Ever wondered what it’s like to head into Uganda with a group of like-minded Mavericks, to track chimps in the rainforest, tackle Class V whitewater on the Nile, and embark on wild safari adventures…mentoring and befriending local micro-entrepreneurs along the way?
Check out this recent update from Anne Olson of Village Enterprise Fund, one of our M10000 partners. Anne’s letter reveals a tiny taste of what we’ll be doing on our upcoming Maverick Micro-Enterprise Uganda Excursion & Mentoring Mission this September 11 – 20, 2011.
With all trip proceeds going in support of VEF, not only will you be making a huge impact on micro-entrepreneurs in Uganda—you’ll experience wild adventures like Anne’s, but much more—Maverick-style!
Don’t miss the deadline to join your fellow Mavericks for this life-changing experience. Click here to sign up now!
February 6, 2011…
The last two weeks have flown by. My coworkers from the US office arrived –Dianne Calvi our CEO, Debbie (a member of the board), and Jennifer and Caroline (the folks who raise money from foundations to support our work). We had a great time and filled most every moment with new adventures and experiences.
The last two weeks have flown by. My coworkers from the US office arrived –Dianne Calvi our CEO, Debbie (a member of the board), and Jennifer and Caroline (the folks who raise money from foundations to support our work). We had a great time and filled most every moment with new adventures and experiences.
On Monday, we broke into two teams to meet with potential funders and other foundations doing work similar to what we do. And on Tuesday, we started the “tour” by traveling to Masindi in western Uganda. We work around the Budongo forest, incorporating conservation work with our ore program work. The idea is that if we provide people with a way to earn a living, they will not do illegal activities in the forest. We visited businesses and met with our Business Mentors in the area. I always love going to the field and seeing our work up close.
Another highlight of our time in Masindi was chimp trekking. We spent some time walking through the forest looking for them, and then about an hour observing them. They were up in the trees eating, but we could see some of them very clearly. (Our guides were wonderful and let us use their binoculars.) They live in communities and there were about 30 in the group we saw. They talk to each other—sometimes softly and sometimes loudly. The lead male decided it was time for everyone to come down and move on to another spot; he was loud and demanding when he communicated to the others, and others would join in, hollering back at him.
We were then surrounded by chimps coming down the trees in a big hurry…it was exciting. There was one female with a baby that didn’t want to come down, so the others were yelling at her. She refused, so a couple of the males went back to get her. More yelling, more refusing, but eventually she cooperated. They would not move on without her.
The guides can identify the chimps and have a name for each one. Our guide pointed out one chimp, Babyface (his face is light-colored like a baby chimp), who never goes up in the trees. They don’t know why, as he is not disabled—maybe he is afraid of heights! His friends throw food down to him—seeds, fruit, etc. He will hide in the bushes, and when humans come too close to him, he hollers for help and other come to his rescue. In other words, he sets humans up for the chimps to converge on them. He didn’t do that to us, but we did get to see him from close range. The whole trek was very fun and exciting.
I was glad that we had a guide, as there was no way I could find my way out of the forest—too many trails that criss-cross each other. They do not let visitors go into the forest without a guide; I can see why. It is such a beautiful place.
On January 27th, we drove to Soroti, stopping along the way to visit some sunflower groups. We have started a large number of sunflower businesses in the last few years, as it is a very profitable cash crop for farmers. This was a new crop for the area, so we provided hybrid seeds, training people on how to clear the land, plant, weed, harvest, dry and store. We also organized them into groups of 10 businesses (five people in each business) called Producer Groups (PGs). The purpose of the producer groups was to provide them with a way to combine their output and get a better price. As they harvested, the mills in Soroti were willing to come to the field to pick up 40 or more bags of seed at no cost to the farmer. A single farmer could not have that many, but a PG or PGs working together could easily come up with that. Transport is a big cost for farmers, so having the millers come to them is such a good thing.
Another purpose for the PG is for them to combine their buying power and buy in bulk whenever they can. They can work together to get their seeds, so every farmer doesn’t have to go to the source of seeds each season. Again—transportation is costly for these farmers. Many of them don’t even have bicycles, so they walk and take matatus (local transportation) to get where they need to go. The third purpose of the PGs is for savings and loans. They write a constitution for their PG, outlining how they will work together, what they will require for “dues,” when they will meet, what they will charge for interest when members borrow money, etc. They elect leaders for their PG and learn to run everything without involvement from VEF. It is a very helpful organization for them to create, as they can become less dependent on us, which makes our exit from easier on the community and on us.
One of the PGs we visited was quite some distance from the main road. Six mzungu (white) women along with 3 Ugandans were there. One older man got up and said he never believed he would see so many mzungu women in his village! Everyone laughed (after translation for the mzungus). I guess it was quite an unusual sight. It was good to hear about what they were doing. After we arrived in Soroti and showered (long ride, dusty roads into the villages), we were presented with a cultural event. Michael, former Uganda VEF Country Director, arranged for a number of groups to come and play their tribal music for us. It was great! We danced along with them and had a great time. We all loved it when the children joined us in dancing. It was very fun and a highlight of the trip.
The next day, most of the group went to visit Karamoja, the region in northeast Uganda. It is dry, desolate; very poor. [They] got to experience the distance and the roads that our staff members travel to implement our program. It is something that you cannot explain to someone—you have to experience it. Then it was time for some R&R…
On January 29th, we flew to Jinja from Soroti and relaxed at a nice place right on the Nile. We could hear the river from our rooms….the shower had a great view of the Nile. Very nice, after all of the traveling we did. Most of us spent the 30th on the river—two of us rafting (Debbie and I), and two in tandem kayaks with an experienced guide in the back (Dianne and Caroline). We all had such a great time and our raft only flipped once. There was one raft of what we called “crazy guys.” There were guides and kayakers out to have a good time. I think they flipped in every rapid just because they wanted to. They were great entertainment. We were all exhilarated and tired when we finished. It was another adventure, that’s for sure. Today was a relax day with some work. I got caught up with email, took a nap, and got my update done! It will be nice to start the week with a somewhat clean slate.
— Anne
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