Dana’s Story - The Founding of Women's Trust, Inc.

In the 1980s, while living in San Francisco, I met a woman named Olga Murray celebrating her sixtieth birthday. To mark the occasion, she was heading off to Nepal to start an orphanage. Her vision, courage, and determination left an indelible mark on me. In 2003, the orphanage and Olga were still going strong and I turned sixty.

Based on the adage that life is lived in thirds, the first third you learn, the second third you earn, and the final third you return, and with Olga as a role model, I decided to greet the youth of old age with my own way to give back. Having made a successful career in the financial world, and on the advice of a former beau, I began to research microfinance. I read Muhammad Yunus’ book Banker to the Poor and decided that the concept was right for me. I also knew that whatever I did it had to benefit women and girls. This was reinforced by the information I repeatedly uncovered that all social indicators are positively impacted when you help women to help themselves; their families and their communities are the beneficiaries. The next step was to decide where to begin a microfinance program.

At that point in my life, I was dividing my time between my apartment in New York, California, and an old fire station in Wilmot Flat, New Hampshire, that I was in the process of converting to a residence. In New York, I had a personal trainer Tetteh, a delightful young Ghanaian man, whose father still lived in Ghana. My senior thesis in college focused on Pan-Africanism as espoused by the first president of an independent Ghana - Kwame Nkruma. My reading and conversations indicated that Ghana was a relatively safe place to travel with English being the language of the government. These were very important criteria. Being a woman planning to travel alone and not being much of a linguist, I began to talk to people I knew about my idea of going to Ghana to find a village where I could start a microfinance program. I talked to people who had been to Africa and contacted my alma mater Scripps College to speak to a professor who had been featured in an article in the alumni magazine about her research on Mami Waters, a West African goddess. All were helpful and moved me to another contact.
Making the plane reservation was the hardest part. I agonized over the decision to book my flight for days and weeks, second-guessing myself and working myself into a major swivet. In the end, I left it to a travel agent to do the deed. The day before I left I made a hotel reservation in Accra.

Traveling to Ghana required the requisite shots, proper clothing, and preparation for travel in and to a place I had never been. I bought guidebooks, pored over maps of Ghana, continued to talk to any and everyone I knew about my adventure, and on March 2003, with my heart in my throat and my stomach in knots, boarded my flight for Accra.

The “plan” was that Tetteh’s father would meet me at the airport, but that plan did not materialize. So, after a twenty-four hour journey, and arriving alone at nine o’clock at night in a strange, hot, humid country, I was deeply grateful that I had booked a hotel room and had a place to go where I knew I was expected. The following day I explored Accra, got my feet under me somewhat, and wondered in my jetlagged state what I would do next. I shopped and finally made contact with Tetteh’s father as well as with a few others whose names I had been given.

My feeling all along was that the village I would adopt would be in the northern part of Ghana where the poverty, according to all that I had read, was particularly acute.

The following morning, I received a call from the front desk that there were two gentlemen to see me. Passing through the lobby I noticed two men – one elderly in a flowered shirt, pants, and sandals, and the other in a long white caftan, bearded and barefoot, and carrying a staff. “Well,” I thought, “that’s not them.” And, of course, it was “them”. The older man was Tetteh’s father, and his companion was a fetish priest from a village just north of Accra. They were to bring me to Pokuase village where they had located a room in an inn run by the only white person in the village. Checking out of the hotel, with suitcases in tow, I got into their car and away we went.

The inn, Topido, run by a Dutchman, was situated on the very outskirts of Pokuase, a village I was to learn, of 10,000 people. My belongings were moved into my room and I was immediately driven to meet the chief of the village, Nee Pokuase. I explained to him that I was looking for a village in which to begin a microlending program for women. He said that Pokuase would welcome such a program and that I should explore the possibility of starting the program in his village. I agreed but made no promise. In the next day or two it became increasingly clear that the fetish priest had been conscripted to be my driver to keep an eye on me, so shortly thereafter I declined his services.

