Katosi Women Development Trust UK

Grace Lala, a member of Balabire Kuffe Women’s Group testifies to the fact that borrowing from KWDT combined with hard work can transform one’s life.

 

“I started working on the lake when I was a young girl.  I got married and had my first baby at the age of 16: my husband then was a fisherman.  So I got exposed to the work of fishing and started doing casual labour; carrying silver fish from the boats to the main land for drying.

 

In the year 2001, I joined KWDT through Kisakye Women’s Group.  I had UGX 20,000 and I wanted to start my own business dealing in Silver fish, to dry and sell it for a small profit.  I borrowed UGX 70,000 in total.  From this money, I made a profit of UGX 300,000 within a period of six months.  Since then, my business has been growing as I continue borrowing and paying back loans within pay back periods of 6 months.  I now own 3 boats, I employ 9 men to do the fishing, and 3 women who dry and clean the Silver fish.  I now changed and joined Barabire Kuffe Women’s Group, because it is closer to my home.

 

We fish Silver fish only between April and October.  Sometimes when I fish a lot of it, I have to keep it so as to sell it after October when the harvest is low or none.  It is very important for me to have access to micro credit during the times of fishing.  Belonging to the group therefore makes a lot of sense for me as the group provides security to access credit when I need it. The only challenge I am having now is that my business is growing bigger and when I borrow money, I now want to have a longer repayment period, like one year, to enable me to do more trading with the money and get more profit.  Our loan programme is not yet allowing us to take money for a year, but only 6 months!”