Turning Point Finance Programme
TPFP is a new scheme to provide small loans to some of the parents of the children involved in the Turning Point project. The aim of the loans is to help the parents start up new small businesses or build up existing ones such as selling chips or repairing shoes around Kibera.
The parents arrange themselves into groups of five for accountability and support and interest-free loans are made to individuals within the group. At first just two people receive loans then once they have repaid KSh200 the next two people receive loans, again they must repay Ksh200 before the final group member can access their loan. Repayments are made weekly through the group leaders.
Once all the group members have completed their repayment, the group qualifies for the next size loan, double that of the previous one. The following table from October 2008 gives an idea of how many different groups we have functioning at one time:
One of the groups is called Wamama bora (the best mums), this is one of the two groups where the group leader (known as the 'samaki kubwa' or 'big fish') waited to be the last person to take the loan. When asked why she allowed the others to go first she said it was because the others were all mamas with small children to feed whereas she was a grandma and could wait.
