Savings groups: Helping women achieve economic independence

Women's economic independence
Monday, August 29, 2022

Before the ongoing conflict in Mali, women's financial empowerment was becoming more and more a reality as concrete steps were being taken in this direction. The battle was almost won!

Unfortunately, the current security context has further set back everything, as some women in the Central and Northern of the country no longer know what to do to generate income and adequately meet their children's multiple needs for food, health and education.

Consequently, spending a whole day without benefiting from any generating activity has become the daily life of some women due to the lack of support or accompaniment. Others, on the other hand, often see their existing small business go down the drain without being able to do anything.

To give back a smile on the faces of women affected by these entrepreneurial challenges in the Timbuktu region, World Vision Mali, as part of its resilience strategy to strengthen crisis-affected populations, has set up the multi-sectoral project aimed in part at empowering women.

During a field visit there in Timbuktu, we were able to meet with Ms. Touré, who is a beneficiary of our saving for Transformation (S4T) component of the project operating in Timbuktu. She is a mother and head of two savings groups (Wafa Koye 1 and 2) made up of 42 members established by World Vision.

From what we have heard from this dynamic woman, it is clear that the two groups she runs today have enabled her and her employees to become financially independent.  

As mentioned earlier, for Ms. Touré, it all came from World Vison's multi-sector project, which began implementation in October 2021. She shares here.  "It has been more than 6 months since we join together to set up these two groups. The initiative came from World Vision who helped us with savings kits such as boxes, calculators, rulers, pens etc."

She continues: "At the beginning of the activities, we had 25 participants per group. But due to the high demand for membership from several women in the neighborhood who also liked the initiative, we were forced to add people."

For Kia, this initiative World Vision is considerable financial and social significance as it allows them to earn little money and strengthen the social relationship. Therefore, it should be noted that in addition to this savings activity, Kia and her colleagues received training on the Empower World View approach of the multi-sectoral project that promotes a sustainable return to peace.

"Saving allows me to meet my children needs; this is why I agreed to join the groups. What I really like from the groups is that all participants can take out loans to start a small business," she says with an air of relief.

We are not surprised that Kia did not join the women's group just to be part of it. This is far from being the case because the membership is well justified. When we met with her, we saw her as a very ambitious woman when she told us that she was among the first people to take out loans from the savings group to start small business.

"I had to take out a loan of 45 $ US  from the group to pay for a 50-kilo bag of sugar and a kilo of tea that I used to start my small business. I don't regret taking out this loan because I am now making huge profits after paying back the group with an interest rate of 5%". She revealed

"Today, I take care of everything for my children. I pay their kits and school fees. Every Wednesday, I pay 0,46 $ US as a motivation fee to their teacher.” She congratulated

What does the social fund of these savings groups bring?

Kia shares with us that "the saved social fund is used to cover social events such as weddings, births, baptisms, or even deaths. When a participant experiences such a social event, the group provides her financial support. For me, the fact that we meet weekly allows us to strengthen our social ties and friendships.  I don't think it would have been easy without this World Vision initiative,"

In conclusion, the beneficiary mother reveals that she does not intend to remain idle once the sharing of savings funds is complete. She has ambitions that her money will help her become successful again.

"I would like to buy an ox to build up after the savings sharing. I am very grateful to World Vision for thinking of us women in this project. We want to be supported and trained in modern savings. I would like to buy an ox to build up after the savings split.