As the countdown for the start of a new school year enters its final few days, the group’s excitement is growing rapidly. In a May post that feels only days old, I wrote that WDA was looking forward to the upcoming year. Well now it’s almost here, and those words feel like a drastic understatement. Of course, not too much has changed in terms of new project development, though the organization has not remained stagnate over the summer months. We’ve all been doing background reading on our upcoming project, the loosely titled Trans-Border Initiative, in addition to finishing up the Sadhana Clean Water Project and working on a myriad of smaller internal projects. One WDAer, Melissa, spent most of her summer in Peru polishing her Spanish and working with an NGO on a literacy project, among other things. Look for more information and commentary on her experiences coming soon.

But I should pause and fill in the newcomers with a brief description of this year’s project. In the Trans-Border Initiative, WDA will be conducting research among the migrant Latino populations of Eastern Washington in an investigation pointed at an eventual project that works to fight economic stagnation in migrant’s home communities in Mexico. Work will begin in earnest as soon as everyone gets back on campus and settled in.

Besides the new project, there is much currently going on with WDA. Look for us at the Student Activities fair on the Cordiner Side Lawn at Whitman on Monday, September 1st from 12-3pm. We would love to have some new faces to start off the year. Also, as I mentioned before in the last May post, for the first year ever WDA will be working with a Board of Advisers to plan for the future, get advice on the project and finances, and to have central, organized access to a wealth of knowledge and experience. The board is made up of volunteer faculty members and we are excited to announce this productive addition to the organization.

Also, WDA is looking to revamp its website in the near future, and is on the hunt for a student web designer who would like to join the organization and work with us on designing and launching a new site. Of course, we would love someone who wanted to work on the project as well, but I wouldn’t call it an obligation at this point. Please email me at johnloranger@whitmandirectaction.org if you’re interested or have someone to recommend we contact.

That’s basically it for now. Look for much more in the near future!
Peace and Love,
John

Hello All,
WDA has just finished up a great year, but that doesn’t mean we’re done with work. The successful Sadhana Clean Water Project is coming to a close, but Tim, Jessie, and Daniel are still working diligently at compiling the final report, an endeavor that will probably continue all summer. We also held an amazing WDA retreat on the first Saturday of May where we recapped WDA’s past and answered, or at least considered, a myriad of questions about the future. It was a more productive and meaningful day than any of us expected. At the end of the it, I think it’s fair to say that the group broke up feeling enthusiastic about the future, inspired, and full from all the good food.

We’ve had a few meetings since then, mainly dealing with structural issues and picking a project for next year. The board of advisors, comprised of faculty members, WDA is currently forming is one change we are super-excited about. We believe having a diverse group of mentors is going to be extremely beneficial for everyone involved and future projects alike. Tentative positions for people within the group have also been set. They are to ensure that “the ball is never dropped,” not to limit people to one or two certain jobs. Everyone is expected and expecting to play major roles in the actual project itself, as well as helping out with the dirty job of fundraising. The positions are as follows:

• WDA Co-Coordinators: Tim and Jessie
• PR/Technology Coordinator: John
• Grant Writing: Alisha and Melissa
• Budget Coordinator: Dave
• Faculty Communications Coordinator: Gauri
• External Relations: Aisha
• Fundraising Coordinator: Rotating Position
• Project Head: TBD

It should be noted that several members were unable to attend the meeting these roles were assigned.

Perhaps the biggest news to report is that WDA has tentatively decided on its latest project. I am not going to give too much information, mainly because of the uncertain nature of the project at this point in time (it doesn’t even really have a title yet), but we plan to conduct research among the Latino immigrant population in Eastern Washington about their relationships with the communities they come from in Mexico and what they believe would help fight economic stagnation there, with the ultimate goal of implementing a project to that end in a home community in Mexico. Once again, this is a very basic and preliminary project outline, but we’re all eager to immerse ourselves in this venture. Work for the summer has already been set out. Goal number one: Learn Spanish!

Before I go, I would like to mention that we have three seniors leaving us who graduated today, Jyotsna, Yukta, and Joseph. No words I could write have the ability to describe how absolutely wonderful these three are in every single way. So instead of trying, I will only say that they touched every single person in WDA’s life in so many ways and that their contributions to WDA, Whitman, and the human community will live on long after they leave this place. On behalf of the group, congratulations. You will be missed.

Peace and Love to all,
John

Hi everyone,

This is just a little update for those who couldn’t make it to the meeting yesterday. We discussed our project ideas a little further, but, obviously, came to no conclusions.

