by Winston Chua
The San Marino Rotary community received the opportunity to broaden their international horizons last Thursday as they welcomed Nick Smith to the fold. The American University graduate student and leader of microfinancing in the Western Ugandan town of Buseesa has been working in East Africa since 2009.
“Nick is someone who exemplifies the Rotary spirit of ‘service above self,’” said former Rotary President Isaac Hung.
Smith is the president of the non-profit Buseesa Community Development Centre whose mission it is to deliver “empowerment through microcredit.” He founded the microfinance institution with just $3,000 and 45 borrowers in 2009.
Smith and his staff make loans that range from $65 to $300 to the Buseesans. Buseesa is a part of the larger Kibaale district. You may recognize the name Kibaale as the location of an Ebola outbreak that took place in 2012.
Now, however, it is also the site of “helping Ugandans to help themselves,” Smith said. “The loans take form of financing that keeps giving back to the people.”
One woman who has benefitted from the program is named Justine, who joined the BCDC in 2009 and has received 10 loans to date. She walks 3-4 hours just to attend monthly meetings and has diversified her income base to include animals and has increased the size of her farm. She built her family’s first brick home and has sent two children to secondary school.
Once the $65-$300 loans are repaid, the borrowers like Justine are allowed to take out bigger loans for themselves and their families. Since 2009 BCDC has lent more than $210,000. Smith says that more than 99-percent of the loans have been repaid and that just $500-$600 of the total lending amount has not be repaid.
The interest on the loans is 9% every six-months.
Microfinancing works by allowing the poor access to a formal banking sector using social collateral instead of physical collateral. At least 60 percent of those involved and who take part in six-month loans are required to be women.
Smith spends two to three months out of the year in the district. He says that his involvement there was inspired by his parents who “opened his eyes to injustices as a kid.” From a young age he volunteered at soup kitchens and homeless shelters on the weekends with his parents.
His father even encouraged him to go to Mexico, an experience he says “opened his eyes to the international issue of poverty.”
Not happy with his studies at business school, he found studies he was more interested in in aid work, global studies, business economics and international development.
Because Africa was a region of the world he knew least about, he chose to study it and then fell in love with it. Subsequently, he offered to teach at a school run by nuns who in turn asked Smith to start a microfinance project.
There are many needs in Buseesa. Among them are a lack of affordable health care, little access to education, basic consumption and an inability to save for the future. Malaria, diarrhea, childbirth, HIV and AIDS also contribute to an alarming mortality rate.
Microfinancing won’t solve all the problems in Kibaale, but Smith says it is making an impact. Through the lending program the people there have been able to put their children through school and allowed many to build their own brick homes. Just 12% of those in the area have brick homes. Most people from previous generations did not have brick housing.
“The pride they take in themselves and what they’ve been able to accomplish is the most rewarding aspect of what I do,” Smith said, adding that he himself is proud of the way people are living and eating healthier.
Besides better food, more students are enrolling in school, healthcare is more affordable and more people have tangible and intangible assets.
These are vast improvements from what had been happening more frequently in the area. Smith told Rotarians that people often dry their agriculture on the dirt ground next to their home, where animals and their fecal matter can also roam free. Because people do not have great access to water to wash their agriculture or hands, worms and hepatitis A are serious issues.
Although this is a potentially grave problem, he also added that it costs just 10 cents to deworm a kid with a pill (a dollar goes a long way). Today, almost one in five families have worm incidents every couple of months.
Most of the microloans, about 90 percent, are used for agriculture. Other loans are used for shops and trades and rearing animals.
“We’re stimulating business, not stimulating handouts,” Smith explained. “We are giving the proverbial fishing pole to the people.”
The country’s GDP per capita is about $571. The average farming income for a family in the district is $100 to $300 every six months. Most people are making under $1 per day.
Smith in January of 2015 will be leading a nursing team from various hospitals in Northern California. In past years the team has worked with nurses from UCLA, UC Davis and UCSF.
In 2014, a total of 1,340 patients have been seen and a number have been tested for HIV/AIDS, yellow fever, malaria and STIs. For three years the BCDC has brought out nurses to conduct health outreach and education. Between this year and next, Smith hopes to build a health clinic and outreach center.
During his next stay he will be opening a nursery and 3rd grade level classrooms.
For more information, please visit www.bcdcmicrocredit.org.
