Another One Of Those Mystery Emails

A lot of secrets of these mysterious African looking emails were revealed in this edition of,
DIAL "M" FOR "MAGUNGA"
To quote:

"Apologies to non-Amredi members. Keeping you informed, and feel free to comment. Especially have a look at the Village Bank proposal and let us know if it could be taken up by Inderema rather that Amredi alone.

Ladies,

Below is an update on the Mabanga project, as discussed by members who attended the Inderema meeting on Sunday (Mabel, Frader, Rebecca and myself).

Update on bee-keeping at Mabanga
Mr. Lino, the K-Rep field officer, visited Mabanga, and subsequently held a meeting with interested farmers, including the chief of the area. Frader kindly attended this meeting, in which it was decided that a CBO be registered, through which K-Rep can loan hives to interested members. During discussions after the Inderema meeting on Sunday, members agreed that the CBO be named Amredi-Mabanga. It should have been registered yesterday. I will keep you informed.

Following this development, it is imperative that we get actively involved by acquiring more hives. The following two options are available:

a. Buy Langsthroth hives on loan from K-Rep

Cost of bee-hives: Kes. 4700/-
Maximum number per person: 100 beehives
Interest rate: 16% (flat rate)
Conditions:
· 10% down payment
· 2 months grace period
· Thereafter,
o repay Kes. 50/- per hive
o Use 50% of proceeds from the harvest to repay.

Attached is a sample schedule that assumes a loan for 100 hives, from which a harvest of 10kg per hive is realised beginning from month 8, and thereafter, the next harvest is a year later. However, it is expected that when well-looked after, subsequent harvests should take place every following three months. The harvest should also be higher than 10 kg per hive.

Another assumption here is that the honey is harvested by K-Rep, and sold to them at Kes. 100/- per month. However, we have the option of buying the centrifuge at Kes. 150,000/- at 16% flat interest, payable within 2 years. We would then extract and sell the honey ourselves.

Buy JKUAT hives and extractor on loan from K-Rep.
The meeting was informed that JKUAT is now producing hives and extractors that are cheaper than those from Honeycare. After discussions with Cheruiyot, he will visit JKUAT to see the possibilities offered by the JKUAT option. I will inform you of any progress in this direction. Meanwhile, could Mabel and Rebecca kindly give us information on the type of hives, cost and expected harvest, so as to enable us go ahead with the decision making?

Action required: Members to decide on how many hives each would like to get from K-Rep. Kindly let me have your indications by 30 September 2005.

Update on Village Bank
At the last meeting, we discussed the possibility of starting a village bank in Bukembe. Cheruiyot has promised to send a document with comprehensive information on what this would involve. My rough understanding of our discussion is as follows:

· Requirements: Minimum of 300 members required; the more members the better
· Each share costs Kes.300/-
· A registration fee should also be set (between Kes. 200/- and Kes. 500/-)
· Basic office set up requirements (direct costs):
o Safe Kes. 90,000/-
o Furniture Kes. 20,000
o Recruitment officers 4 @ 8,000/- Kes. 32,000
o Stationery Kes. 60,000/-
o Salary for manager Kes. 120,000/- (Reports to K-Rep)
o Launch Kes. 10,000/-
o Renovation of premises (fitting grills) Kes. 30,000/-
o Rent for 3 months Kes. 30,000/-
o Mobilisation of K-Rep officer to be done by K-Rep
§ Total Approx. Kes. 400,000/-

There are two options to raise the start-up: either we come up with it, and it goes towards our shares, or we use the registration fees collected.

Action: Your advice on how to move this forward is required as soon as possible.


Best regards,

Kentice."

Hmmmm, so for whatever this "Armedi" does, they need bee-hives. So I can infer that they either supply bees, or honey. There is also a mention of an "Inderema" which I guess is something like Armedi. There is also more mention of the Mr. Cheruiyot. He is either a big person in Armedi, Inderema or the group that they BOTH might be a part of or he may be associated with the "Village Bank," though I doubt the latter. My best guess is that it is a group of people, probably African, and apparently all female, that try to help African villages and their people in whatever their needs are, be it a bank or a bunch of bees, or honey, or helping someone start a bee or honey business. Apparently there is a big deal going on with then need of bee-hives that is a pretty big issue with them right now. This is all very odd and I bet if they find out I've been publishing private emails of this random group of ladies that I shouldn't be getting in the first place revealing details of how much money they are spending and everything that they'd be quite angry with me but I don't care, bees are mean anyway.