Building a place of hope through savings and credit groups

Worried and desperate were not strong enough words to describe Lucas Artur’s feelings. The 30-year-old father was anxious every time he thought of his eight children’s future. 

“My priority is to have my ‘babies’ educated,” Lucas says. “I used to be anguished to find out how to do it we didn’t have money.”

But now, through World Vision’s saving and credit project, his heartache and nightmares came to an end. Worried and desperate have two substitutes - joy and hope.

“I started to save January last year with my wife; and after a year we managed 8,000 meticais [about 300 US dollars],” Lucas explains with a smooth smile in his face.

“We sat down to decide what to do, because it was the first time we had such an amount in our lives,” Lucas says. “After a long discussion, we decided to invest in a head of cattle.” 

Lucas and his wife’s dream of becoming cattle farmers is taking off. For about 500 meticais [about 20 US dollars] they rented an ox to breed with their cow. 

“We are investing for our children future, because from this business, we will have money to educate them, especially after the primary school,” Lucas confidently says.

Lucas is one of 24 members of a group of farmers in the Mozambican highlands of Nihessiue Area Development Programme (ADP) in northern Mozambique. He also sells dried fish in the local market.

“We have heard rumours about the impact of the saving and credit groups created by World Vision. At the time it sounded like wow, this is what we need. We asked to be trained and we started our activities last year. We managed to save 28,000 meticais [1,000 dollars US dollars].”

The community ‘bank’ addresses several needs
A saving and credit group is a small scheme where groups agree on a sum of money and put it in a common box. Then members of the group and communities are able to ask for loans to be repaid with 10 per cent interest.

They meet once a month to put together the money in a metal safe-deposit box with three keys.

This is helping people like Lucas whom struggled to accumulate a reasonable amount to buy or invest in something that really improved their lives.

“Sometimes we used to have money without a plan on how we could use it at that time. But now, if I find money, I have a place to save it and I can plan to do something that really impacts our lives.”

And talking about his plans, “This time when we receive (payment), we will buy zinc sheets and improve our house. As you can see, it is made with of grass which easily can burn with children while we are away.”

Thrilled, Lucas shares more about the magic of saving. 

“It is so interesting because if you save a certain amount, at the end you will have more than that, because of the interest,” Lucas explains. “At the same time, we are helping our fellows in the communities because they can ask for loans for the income generations activities. I mean this is a sort of a bank to our communities.”

Apart from the sum which goes to the box for saving, the members also contribute to a social fund.

This fund is used to relieve the burden of the members in case of emergency, as well as to help orphans and vulnerable children within the community.

“All I can say is thank you to the sponsors and World Vision for the wonderful work being done here,” Lucas says on behalf of the community. “Our children can now drink safe water, study in very good conditions and have food to eat thanks to your hard work.”

“So many families succeeded to buy zinc sheets and build improved houses, some bought goats and chickens, motorbikes, and invested in income generations activities,” adds Azevedo Alves, manager of World Vision’s Nihessiue Area Development Programme (ADP). 

There have been 10 saving and credit groups started and trained by Nihessiue ADP.