James and his wife Sauja and their three daughters are one of thirty-nine households in the village of Orwadai, Uganda. Choosing to live in a rural village was a big decision. “I am a diploma holder in information technology from Kampala International University,” says James. “After my studies I remained in Kampala, the capital city, working with different companies. Life became hard with a young family to take care of. Meeting our basic needs was just a tug of war.”

“One day,” James continues, “I made up my mind to move away from Kampala to our rural village. My wife contested my decision, but I insisted and we moved to our rural village Orwadai, about 400km away from Kampala, to try out life there.”

Orwadai participates in a food security project supported by World Renew through the Foods Resource Bank (FRB), a Christian nonprofit based in the US that is committed to supporting farming households as they seek long-lasting solutions to hunger. James was interested.

“One day I attended a meeting in the village,” James remembers, “where emphasis was made for community members to start savings groups. We organized ourselves and formed the Orwadai Farmers Group. That was the beginning of a turnaround in my family.”

James and his fellow savings and loan association members attended community trainings facilitated by World Renew and their local partner, the Pentecostal Assemblies of God. One of these trainings involved a “participatory rural appraisal,” in which members appraise their community’s strengths and needs.  “I personally presented the community resource map of Orwadai,” say James, “and people laughed at our village map because it showed how poor we were. I asked God to give me wisdom to change this shame to glory.”

God gave James the wisdom he asked for and the village savings and loan association enabled him to use that wisdom. The Orwadai community now has their first school, a nursery school with 67 pupils. They have constructed a grass-thatched building with two classrooms and James is the director of the school.  “I ran an advertisement for qualified nursery teachers. Suitable candidates turned up for interviews and this marked the beginning of the nursery. This year our VSLA group supported our school with 500,000 shillings ($138) which helped me to buy a black board, chalk, and textbooks, and pay the teachers.” This school is a place of hope for this community.

Membership in a village savings and loan has not only benefited Orwadai village, but James’ own family as well. This year, they planted one acre of ground nuts for family income and two acres of cassava gardens for food at home. “We harvested ground nuts and it earned us 320,000 shillings ($88), which enabled us to buy a cow for milk,” James says proudly.

“Our yearly family savings from the village savings and loan association was 250,000 shillings ($70),” he continues, “which helped us buy five bags of cement for building an additional room to our small family house. I plan to borrow money from our VSLA group to complete it. I give glory to God for what He is doing to change our story of shame to a story of glory.”

James took a risk in moving his family to a rural village. He asked for God’s help and found the support he needed right in his very own community. By forming a village savings and loan and taking the time to work together and learn, he and his fellow villagers are making exciting changes in their own families and in their community.

Blessings,

Edward Okiror

Program Consultant
World Renew Uganda