Today we stole Roger and Winston from the rehab team and met up with Beatrice Limo, wife of local MP Joseph Limo, to visit several income generation sites. The first stop was at Irene’s, a table banking group member’s homestead. We met several of the other ladies in the group as well. Irene generates income through cows, passion fruit, and coffee. After we walked around the property to see all of the growth, the family fed us a feast of passion fruit, chapati, and tea. As we left and asked for a picture, the ladies began singing and grabbed a few of us to join them.
The next stop was to see an actual table banking meeting in progress at the home of another member. The women (and a few men) have mandatory monthly meetings. The beginning of the meeting is when people make payments on their loans and add to their savings. Then, requests for loans are made and granted by the entire group.
We squeezed in one more visit to another table banking group (there are over 5,000 members divided into groups of 10-20 in this area!). We visited Jane’s homestead where their group of 25 keeps 25 beehives for honey. They also generate income through their cattle and a thriving garden and greenhouse.
Our last stop for the day was at the Kipkelion Empowerment Organization Bank. We learned more about the process of loaning money and how payments are made. Thanks to the table banking initiative, almost all of the mothers that we met expressed gratitude for being enabled to save enough money to cover all of their children’s school and university fees.
