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Making the series

Making the series

Local welcome
Many challenges
True sustainability

Rudo Kwaramba explains why World Vision Uganda got involved in making Millionaires' Mission.

Development expert and advocacy campaigner, Rudo Kwaramaba, talks about World Vision’s role in Millionaires' Mission.

“Why would a development organisation agree to help eight strong-willed successful entrepreneurs to spend a pot of their own money in a rural village in Uganda? Why when World Vision has been working alongside communities in Africa for decades, would it consider getting involved with cameras, egos and big tents?”

Questions I've asked many times over the months of making Millionaires' Mission. The synopsis is simple: eight millionaires in the middle of an African village for three weeks are given one task – to work with a community to create sustainable solutions to poverty. A task World Vision embraces daily.

And one which is not simple. Development is complex. There is no quick-fix to alleviating the injustice of poverty. People living in say, Rukiga, in south-western Uganda must lead the way in their own development, if things are really to change in the long-term.

These are things we have learned over the years and things we wanted to discuss with people such Steve Morgan, Dominic McVey, Deirdre Bounds and the gang. And what better forum for a discussion than a farming community where World Vision has been working since Rwandan refugees crossed the border during the genocide in 1994?

Local welcome

Local World Vision staff have been joining with farmers, government officials, village groups for years and were able to introduce the entrepreneurs to the community with confidence.

The area is hilly and green and at first glance, full of agricultural potential. Busy banana fields sit next to neat cabbage rows and maize grows healthily on every spare inch of land.

This is half of Rukiga’s problem; there is not enough land and too many people. People off the road in the villages of Nyakasiru and Karorowa are mainly subsistence farmers, growing enough for their family but putting up a meagre offering on the commercial market.

Of course they have other issues with a poorly-funded health centre, which functions without electricity in the maternity unit and an irregular water source. Experts debate the prevalence of HIV and AIDS in the area, but it sits between 6% and 12%. Malaria is a seasonal problem, threatening lives every year.

Schools are a plenty but getting teachers to commit full-time sometimes proves difficult and many schools are without access to water. Water is a recurring theme in Rukiga, mainly due to the terrain – channelling water uphill is a real challenge.

Many challenges

Six hours drive from the capital Kampala, the rural villages are far from thriving trade. Women’s groups make beautiful crafts and pick healthy potatoes but with cut-throat traders controlling the market, it is hard to get a fair price for goods.

It was in this light that World Vision put its head together with a group of passionate individuals and a Ugandan community and tried to change things.

The eight met for the first time around a boardroom table in London. I, their mentor for three weeks, met them in Uganda. They were nervous, excited and overwhelmed by the energetic welcome of the local community – as was I. The first few days we visited some local people who were already making a huge difference in the area.

Bright is a 19-year-old student who finished secondary school with the help of his cow, who still swings her tail and chews grass in the family’s yard. As Bright finished primary school, he, along with many of his friends, were unable to afford the fees to continue into higher education.

World Vision and the community members decided that heifers would provide a good source of income and so a revolving heifer scheme was born. It’s a simple solution to a complex problem but Bright is now training to be a teacher and is still selling milk from his cow.

True sustainability

Kellen runs the Kyabuhangwa women in development group, a local community-based organisation. She believes access to information and knowledge of human rights are key to a community’s development. When I meet her, the group was about to celebrate its 10-year anniversary, as well as open a parish library, packed full of information on good governance and basic rights.

This, I see, is true sustainability. Kellen is training women and raising awareness to local people. There is energy in everything she says and she is shaking things up in her local area. Twice the authorities have tried to stop her from taking part in anti-corruption week, she says, but she will not be deterred.

I realised that the entrepreneurs might have even more work cut out for them than I imagined. They did not know the local people, culture or politicians, solutions that make sense in the UK may not work here – they only have three weeks.

So my first words of advice were: listen a lot, work alongside people, do not try to lead and always peel back the layers to get to the root of the problem. There will always be a root cause that must be tackled.