Notes from Stephen, Wan, Kweilin, and Li

Li Tsun's homepage

Atom RSS for your feed reader

 

Kampala, Reach Out microfinance, stone quarry workers

Mommy and Jay and I spent most of the day with the Reach Out microfinance team while Daddy visited the Reach Out clinic. We talked in the microfinance office in the morning and then visited two client businesses: a charcoal store and a stone quarry. The quarry workers are among the poorest people we've met.

In the office we learned about a chicken project funded by a group loan. The clients underestimated costs and the microfinance board was discussing how to go forward. The idea behind the project is to raise chickens and sell them in the neighboring market. The chicks take six weeks to reach maturity. The clients have sold a few generations but it seems that their current batch is several weeks from maturity and the clients can't cover expenses.

We visited a client's charcoal business. She showed us a shed full of charcoal that she sells for 30 cents for two buckets. She's on her fourth loan.

In the afternoon, we visited a stone quarry partially owned by a Reach Out client. The quarry workers did physically demanding work with primitive equipment for unbelievably low wages. Men chip rocks from the ground and carry them out to where women and children smash them with mallets into pebbles to be sold for construction.

A man I spoke with makes 50 cents to a dollar a day, which is about what a packet of biscuits costs at the supermarket. He's 32 years old.

A younger man makes a quarter for every 15 trips he makes carrying a 30-pound bag of rocks from the bottom of the quarry to the top, where women and children break the rocks into pebbles. He wore flip flops with holes in the heels.

Seven-year-old children hit rocks with small hammers next to their mothers. They worked in the hot sun. The only shade was three sticks propped up together with a cloth draped over them. It was big enough to cover a baby.

Most of these poor quarry workers came from villages in northern Uganda, where there's a war. "This is the only job we can find," said one of the men.

Little kids make 15 cents a day and teenagers make 30 cents a day. They all work 12 hours a day.

Both evenings in Kampala we experienced power outages from 6 to 11. I don't know how the capital of a country can function with daily power outages. Someone told us that Uganda sells its energy to Kenya and doesn't keep enough for itself.

While Jay and I were talking in the microfinance office this morning, Mommy spoke with six female Reach Out clients and found that they have little power in their marriages. Mommy asked how many of their husbands had beaten them and all six raised their hands. "Has he ever forced you to have sex?" Mommy asked. "Whenever he comes home drunk," one responded, and others nodded.

posted by Li at 11:48 AM