Tanganyika: Saving for the transformation of families affected by interethnic conflict

By Tatiana Ballay, Communications Officer of World Vision DRC

The story of these women is the story of resilience. These women are all beneficiaries of a project implemented by World Vision with the support of Aktion Deutschland Hilft (ADH) in the village of Sango Malumbi in the territory of Kalemie, 20 km from the town of Kalemie in the province of Tanganyika in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

 Rebuilding a life far from home

 Due to conflict in Kalemie territory, thousands of people have fled their homes in search of safety. Between July 2016 and March 2017, the authorities recorded the destruction of more than 400 villages, hundreds of deaths or injuries, and the rape of more than 200 women.   

"In 2016, we fled the conflict between the Twa and the Bantu As we are Bantu, my family and I took refuge in Kalemie for two years. When we returned to the village, On our return to the village, we reclaimed our land and removed the weeds. It was hard work, but we didn't feel the pain. The hardest part came much later. We didn't know how to feed our families, we were returnees, as we are sometimes called", recalls Clotilde, a resident of the village.

In 2019, after a return to calm, the Bantu families of Sango Malumbi village were able to return to their homes. Faced with the difficulties of access to drinking water and the resources necessary for the survival of these families, World Vision launched a multi-sectoral support project in the village of Sango Malumbi in 2023. 

The ADH project will address the problem of access to drinking water in order to reduce water-borne diseases in rural areas, facilitate socio-economic reintegration and help improve food security by providing direct cash in order to promote a savings culture in the community.  

To achieve this, World Vision is supporting 156 families with 936 children. The organisation provides livelihoods, including agricultural inputs, and implements the Saving for Transformation (S4T) approach.

Challenges and successes

Two savings groups, including Clotilde's group called Umoja ni nguvu, have been set up since September 2023. Each group has 50 members. The aim of these groups is to provide access to simple savings and credit solutions in communities that do not have access to formal financial services, such as the village of Sango Malumbi. 

"Since World Vision began implementing the ADH project, through which we were trained and provided with the necessary materials for the savings groups, group members have started saving. The women who do the housework have benefited from credit within the group and have bought seeds to cultivate the fields, thus improving their living conditions after harvesting and selling part of the crop", reports Guillaume Ngumbi Sengi, Project Officer at World Vision DRC.

The Umoja ni nguvu savings group has already saved 1,249,000 Congolese francs (USD 452).

Mukeni, aged 50, is the mother of 5 children. She used to own arable land and cattle. She also sold some of her crops, which gave her enough income to live on. But when conflict started in 2016, Mukeni and her family had to flee, and when they returned they had lost everything. In 2023, Mukeni was able to benefit from World Vision's support through savings training and received agricultural inputs.   She borrowed 40,000 Congolese francs (US$14) from her savings group. This has enabled her to cultivate her fields, where she now grows groundnuts, manioc and vegetables to supplement the food ration for herself and her family.

"It was very difficult to start from scratch, but thanks to the support of World Vision I have been able to diversify my crops, I have even been able to replant groundnuts, it's wonderful. And now, thanks to the savings group, together we save the little we have and we can even borrow. I didn't think this was possible for people living in such harsh conditions", says Mukeni.

By July 2017, the violence in Tanganyika had resulted in the displacement of more than 557,000 people, according to the UN Office for Humanitarian Coordination, or more than 22% of the province's population.