Irene Ogwal - Lira District

Tam Con Savings and Credit group whom Change Agent Irene Ogwal is working with is located in Ngetta (Comboni College) in Lira District. The group was formed in 2003 during the insurgence of the Lord’s Resistance Army that caused a lot of suffering in Northern Region of Uganda. It was started by a group of 12 Teachers in Comboni after a painful experience of having no salary for three months, which made them realise that if they had saved some money, they could have got something to turn to at that time.

The group has 22 members, each subscribing to a tune of over Uganda Shilling 300,000/= (Three hundred) for the operations of the group. It has developed its by-laws and structure of leadership which handles administrative and project work. It has managed to give loans to teachers who pay back with a low interest rate of 2% per month as compared to banks. It has been able to bid and has become one of the suppliers of food staff to the school and it is able to supply over 10 tons of food to the school each term!

Its vision is to get equipment like a lorry to help them to ease the supply of food and expand the business and credit capacity. Members have realized that they should not depend only on salaries if they have to send their children to school, meet basic needs and develop their homes.

The idea to start up a group was brought up by Irene Ogwal after attending the Self Reliance Participatory Development (SRPD) training conducted by UCAA.