The Ashraya proposal is still on the table. We’re thinking if we pursue it, we will probably take an adult literacy/education program approach or a YDI-style approach, either targeting youth or adults within the slum, or both in the slum and in the city of Pune. See the Google Doc on our conversation with Daniel (our contact with Ashraya) for more details. If attempt to integrate city-dwellers into our program, we anticipate caste-conflict issues. This is something we thought we might look at more closely this week.

We talked a bit about the Northern Uganda Microfinance Initiative, and John said he will be learning more about safety hazards and possible looking for a new location this week.

Tim introduced a few new ideas, and plans to make them a little more concrete by the end of this week. They involve immigration issues and may incorporate a domestic research component and abroad implementation.

We spoke about grants and thought we should get the ball rolling on that since there are some grants available that don’t require us to have nailed down a project. I plan to contact the Grants and Fellowships office before I leave and get some helpful materials.

Finally, we had some thoughts on activism. The following questions were brought up:

• Does WDA want to provide basic needs (like food, water, shelter), or are we open to secondary needs like literacy?
• Is literacy/education a secondary need?
• What systemic factors contibute to an environment in which basic needs (like food, water, shelter) are not being met?
• Is meaningful activism about attacking the largest problems, or is it about using your resources in the most appropriate way possible?

At the end of the meeting we though each member should think about these questions, think about, based on his/her idea of meaningful activism, which project is most enticing. We hoped we could regroup this Friday for further discussion and perhaps some more direction for the summer.

Hope you’re all enjoying the last day of finals!
Melissa

Authors

John Loranger
Melissa Rhodes

Location

Northern Uganda - Acholi internally displaced person (IDP) camps; re-inhabited rural Acholi villages

Time & Duration

Summer/Fall 2008 - Initiate research, establish relationship with partner organization
Summer 2009 - Travel to Uganda (on-site surveying, implementation)
Summer 2009-Fall/Spring 2010 - Wrap-up work, publication/distribution of study

Potential Project Partner(s)*

COVOL Uganda, BRAC Uganda, Life in Africa

*Though we believe in the potential for reliable relationships with these organizations (only a few from a long list of possibilities), we should point out that we do not have any contacts with them (Jyotsna?)

Type of Project

WDA will travel to northern Uganda to research the financial service needs of the rural poor, either in Acholi villages being reinhabited and rebuilt after a twelve year exodus, or in one of the clusters of internally displaced person (IDP) camps in the region. We will most likely be working in either the Gulu, Kitgum, Pader, or Lira districts of northern Uganda. This month or so of research will help us to adjust/perfect our approach toward ultimately collaborating with our partner organization to provide two types of microfinance services to the Acholi people: individual microcredit loans and solidarity group revolving loan funds (RLFs)*. Ideally, WDA will provide the impetus and initial groundwork for this organization to open a sustainable microfinance center in the chosen location.

The question remains: What can we, as Whitman College students, uniquely offer? John and I have just been struggling over this. It seems that the project outlined above is a strong one, but could be performed by almost any service organization with proper funding. We’ve thought of the following element that might make our efforts particularly meaningful: In addition to an appraisal of the financial service needs of the rural poor, we will provide an intimate look at the human rights issues involved and an academic assessment of the cultural, political, religious, and social inhibitors to this type of aid in the region to be distributed among NGOs (we realize this idea sounds SHOCKINGLY similar to the study currently being compiled for the SCWP, but we think it might be equally appropriate here). We recognize this piece of the project to be most in need of deliberation.

*About Revolving Loan Funds (RLFs):

The Process of establishing a Solidarity RLF Group

Introducing the RLF Idea
This is gathering support and educating / training the community about what the group is and how it would operate. Usually this is done through meetings that inform the community about what an RLF is, how it works, and the long-term benefits to the community.

Forming a group of participants
This group forms voluntarily out of interested and willing members of the community. The advisors do not pick the group, they encourage its organic formation by individuals.

Loan Applications
After the group is constructed, a few members are chosen by the group or advisors, who then fill out the loan application, most likely with assistance from the advisors. The group then selects one or two applicants to receive the first loan(s).

Training
?

Amount
The amount is extremely dependent on the current financial situation of the applicant, as well as the amount of funds we have raised and number of loans we are giving out.

Interest Rates
The interest rates on the loans is usually set at or above local levels of commercial banks.

Loan Repayment
Repayment plans are dependent on many variables: the economic situation of the loan recipients, the type of business and time frame (the agricultural cycle, for instance), and the recipient’s current income.

New Loans
New loans applications are reviewed and funds dispersed by the group only after all outstanding loans have been repaid.

More details will be added to the Establishing RLFs section above over the next few days.

