Tutubolohang Self Help Group
Background
Tutubolohang Multi-Purpose is a legally registered Self Help Group based in Ha Mabote on the outskirts of Maseru. The ground was formed in November 2012. It started with 10 members but it later grew into 12 members. There are 11 females with 1 male. The members of the SHG are enterprising as a group as well as individuals, predominately engaging in piggery and poultry keeping.
The role of Hand in Hand Southern Africa
· Establishment of the SHG
To start with, the very formation and registration of the SHG was facilitation of HIH through the EDF working in the area. The EDF mobilized women in the neighbourhood of Ha Mabote to form this SHG and the idea was taken up with great enthusiasm. The constitution was drafted and registered with the assistance with the EDF. Then the group was led into the idea of savings and lending for them to generate income for initiation of individual enterprises. Each member pays M200.00 subscription fees and M12.00 for monthly contributions.
Future Plans
Tutubolohang Multi-purpose intends to engage in a mass production and sell to big markets such as big supermarkets and other retail shops. To accomplish this, they will need to establish a poultry abattoir. They have already engaged with some big shops in the country and the outlook is quite positive in terms of marketability, only that they have slaughter their chicken in standardized abattoirs for issues of hygiene and quality assurance. HIH Lesotho office will align its efforts to this mission in an attempt to help solicit funding for this lucrative idea.
Entrepreneurship and Marketing
The 12 members started taking the contributions in turns as capital to start individual enterprises. When the pigs and chicken are ready for market, members engage in compulsory purchase of the pieces of pigs and chicken to provide internal market.The pieces are not sold at market prices; they are inflated to generate exorbitant profits for members as a way to further increase the financial capacity.
As the members further narrate, they have expanded their market beyond their internal mandatory market. Through the linking of the EDF, members of Tutubolohang Multi-purpose are now selling their chicken at Bigy Chesa Nyama and Lejone Chesa Nyama. "We are greatful to HIH for having given us 'Me 'Mamonaheng. With the encouragement to form the group and our individual enterprises, we now have regular income to pay for our children school fees. Before she came we were just idling at home wondering who would give jobs, but now we have created jobs for ourselves." announced Mrs. 'Marelebohile Ntseno who now has 88 broilers which she intends to sell to Chesa Nyama to which they have been linked by HIH.
The group has gained so much experience and confidence in enterprise development to the extent that they have now diversified into sourcing of chicks and sawdust to sell to other members of the community.