There is a way in which grants and donations can be given for individual entrepreneur and household economic development in a manner that the recipients do not perceive the grants and or donations as ‘free money’.

I am basing on lessons from my experience as among the pioneer designers and among the first to implement the Send A Cow Model in Uganda. When it was first introduced to Uganda, Send A Cow was first implemented in Northern Uganda and this is how it worked:

• Step One – Organise beneficiaries in groups of five.

• Step Two – Train all beneficiaries in zero grazing and maintenance of cows; including them using own resources to construct a cow shed and planting grass.

• Step Three – First recipient is given a donation of an in-calf cow, and the donation is delivered and received in the presence of the four group members.

• Step Four – Recipient owns the cow and with the responsibility to take good care of it. If recipient does not have sufficient grass to feed the cow, they buy it from the other four group members, since they have the grass that they planted, but have not yet received a cow.

• Step Five – If the donated cow has a female calf, the recipient tends to both cow and calf, until the calf is of reasonable age and no-longer in need of breast feeding. At which point recipient donates the female calf to next recipient; and the cycle continues until all five members of the group have received a cow.

• Step Six – If donated cow has a male calf, recipient retains both cow and calf as their own.

• Step Seven – Whether it be a male calf or a female calf, recipient retains the milk of which they may sell the surplus; thus diversifying their income sources.

• Step Eight – By the end of five years, all the five group members will have received a donation of a cow, and which donation keeps on giving for it was conditioned on the recipients giving back.

Throughout the Send A Cow Model entrepreneurial acumen is nurtured and enhanced – life skills training, enhancing social capital through working with groups, team work, incentivising enterprise through assuring ready market, nurturing the spirit of self-reliance through rewarding hard work, and innovation to diversify income.

This is the spirit of our CPAR Uganda Women Economic Loan Fund for which we are fundraising. It is hinged on the basic tenets of the Send A Cow Model.

Through the fund, access women interest free loans, accompanied with genuine financial literacy training. The idea is that with enhanced financial literacy, beneficiaries may effectively and viably utilise the loans for a duration of one year to capitalize their income generating activities.

At the end of the period, it is expected the entrepreneur would have grown the loan amount more than double and is able to pay it back in full, while retaining the profits made for investing in income generation.

The returned loan funds are then utilized to benefit another entrepreneur – a kind of revolving fund.

These views were expressed by Mr. Alex Bwangamoi Okello, CPAR Uganda Finance Committee Chair; and Permanent Secretary of the Directorate of Ethics and Integrity in the Office of the President.