TIGWIRIZATINE PTB

Kakungwa village of TA Dambe is located in the north west of Mchinji district and around 39 km from Mchinji Financial center of Opportunity Bank. A large potion of the TA Dambe’s population is occupied by peasant farmers and they largely grow tobacco as cash crop with maize as their main staple food, and very few individuals do small scale businesses.

Tigwirizane PTB was formed by the Eleven women with the aim of being self dependant. Mchinji District is a tobacco growing  as mentioned above district and usually when a family(man, woman and kids) grow tobacco together at the time of selling all the proceeds are dominated by the man, leaving the woman and kids suffering. It is this reason that drove  the women of Tigwirizane to come together and   got their first loan in the month of February 2011. Tigwirizane women conduct their meetings at their secretary’s house, Mary Yohane in Kakungwa village and they meet every week on Sunday at 2:00pm. During these meetings they discuss how they can progress in their businesses, encourage each other if one happens to have social challenges, and they also contribute money which they use in case of any members’ eventualities. 

BUSINESS ACTIVITY

Tigwirizane  PTB members are doing small scale businesses as stated above .They are in their  first cycle of borrowing from Opportunity Bank Malawi and now their average daily earnings is MK1,000 per day This is an achievement because before they got the loans they were earning not more than MK500 on a good day . No one in the group has permanent employee, most of the times they are assisted by their family members to run their businesses.  Members of the group are involved in trading in  fish selling , vegetables and selling of banana flitters. For members trading in vegetables, they make their purchases locally in ‘dimbas’ (Vegetables gardens) This gave members a challenge before they got a loan since they had very small working capital so they had to go out into the Dimbas to make purchases everyday, but as of now they make large purchases in the two days intervals. 

EDUCATION

Most of the members of Tigwirizane did not go far with Education; they only did part of primary Education. However, the fact that they did not go far with education is not set back for them. Never the less, it is their wish that their children should attain education as far as University level. The children of Tigwirizane women go to Msupadzi Government primary school which is 200m away from the nearest member to the school. The school has very few facilities; it has few toilets and very small library and with very few books, a thing that puts pupils of the school at a disadvantage to better education.

LIVING STANDARDS

Tigwirizane women have lived in this village since their birth. Most of their houses are made of mud, grass thatched roofs and the floors are also smeared with mud .Just as many rural Malawian houses do not have electricity and  piped water, these women’s houses are not exceptional. Despite this situation, these women have hope that in the near future they will build better houses.  They drink water from the bore holes which belongs  to the school which is within the village and some those who stay far from the school they drink from the shall wells which off course  are a health hazard to the people.  In addition to this, during summer season, as the water level goes down some Tigwirizane  members who drink water from shall wells are at a disadvantage as they have to wake up as early as 3:00am to queue at the school water pump in search of water. 

HEALTH

Kapiri Mission hospital is the only hospital which is within the locality that serves the Tigwirizane women. The hospital is 2.5 km away from their village. This is a mission owned hospital hence private and need to pay the medical services. Paying for the medical services makes the people in rural communities so vulnerable to different diseases like Malaria, diahorriae and others which commonly kill people especially kids when they are not treated quickly. They are vulnerable since most of the people do not have enough money to pay for these medical services. Tigwirizane PTB members feel they are half a mile from their friends because now they are able to pay for these services. 

Other Transformation indicators.

All the members of Tigwirizane PTB are Christians and fully participate in any activities and functions organised by their churches respectively.  Apart from church activities, they also attend wedding, funeral, and initiations ceremonies as well as other community developmental activities i.e. school development work, road maintenance work. 

The members also help one another with financial assistance and advices when one’s business is going down. As young mothers, they also assist each other on social challenges that one may encounter on her family life.  

