By Jessica Perrin, CARE International
Throughout the small region of Chakhaza in Malawi there are generations of women who were never able to finish primary school. They live in some of the poorest communities in the country, and sadly, in the past have lacked opportunities to help their families escape the cycle of poverty. Seeing the intricate notes of their group meetings, tables of loan repayments and considered business plans, it’s hard to believe the majority are uneducated.
These women are now members of a village savings and loan group through CARE’s SMIHLE project. Across the countryside there are hundreds of women forming groups to invest small amounts of their money into a fund from which they can eventually borrow. As the fund grows with interest from repaid loans, the members begin to make money. The training they received from CARE has given them the skills and knowledge to support their savings and loans groups and for some, start a small business to support their families.
Margaret is the treasurer of a saving and loans group, which she helped to set up through her HIV support group. ‘After we started saving, the money in savings had grown and we started lending to each other. The money I borrowed I invested in a small business selling second-hand clothes,’ says Margaret. ‘After making some profit I returned the loan and continued with the business.’
The principal of the group is simple; save and share together. Margaret’s group of nine meet weekly and everyone who attends is required to buy at least one share valued at 25 kwacha ($0.22). Then they can either borrow from the group or wait for the returned dividends. With the annual dividends, Margaret bought nine pigs, fertilizer for her maize field and is now using the profits from her business to send her children to school.
Given the opportunity, she’s shown the rest of her community exactly what the savings and loans groups are capable of. When’s she not traveling from village to village on foot selling clothes, she can be found tending to her vegetable garden and crops or her growing number of livestock. ‘SMIHLE had improved my livelihood. I was never like this, I was heavily stricken by poverty, and as you can see, now I can send my children to school and the community admires our village savings and loan group,’ says Margaret.
For Margaret, and many other women throughout Malawi, the savings and loans groups have given them the opportunity to change their own lives and find support within their community they never knew existed. ‘We rely on each other and have become friends through the village savings and loans group. We are always together, just like one, to share our ideas and support each other.’
Beyond livelihood security and friendship, Margaret has found something she never thought possible: hope. ‘For the first time in my life I have lots of hopes. First I have a small house, but now I want to build a bigger one and I want my youngest son to go to private school.’ The group may be small in size, yet the results for each and every member are colossal and their success only continues to grow. From humble beginnings in the heart of Malawi, Margaret and hundreds of other group members are changing the face of their communities and the outlook for their families.