Project summary and status

Summary of achievements since start of project

The eastern part of Congo (the former Zaire) is known because of the beauty of the hilly region bordering some of the largest and most beautiful lakes of the world and the hospitability of its people. Unfortunately these days it is better known because of uncontrolled, roaming and roving, terrorist groups that form a memory and daily nightmare remaining from the civil war in Burundi. Many refugee camps, inhabited by people from Burundi, Rwanda and Congo itself , flock the countryside. However it is not only sorrow around. In the area of Uvira, at the lake side, the local economy is slowly recovering. Agriculture is thriving and fisheries from Lake Tanganyika is accounting for a steady flow of high quality nourishment. Local government is recovering, though people depend on many services from nearby Burundi and its capital Bujumbura that is at a couple of hours driving along the coastal route (or a day by boat).

The loan request that came in from ASMAR in early 2006 did initially not make any chance: how could we expect people in such a war trodden area to ever pay back? The plan that ASMAR forwarded though looked good and the motivation of the people behind it were convincing. In addition we received very positive reports and strong recommendations from Mr. Peter van Doren, a Dutch national, working for one of the NGO's in the area. The episcopate of Uvira came forward with a guarantee and logistical support. Last but not least Eddy Koppers, CEO of the GIKO Group of companies, a major producer and importer of frozen fish and shrimp to the EU, with HQ in the Netherlands and production facilities in Spain, China, Nigeria and Ecuador came to the rescue. He offered to finance the project. This tipped the balance and a contract was signed.

ASMAR is at present mainly concerned with the fate of fishermen's wives. While their husbands are fishing most of the time (and many never make it back home after a stormy night) these are left with the children and the responsibility of selling the fish and meeting the financial needs of the families. Through a micro credit plan, managed by ASMAR already some time, those women could buy more fish, process more (mainly sun drying or smoking) and process it better, sell it over a larger area and hence make a better living. Through a loan from Zero-Kap the manager of the project, Jean Bosco Kwabene could substantially increase his funding base and serve many more families with a credit line.

So far credits were given to 176 families, each receiving € 116 (the local economy is presently based on US$; they took each a loan of $ 200) until the end of 2007 at an interest of only 2%. Part of the Zero-Kap credit was used in training programmes and to pay the project infrastructure, the remainder being steadily disbursed to new applicants for a loan. Loans are disbursed to groups, who collectively guarantee repayment of the single loans, much as happens in the Bangladesh and Indian examples with SHG's (Self Help Groups).

The immediate effect of the loans has been the reporting by mothers that they could pay a midwife for a healthy delivery, pay school money, pens and books for children, but obviously also they increase their trade volume.

ASMAR staff is very appreciative of the eroding buying power of the US$, because this does mean that the value returned by the loan takers is steadily lowering and buying back Euro's is getting more expensive.

Eddy Koppers was, for good reasons, not too happy with the quality of the pictures he received earlier. He then asked Zero-Kap to get the project management a better (digital) camera on his account. The result was impressive and on the right we show some recent photographs Jean Bosco took.