DATA FOR TIGWIRIZANE PTB                                                                                                

 Tigwirizane Women saluting Opportunity Bank Malawi 

Clients Name: Marigerita Kefasi

Marigerita Kefasi aged 21 , a widow is a reliable member of Tigwirizane Premium Trust Bank. She hails from Kakungwa village, TA Dambe in Mchinji District.

Ms Kefasi  is STD 7 a drop out at Msupadzi primary school, due to pregnancy which forced her into early marriage. She has since lost her husband in November 2010. Her only daughter Trifonia is a year and eleven months old

Marigerita sells vegetables at small market right there in her village. She has been in this business since Dec 2010  but because of  her little capital Marigerita felt the need  to join Tigwirizane  Premium Trust Bank in order to get loans from Opportunity Bank which would assist to boost her business.

BUSINESS ACTIVITY

Ms.  Kefasi as already stated above, sells vegetables at a small market in her village.  This is the most viable business so far in her village because she sells people who come at the Kapiri Mission hospital to look after their sick relatives and this gives her a bigger scale of the market. 

Marigerita ventured into this business last year in December in order to support herself and her only daughter Trifonia. The death of her husband, the sole breadwinner of her family in Nov 2010 left her with no means of survival. On top of the mounting trouble to learn to support her self, Marigerita also revealed that her husband left her four months pregnant. “Pregnancy brings joy but for me before I got this loan it was a burden in my life.  I should thank Opportunity Bank Malawi to have come to my rescue by giving me this loan,” lamented the soft spoken Marigerita.  Her business involves buying and selling of green vegetables.  This is the viable business hence challenging one for a pregnant young lady like Marigerita as she has to travel to different Vegetables gardens on foot to make purchases on every two days interval.

When Marigerita  wakes up in the morning she does her household chores then later goes out to look for purchases in the near by villages approximately 10 to 15 Kms a way from her village.

As a vegetable vendor, her business is affected by the rainy season since during this period she finds very few purchases but more markets. Most of the vegetable farmers around have difficulties to grow quality vegetables during rain season.

On a good day Marigerita comes home with MK1, 000.00, this is minus working capital.   These are encouraging profits for her because this business is the only source of income for their home. Marigerita is very thankful to Opportunity Bank Malawi because she has massively benefited from the Bank. She cited that before they started getting loans they used to purchase very few vegetables since her working capital was very small but now she is able to make purchase at a good scale.

Asked about her vision on her business Marigerita says she wants to diversify her business into a grocery so that she can stop going out for purchases frequently.  

EDUCATION

Marigerita did not go far with education as stated earlier, she only managed to go up to STD 7 and did not do any formal training, however she does not see this as a set back in life, she feels getting loans from Opportunity Bank, is the beginning of education in her house because she believes one day her children will attain at least a First degree. Her only daughter Trifonia is just close to two years but she thinks of starting saving for her school fees now. “ I might seem am  mad to talk about fees for Trifonia now but I want her enough so that she should  be one of the most  educated girls and be able to make sound decision in the society, not as  me, her mum” she said while pointing at herself.

LIVING STANDARD

Marigerita has been living in this village since her birth.  She has a small two roomed, grass thatched mud house. She  has dreams  to build a better in the near future  house. She sees nothing to hinder her accomplishing her dreams as far as Opportunity Bank Malawi continues to support her.  Ms Kefasi access water from school water pump which within the village.

HEALTH

The family of Marigerita has Kapiri Mission Hospital which is 2.5km from her home. This is a private hospital and as of now Marigerita has no problem in getting medication from this hospital. She uses some of her profit to pay for medication for herself and her kid.

OTHER TRANSFORMATION INDICATORS

Marigerita has benefited a lot from the loan she has acquired from Opportunity Bank Malawi.  Being a single parent, she feels she has been totally empowered by the bank.  At her church she has encouraging other young women to participate in challenging activities and positions. She is  a member of Last Church of Christ and  she actively joins her fellow women in doing charity work.

As a member of her community, she participates in almost each and every activity that takes place in the community. 

