Katenje

VILLAGE MZATI: Astrid Kalinde

“I don't want to get married again. If I could just have a house big enough to fit all of my children, I would be so happy.”

During a presentation on village savings and loans groups, skeptics began to mutter: What good was it, they wondered, if CARE trained groups to manage money without giving them any? That was when the woman with merry webs of laugh lines around her eyes and a suit of crisp patterned cotton stood up.

“I have seen these groups before,” 51-year-old Astrid Kalinde said. “They can really, really help. I know many people are lagging in business. This can help.”

People listened. Kalinde, a twice-widowed mother of seven, is something of a success story in Katenje. Two of her children have graduated from high school, and she has plans for her younger children and granddaughter as well.

There was a time, though, when Kalinde had hoped for more.

When she was young, her parents chose her from among 12 siblings as the most promising student and sent her to stay with an uncle who lived near a primary school. An excellent student, the wiry Kalinde was also a talented runner. She won the district relay competition six times. But even her strong legs could not cover the 20 miles between her uncle's house and the high school where she'd won a spot.

Her eyes fill with tears at the memory.

“Twice I tried to get to classes. I left in the dark, but by the time I got there my friends were already gone.”

None of that has stopped the magnetic Kalinde, a natural business woman, from bettering her life.

Almost as soon as she heard about CARE's support for village savings and loan groups in Katenje, Astrid knew what she would do with her new found source of capital.

“I will start a grocery and a tea room. I am a joyful person – once I open my tea room, people will not want to go anywhere else.”

“The most notable change since I was a child is the building of the school blocks (classrooms). Before, so many boys and girls were running away from this school. Now they are staying here for learning.” – Mickson Chakave, group village headman, Katenje.

When Katenje was founded on the wide and rolling fields beside the banks of the Bua River in the 1950s, nobody thought to build a school. They didn't see the point.

“At first people didn't know the importance of having a school,” says Mickson. “They didn't see why they should volunteer to build it. They thought it was something the government should bring.”

Instead, Mickson convinced them to start by building a storehouse for food to keep the families of Katenje fed during the leanest months between December and March, when stocks are running low and crops are not yet ripe for harvest.

It took a sluggish three months to finish the tiny building. But, when the people stood back to admire their handiwork, the pride was enough to spark a sort of construction mania.

When Mickson suggested the building of two school blocks (classrooms) several times the size of the storehouse, everyone pitched in, and the school was finished in less than two weeks. People in two neighboring villages came to ask for guidance in construction of their own schools. The builders of Katenje packed their tools and worked on those schools until they, too, were finished.

“One of the reasons they call us is that we do have builders,” Mickson says. “But another reason that you shouldn't forget is that Katenje people offer themselves with their whole heart when they work for the community.”