Established Need For Project (Background)

Uganda was a British colony until 1962. During the period of colonial rule, the British focused heavily on political and economic development among the southern Baganda people and used the northern Acholi people primarily for manual labor and the armed services. When Uganda was granted independence, a large chasm existed between the northern and southern peoples, and there were coups and counter-coups for a decade, with no group able to establish an effective government.

In 1971, Idi Amin seized power through a military coup and ruled Uganda with an iron fist. He is known for political repression, expulsion of Indians from the country, ethnic killings and persecution (especially of the Acholi and Lango peoples), torture, and numerous other human rights abuses; estimates of the dead range from 100,000 to 500,000. He was deposed in 1979 and the first Ugandan president, Milton Obote, was restored. He ruled until 1985 when Tito Okello took power in a coup and ruled for six months, until Yoweri Museveni and the National Resistance Army took power.

Museveni, a southerner, has been in power since 1986. In 1987, the Acholi guerilla leader, Joseph Kony, founded a group called the Lord’s Resistance Army (LRA) to fight against the Ugandan government with the goal of establishing a theocracy based on the ten commandments and Acholi tradition. It is important to note that the Acholi population of northern Uganda did not support Kony; they wanted peace. This is one of the main reasons Kony and the LRA have abducted around 66,000 children to serve as child soldiers and sex slaves in their ranks, not to mention thousands of adults. The LRA felt it was betrayed by its own people and waged a brutal campaign of terror against the Acholi.

President Museveni, in an attempt to protect the Acholi, forced the population into IDP camps in 1996 in the wake of massive abductions and massacres of Acholi men, women, and children, by the LRA. Another major factor was the Museveni government’s belief that the Acholi might cooperate with the LRA, and wanted to separate civilians from rebels as much as possible. However, the camps have proven anything but safe. LRA massacres and abductions have occured inside the camps, devastating and deadly fires are common due to the grass roofs of the closely spaced huts, disease runs rampant, there is barely enough food, little work, limited educational opportunity, and overall horrid living conditions. Many of the people living in the camps are orphans.

In recent years, the situation has improved due to international aid relief efforts, especially in the areas of food, clothing, medicine, and more educational opportunities. Still, the situation remains dire; many starve to death or die of disease, there are not enough teachers or schools to educate close to all the children, and if there were, most couldn’t afford to pay the school fees. Security has also improved due to the military success of the Ugandan government, and in 2006 the government told the 1.7 million people in IDP camps they could begin returning home to the war-ravaged villages that have been empty for over a decade. While some people have begun to return home and begin the overwhelming task of rebuilding, hundreds of thousands still remain in the squalid camps.

A ceasefire that is the cause of the current peace expired April 10, and Kony has failed yet again to come in and sign a permanent peace accord at the ongoing Juba Peace Talks. The latest deadline was April 15th. Because Museveni refuses to sign the peace accord before Kony does and the ceasefire has expired, the chance of lasting peace weakens each day. In other words, the people that have returned to their homes may not be there long. This means we should leave the option of providing microfinance within the an IDP camp open. The 21 year civil war has most seriously affected those populations least responsible for it. Families are destroyed, a generation is left irreparably scarred, northern Uganda’s environment and economy are devastated, and civilians continue to suffer incredible human rights atrocities.

This is an extremely brief and basic history of post-colonial Uganda and the current situation. If the history of this sadly underreported situation is something that you would like to read more about, please visit resolveuganda.org/history. This is one of the most extensive sites we have found.

Rough Cost Estimate

TBD?

Implementation

Members of WDA will travel to northern Uganda during Summer 2009 to work with a partner organization to survey the specific financial needs of the community, build ground support and interest within the target population, distribute loan applications, and, in addition to awarding individual microcredit loans, construct a solidarity group RLF. We will eventually release funds to both the successful loan applicants and the RLF group, effectively establishing a new microfinance center in the region to be operated by our partner organization.

Expected Impact

While hundreds of thousands of Acholis remain in IDP camps, many are returning to their home villages. These communities, facing daunting reconstruction, are some of the most lucrative settings for microfinancial aid. By providing essential, otherwise unavailable financial services, we hope to assist the Acholi people as they emerge from years of gross abuse and attempt to start anew. We hope to engage with the cultural, political, and social climate of this region in the most conscientious and unique way possible and provide regional/international NGOs with critical insight into this long-ignored crisis.

Things to Consider

• Should we consider providing business training for loan recipients/RLF groups?
• Is this a stable enough environment work in?
• Are we spreading ourselves too thin?
• Is a “study” really something that regional/international NGOs need?
• How can we “engage in the cultural, political, and social climate of this region in the most conscientious and unique way possible”?