Marigerita Kefasi in pink blouse, displaying a sample of her business with friends.

Clients Name: Fatiness Kansonga.

Fatiness is the oldest member among Tigwirizane women Premium Trust bank. She is aged 63 and a strong member of the PTB. The old lady lost her husband some years ago and she stays with her grand daughter. She sells banana flitters and   joined Opportunity Bank in order to boost her business which had very little working capital. Fatiness is in her first cycle of getting loans from Opportunity Bank. She started her business with the money she realized after selling some of the crop produce.

BUSINESS ACTIVITY

Fatiness sells banana flitters the near by school. These flitters are loved by kids in her area and “Ambuya a Nellia” as commonly known, took advantage of this hence make her living out of these banana flitters. She has been in this business since 2009 and ever since she has had no employee but gets assistance from her grand daughter Nellia who usually assist her when she is frying the flitters. Fatiness actually ventured into this business when she had surplus money from the sells of the produce in the year 2009 so the she decided to start purchasing bananas and then makes banana flitters.

Her day to day running of the business involves waking up early in the morning to clean up the surroundings of her house. She then goes to make purchases of bananas and other ingredients for the flitters from the near by small market. In the afternoon she pounds the bananas then mix the pulp with maize flour and other ingredients like soda and a bit of sugar. After mixing the dough thoroughly, she then starts to fry them in readiness for tomorrow’s business.    

The good thing about her business is that, it is not greatly affected in rainy season, as the flitters are greatly favoured  all through out the year by the school children and even the community. So it is an all seasonal business in this area.

Counting her average profits Fatiness, makes MK 1,500 per day, this is minus capital. Loveness says she does not regret to have joined Opportunity Bank Malawi because the loans have assisted her business to grow.

EDUCATION

Fatiness did not go school nor did she any formal training, nevertheless Fatiness does not see this as a stump in her life that can hinder the education of her grand daughter Nellia, she has plans that with the profits she is realizing she will pay her grand daughter’s fees  when she is selected to secondary school. As of now Nellia is in STD 7

The nearest school in this area is 2.5km away from their village. It’s a government school which is heavily congested especially in infant classes, no wonder Fatiness wished if there were private schools around to offer better education in her area. 

LIVING STANDARDS

Fatiness and her family have ever since been living in this village .They have a small grass thatched mud house which has no electricity and piped water. Fatiness and her family draw water   from the shall wells in the village but in summer when the water table goes down the family access water from the school water pump which 300meters. However, the old lady  has plans to build a better house with the profits they have realized already.   “I wish to build a big house like those that are found in towns, I know this is not an issue with the loans I am getting from your Bank,” The old lady  proudly disclosed her dreams.    

HEALTH

The nearest medical center for Fatiness is Kapiri Mission Hospital. Her family now has no problem paying for the medical services with the profits she is realizing from her business. In this community there is no Government hospital, which in most cases is free of charge but frequents they run out of drugs. Often, lack of drug and other poor medical services brings inconveniences to many patients that call to government hospital as they go to the health center only to be told that there is no medicine. Fatiness and other Tigwirizane members find that they can afford to go to the Mission hospital because their business is giving them good profits.

OTHER TRANSFORMATION INDICATORS

Being one of the aged ladies in her community, Fatiness actively participates in different ceremonies such as funeral, weddings and initiations. She also participates in community development projects like roads clearing, moulding of bricks for all developmental infrastructures of the community.

Fatiness as an elderly lady she is a pillar of both Tigwirizane women group and her community as she plays a bigger role in advising young women around.   

The old  lady is proud to be part and parcel of her PTB because of the love and trust which flows continuously in the group. The group is able to support each other in time of eventualities. The presence of the 63 years old Fatiness in her group is also a blessing to young women as they draws wisdom from their vast experience. She is thinking to start saving for her future house and other things.      

 Fatiness in smoke frying banana flitters.