MAKAZI BORA DIARY: MAKAZI BORA PROMOTION (11th June 2009)

29 July 2009

MAKAZI BORA PROMOTION (11th June 2009)

One the second to last day of training, the credit officer candidates went to the field again. When they went during the first week of training, it was solely for the purpose of understanding incremental building as it is taking place in the operating area and they were not to talk to people about MAKAZI BORA. One the 11th of June, it was all about MAKAZI BORA as the team went out in their MAKAZI BORA t-shirts, handed out brochures and spoke to people and small groups about the home improvement loan. It was a good exercise of the credit officer candidates to test their knowledge about the product and also to find out what people ask questions about. It also served as our first official introduction of MAKAZI BORA to the operating area.

1 comment:

AnonymousSeptember 8, 2009 at 11:33:00 AM GMT+3
Thats really awesome for habitat for humanity, i hope people will understand what you are trying to do and support the operations by joining forces and co-operating
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MAKAZI BORA: A Housing Microfinance Program in Tanzania

Habitat for Humanity has been active in Tanzania since 1986. Up until 2008, it built low-cost houses at community-based projects across the country. The cost of each home was to be repaid into a revolving fund to build more houses. Repayment rates were very low and the annual average number of families served was less than 75. We felt we could do better.

In September 2008, the Board of Directors adopted housing finance for the poor as the organization’s core business. Out of this decision, a retail housing microfinance program called MAKAZI BORA was created as our entry point into the world of housing microfinance. MAKAZI BORA Diary is the story of how it develops - as it happens.

INCREMENTAL BUILDING

The photos below along the right column of our blog are of incremental building projects of people within the Mbagala Branch operating area, Temeke Municipality, Dar es Salaam. The houses would qualify for MAKAZI BORA home improvement loans, but all of the work seen was done prior to MAKAZI BORA being introduced to the area. They are examples of what people are doing on their own and projects to which an injection of affordable housing finance can add value and improve living conditions. Some of the houses in the photos belong to MAKAZI BORA applicants prior to receiving their loans. Others are simply houses viewed in the area.

People are already building.... Habitat is just helping them solve a finance gap to advance their own housing process with the MAKAZI BORA home improvement loan. In the absence of any realistic hope of formal housing assistance for the hundreds of thousands of households with low incomes in Temeke Municipality, we applaud and seek to support their individual efforts that are made with limited resources and using what is available locally in an effort to find housing solutions.