Kees, the innkeeper immediately asked about my purpose in Ghana and took me under his wing. He was instrumental in squiring me through Pokuase, marching me into church services on Sunday, right up to the front, getting the minister to hand over the microphone, and encouraging me to state my purpose for being in Pokuase. I explained to the congregation that I was there to start a microlending program for the women in the village. I described what microlending was and was not; told them that I was staying at Topido, and encouraged women who might be interested to come to the inn and see me. Because most of the villagers were not fluent in English, my remarks were interpreted in the local dialect for the congregation.

To my great relief a number of women did come to Topido during the week and expressed a great deal of interest in the microlending program. True to my word, I went back to the chief to tell him that I had decided to stay in Pokuase and begin a microlending program. He was happy to hear of my decision but immediately said that, of course, I would have to work through him. Immediately I responded, “Oh no, this is women to women, but I will keep you informed.” And to my astonishment and relief he accepted that premise. To this day I do not believe that he hears “no” very often.

I also spent some time on that trip attempting to meet with high-level government officials, members of Parliament, agency directors, and the Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs. I met with little success and those efforts never amounted to much in the way of moving the WomensTrust - Pokuase Village forward.

Comforted by the knowledge that I had established interest among the women of the village, I was modestly overwhelmed as to what to do next. So, I did what I resort to when I am unclear about my next move – I threw a party at Topido.

The first thing I needed was a caterer as the staff at the inn was unable to fulfill the cooking requirement. Serendipitously, living next door to Topido was a woman and her husband who had recently retired to Pokuase. Kaase recommended that I ask her as he understood that she was a good cook and able to turn out large quantities of good tasting food.

Agnes and George Badoe were a very interesting couple. In addition to her cooking skills, Agnes had worked as a former regional school administrator. Her husband George was the former treasurer of a sugar plantation. Neither of them were from the village, but they had purchased the land for their retirement years ago and recently built their house. George had contracted malaria and an overdose of medication had left him legally blind but able to see somewhat. I was immediately impressed with Agnes’ organizational talents. The rest of my trip was spent discussing microlending with the Badoes, and by the time I left I felt confident I had found my program administrators. I gave them a manual on microlending and a promise to come back in six months with the seed capital.

I returned to the US with a plan to engage my community of Wilmot, NH, to join with me in adopting Pokuase village. Friends were eager to hear of my adventure, and as the word spread about what I was doing I was asked to make presentations to groups. I spoke to Rotary, the middle school, church groups, women’s groups, and quite frankly, anyone who asked me. Each presentation engaged a new group of people and resulted in donations.

However, I knew I would need an infusion of seed capital large enough to get the program going, and looking around, decided as a single woman I really did not require two cars. So, I kept my VW camper and put my Volvo on the market. It sold for $18,000 only days before I returned to Ghana.

As promised, I arrived on my second visit to Pokuase in September 2003 with: An umbrella, my own sheets, manuals on procedures, T-shirts for the staff at Topido (the inn where I stay), names of training people in Accra, a video camera, copies of photos from the first trip, a small seed amount of money, and the love of my community...

The Badoes met me with the requirements necessary to register to do business in Ghana. We drafted a simple constitution and went to the registrar’s office in downtown Accra. He sat surrounded by stacks of file folders piled on his desk and in four foot towers on the floor on either side of him. Stricken by the thought of never seeing our application again, I gave him $100 US and the paperwork was processed within the week.

George and Agnes worked with me to set up our program. We opened two bank accounts: one for me to deposit US currency at Barclays Bank, and one at a local bank not far from Pokuase where our loan clients would have their accounts. George had read the microlending manual I had left behind and set up a system of journals and ledgers to track the loans and their repayments. Neither of the Badoe’s were computer literate, so we proceeded with a totally manual system. The local bank had no computers either and all their transactions were manually tracked, so I was not uncomfortable with our system. Agnes had designed an application with pertinent questions and we were ready to begin recruiting and making loans.

The women were requested to form groups of 4-6 to apply. Microlending works with peer pressure. Each member of the group received an individual loan but they were collectively responsible for the repayment of their entire group’s loan as well. Without total group repayment, the individual members of the group would not be eligible for another loan.

