Small loans, big impact:
Rebuilding communities one step at a time
Tugwashanye is a Tonga word meaning “helping each other and working together.”
Eighteen women in the Hamaundu community in Zambia chose this as the name of their savings group back in 2015 after World Vision introduced them to the concept. Savings groups provide members who might not otherwise have access to financial services a secure way to save, borrow, and afford basic insurance to protect themselves against economic shocks.
Persia (pronounced Per-see-uh) Mwinga Muyeeka needed a change in her life, so she didn’t dwell on doubts when she decided to give this new idea a try.
“The thinking of things not working out for me was not on my mind. Let me just try this out,” she recalls thinking. “Let me try to join a savings group to see if I can have a meaningful life.”
A life with pain
Before joining the savings group, Persia struggled. Her family usually ate only two meals a day. She strained to pay for school fees for her children. They couldn’t even afford to buy soap to bathe and wash their clothes.
“It used to pain me a lot. I just went to look for a piece of work that would allow me to get some money to feed my children,” says Persia.
Along with poverty came difficulties at home. “Before savings, marriages were not stable. They were just completely in a confused state. We were always asking for money from our husbands,” says Persia. This often led to fights. By the time Persia joined the savings group, Olaph, her husband of 20 years, had left the family to live with his girlfriend.
This situation wasn’t unique to Persia and Olaph. Poverty breeds strife.
But the savings groups were about to change that dynamic between husbands and wives in Hamaundu in general — and specifically between Persia and Olaph.
Saving for a long-term goal
Persia says World Vision came to her and other women with this message: “This innovation is very good and will help change your lives.”
“That’s how we embarked on this journey,” she says.
When Persia joined the savings group, she wondered at first how she would manage to save the minimum money required, which is 5 kwacha (about 31 cents). But, with a long-term goal in mind, she managed to save 15 kwacha.
“From the time they taught us about savings, I decided, let me build a house,” she says. “Maybe my husband [would] come back.”
Her mother-in-law encouraged her. “Just live the way you are living. He will still come back.”
Persia faithfully saved. She also took out loans to help her start small businesses, which included selling groceries and buying and selling fish. Then she started raising chickens. She began with 10 chickens and now has 85.
At first the changes were small, but as her businesses grew, Persia began to see a big difference. After two years, she’d saved 3,500 kwacha (about $220). She paid her children’s school fees and could afford nice clothes for them. Her family regularly ate three meals a day. And she was ready to begin building a new house.
The one the family lived in for years was a grass thatched house, but she wanted a more permanent structure made of plaster and concrete. She took out loans and, little by little, built the house she wanted with her own hands.
Each person is necessary
The Tugwashanye savings group meetings take place once a month. As the chair, Persia calls each person by their number — it’s like a checking account number. They sit in the order of their assigned numbers.
First on the agenda: Contribute to the social fund, a safety net that members can draw from in case of illness, injury, or any unexpected expenses. Next up is repaying last month’s loans plus 10% interest. Members add into their personal savings for the month and then they’re free to withdraw any new loans. The loan size depends on the number of shares they’ve already contributed — a person can only borrow up to three times what they have already saved. Finally, they pray and close the meeting.
Each month it’s the same order of business. Each person plays a unique role in the group, such as secretary, key holder, and money counter. Each is vital to the group’s stability and longevity.
A community project
That stability and longevity have paid dividends. Recently, as a result of Zambia’s rural electrification project, electricity became available in Hamaundu. But communities need to pay to facilitate its arrival. Persia took out a loan through the savings group to ensure that the electricity came to their community.
Once Persia had power, she bought a freezer and now uses that to make ice cream, which she sells.
Access to electricity also enabled the savings group to open a hammermill — where maize can be ground into corn flour — for the community.
Many hammermills in the rural areas are powered by diesel, but having electricity makes the business more dependable. The women in the savings group have employed a man named Alex from the community to run the mill operation.
Each woman earns money from the business, but having this mill so close also provides a great service to the community. And for Alex, it means employment and regular paydays.
This steady flow of income has not only strengthened the community’s structure — it has even contributed to improved personal relationships: “Through World Vision’s savings [group], our marriages have now been strengthened because of financial stability,” says Persia. “There is more love because money is available.”
Working together
In addition to helping the women establish their savings group, World Vision also encouraged people in the Hamaundu community to work through a curriculum called Biblical Empowered Worldview. These lessons use biblical principles to engage individuals on topics of identity, self-esteem, hope, and vision for the future.
Persia and Olaph — who returned just as Persia had hoped — completed this curriculum together. Now they work through the financial issues that once drove them apart.
They discuss where they will invest and spend their money — and also dream of future plans.
They manage the chicken farm together. There’s always money coming in from their own businesses, but there’s also money coming in from the savings group’s businesses too.
Giving back
After initially focusing on individual identity and vision, the Biblical Empowered Worldview curriculum shifts to a focus on compassionate community — how to lift up neighbors in need. It encourages people to put their faith into action.
The women of the Tugwashanye savings group know what it means to face hardship. Now they’re using their new resources and knowledge to give back by identifying the most vulnerable people in their community and offering support. Persia was even able to pay the school fees for an orphaned child.
“I never thought my life would change that much,” she says. Last year, her savings were 10 times what she’d saved in 2017. Now she has 35,000 kwacha (approximately $2,200) in savings. She continues to pursue new plans. She hopes to sink a borehole right in her house so she can have running water.
“[My neighbors] never used to see me as anyone in the community just because I didn’t have money,” Persia says. “Now they listen to me.”
Indeed, the women in the savings group listen and respond as a beaming Persia leads them in a song in Tonga.
Savings tuyeni kumbele, kuleka kujokela munsi.
(Savings is going forward, unlike going backward.)
This group of powerful women acknowledge where they’ve come from but lean in to where they’re going. “In the past, we used to suffer a lot,” says Persia. “But this time around, we are filled with love.”
They’re now empowered to lead their community into a future filled with potential and promise. And they’ll do it by helping each other and working together.
Help families break the cycle of poverty with Biblical Empowered Worldview training.
Article published on July 5, 2023
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