Kikondo, UG – GRY family uses savings and income to invest in home improvements – 31 Mar 2019

The GRY family needs more space to acccommodate all nine family members. They have been saving money with their VICOBA community banking group for over one year. Now, they have saved enough money to make home improvements they have been dreaming about. The family is grateful to Wamukisa for creating programs that helped them save money. Wamukisa’s water project helped the family save money on water, and they earned income from their organic vegetable garden.

Wamukisa’s water system reduced the family’s water bill by about 3,500 UGS per day (USD $1). Each day they would set these savings aside to invest in their VICOBA at the weekly meeting. After almost a year they had saved 1,300,000 UGS (USD $372) from water savings alone.

They also sold extra vegetables from their garden producing bitter berries and eggplants giving them an additional 300,000 UGS (USD $85) at the end of the year. With the combined savings, the GRY family purchased building material to expand their home. Additionally, the GRY family’s 2 eldest boys registered themselves with the same VICOBA group after seeing the benefits of saving money. The boys hope to save enough money to purchase bicycles to help with transport to the school.

Recently, GRY family and many other families in Kikondo area are facing a severe drought and unpredictable weather patterns. The drought has affected their water bill due to the higher demand for water in order to maintain their garden production.

They hope that one day they’ll have a personal water connection at their home to start a heifer project. The heifer project will help them produce manure for composting to further expand their garden while raising a heifer.