challenge came at a time when a lot of women’s lives and that of their families had already been transformed for the better and served as a point of encouragement. Through various capacity-building pieces of training, the women had gotten headway as street hawkers with some selling sweets on the streets while others ventured into selling charcoal and other small manageable businesses.
Also, with the support of the leadership at Deliverance Church Makerere, and other key individuals including Catherine Kitongo the director of Miles to Smiles who taught us how to manage more than one savings group, we saw the potential of PENDEZA UGANDA. By the time of this encounter with Catherine, PENDEZA UGANDA had had only one savings group but started increasing this number steadily. This also meant that those who were not being supported by the Child Survival Programme could also be accommodated in Pendeza.
As we write this, we are a tightly-knit group of over 1000 individuals who are growing steadily, whose mindset has been changed positively with healthy attitudes toward work. Our saving portfolio has increased by leaps and bounds, just like our loans log. We also have several children being sponsored under our child sponsorship program. Much of what you now read as success stories have been years in the making, but this is neither the time to settle nor feel comfortable. Pendeza Uganda has the resolve to carry this vision forward with greater determination.
In the past, people like Mrs. Priscilla Serukka, and Mrs. Carlo Idembe have given constant encouragement and advice to keep us going, but now we must all collectively be involved
We must act – and act NOW!
It should be noted that savings and credit is not our only goal. We desire to see an empowered and holistically transformed community and embark on developmental projects (in the long-term), as well as meet the immediate and short-term needs of the community through child sponsorship & Sustainable family development programs.
We have recently formulated a board of Directors, including Mrs. Priscilla Mirembe Serukka (Former Regional Director – Stromme Foundation, East Africa), Mr. James Monge (Former Sponsorship Regional Managing Director- World Vision International), Mrs. Christine N Walubo (founder and Executive Director), and Mrs. Sylvia Naiga Mugema (Finance Manager).
A memorandum of understanding has been signed with Deliverance Church Makerere Hill, which will foster further partnerships in the collective effort. Also, the church has provided temporary office space and promised support for the Pendeza Uganda undertakings. We have developed and continue developing products and services for our members. Our strategic partners can get in touch to find out the many ways they can be a part of this.
We are more than sure that the vulnerable men, women, and children will be grateful for your support.
For more info contact us at https://www.pendeza.org/.
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