On November 3, 2003 WomensTrust - Pokuase Village made its first loans totaling $2,022.00 US to 73 women. The individual loans ranged from $22 to $33 US. The loan cycle was four months and the interest was 15%. Sustainability is key to the success of any microlending program and the high percentage rates per cycle would allow us to cover administrative costs when we reached critical mass.

It was at this stage that we worked out an agreement to put an addition on their house that would act as the official office of the WomensTrust - Pokuase Village. To apply for Non-Governmental Organization (NGO) status, you must have your own office space. At the time, it was a logical thing to do to eliminate the need to pay rent. The Badoes installed a modern bathroom for my use (without running water but with modern fixtures) and expanded their porch to accommodate client interviews and repayment visits.

I would like to say I relied heavily on the Badoes and their expertise. I had a business to run in the US and I did not have the time or the inclination to micromanage them. A two-week visit every six months and the occasional phone call sufficed for them to do their work and me to do mine. I was delighted to have a working model and I left Ghana greatly encouraged with their commitment.

Back in the states I continued to talk to people about Pokuase. It generated a tremendous amount of interest and people were anxious to hear of my experiences. As the first loan cycle progressed it was heartening to be able to share that our default rate on repayments was lower than 2%.

My third visit to Ghana was in March of 2004. The microlending program was rolling along and I was comfortable with the work the Badoes were doing. The second cycle of loans had begun, the program was growing, and the repayment rate was good. However, it was my intent all along that the objective of the program that I was developing was larger than just microlending to women. There were so many needs, and if my village of greater Wilmot was willing to adopting Pokuase, microlending was just the beginning. On this trip, the plight of the very elderly was presented to me and it was agreed that the trust would implement a program of monthly remittances of $5.00 US to 22 individuals, female and male, ranging in age from 85 to 115. This later was increased to $8.00 US and most recently to $10.00.

Also on this trip, the administrator of one of the 10 schools in Pokuase approached me and asked me about the availability of scholarship money. She had a list of children who were very bright but very poor and unable to attend school for that reason, and she wondered if the WomensTrust - Pokuase Village would provide scholarships. I still felt very strongly about providing women and girls with opportunity and decided that the trust could fund a pilot program for 11 girls that would start at the beginning of the school year in September 2004.

I continued to try to see government officials with little success. My efforts usually turned up a person who knew someone in government with whom they could connect me if I made it worth their while. I paid a little bit every now and then, but those bribes never did pay off. I went so far as purchasing a laptop computer for a possible introduction, but came to my senses and returned it before I brought it to Ghana.
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The loan program continued to run smoothly but was not growing as fast as I thought it might. In September of 2004, my fourth visit, the default rate was beginning to climb, which is the norm for microlending programs but it was troubling the Badoes. I was not sure of what to do next. My work in the US was quite demanding and the WomensTrust was taking up a lot of time and energy and I felt as though I was falling behind in both arenas. I was overwhelmed by the need and the responsibility and did not know what to do next. I spent much of that trip sitting on the Badoes porch watching the day-to-day of the WomensTrust, meeting clients, and eating the wonderful Ghanaian meals Agnes prepared for me.

That October, back in Wilmot at a neighbor’s party, I met a woman who was engaged in fund raising at the local college. She and I struck up a conversation which led to several lunches, and by December, the hiring of the executive director of WomensTrust-Pokuase Village. It was a tremendous relief to bring Susan on board, not to mention fun to have a partner with whom to share all of the daily adventures that WomensTrust delivers. Having ne it both ways, I cannot recommend too highly doing this work with a partner. Since Susan joined WomensTrust, we have been to Ghana together four times. We have implemented focus groups with our clients, doubled our client base, created a more aggressive program for going after defaulters, and hired a program development/marketing director who has been instrumental in introducing us to all those government officials I tried to bribe my way in to see. We have a more centrally located rent-free office in Pokuase, the good wishes of the local government, and lots of market driven plans gleaned from our client focus groups.

More about Womens Trust: http://www.womenstrust.org/