Women ending poverty: WORTH notes from the field

Zambia: My "Wow Moment"

" There is never really a dull moment when working with WORTH groups.  Every group visit is a highlight. The activities women do are nothing out of the ordinary. It is the usual banking, reading and discussion of social issues that happens at every meeting.  But it is the manner in which they do these things which is exceptional and extraordinary.

Their characters have evolved so much since they first became WORTH members. Where they were once timid, they are now courageous.  Where they once perceived themselves as weak, they have now realized that they are strong.

Because of this self discovery they now do things with a confidence that is truly amazing.  A good example of this is the way they conduct a banking session. Whereas when they were starting out it used to be haphazard, now they are orderly, precise and procedural- as if it were a real bank.  I just watch and say Wow!

The transformation that WORTH women have undergone, this transformation I have seen with my very own eyes as a Zambian woman, has had a very defining impact on me.  Seeing women being able to do things that they never thought possible and doing these things exceptionally for that matter has made me grow in self confidence.  I say to myself, If these women in less fortunate circumstances than me can move mountains, what more I, who is better placed then them?”

Their courage, a courage to get up and work towards changing their destiny, has made me grow in ways they could never even imagine.

A big salute to all the women in the WORTH program world wide.  To all WORTH women who have an opportunity to read this, thanks for making me courageous.  I love you all and keep on keeping on!"

-Chiluba Mumba
Assistant Coordinator in PCI/Pact WORTH program
Chongwe, Zambia

For more information about WORTH, please visit our website at: http://www.worthwomen.org

Meet Raheli Paulo

Raheli with some of the children in her nursery class

"Raheli Paulo is the chairperson of the Upendo Group. She knows how to read and write and she is respected by her community. She has 4 children of her own, one of them is disabled. She also takes care of 4 orphans who were left by her late co-wife. When the program was introduced to her community she was the one who took the initiative of mobilizing the other women, forming the Upendo Group (Upendo means love in Swahili). She believed that the program was a God given opportunity to them, which was going to transform their community.

The first time we visited the community last year she told us she thought that women in her community were going to take the lead in the development of her community. Their husbands own many cattle and marry many women, and are now very poor after most of the cattle died during the drought. As the men have nothing to be proud of, they have resorted to heavy drinking, leaving the burden of caring for the children solely to their wives.

Because Raheli is the most educated (she didn’t complete her primary school education) among the women and most men in her community, her desire is to see every child in the community become literate. In her small community, there are 32 children under the age of five, and no school that can cater for their educational needs.

Victoria, WORTH Coordinator, and Raheli's children

Raheli took up the challenge and decided to start a nursery school for them. She has been doing this for about two months now. Every day she brings the children together and teaches them everything she knows, from songs to reading and writing. Raheli is not a trained teacher but she is determined to bring a change in her community. One of the NGOs (ILAMARATAKI LOKOREI) working with the Maasai communities saw her efforts and have decided to put up a nursery school for the children.

The men in this community have noticed the good changes that the WORTH women are bring to them. On our visit the men approached the Kilimanjaro Assistant Coordinator requesting her to start a similar program for them."'

-Victoria Munene
WORTH Coordinator
Tanzania

For more information about WORTH, please visit our website at: http://www.worthwomen.org

Zambia: It's never too old to learn!

Maweta Tembo 72, of  the Maliyetu WORTH group in Chiwala Village is a widow with four adult children. Currently she lives with four of her grandchildren. Before she learned about WORTH Maweta was a peasant farmer who depended on the maize harvest, which she would sell on a “hand-to-mouth” basis. She was unable to save any money for her family.

After attending a community orientation, she was excited about learning to read and write, saving money with other women, and being able to access loans from the same savings. This encouraged her to start mobilizing women in her village to form a group.

Nine months after WORTH was introduced Maweta has learned a lot, despite her poor eyesight. Two literate group members help her and several other group members become literate. Maweta, who never had a chance to go to school when she was young, is also tutored by her grandchildren at home.
Maweta has come to appreciate the power of saving money. Before joining WORTH she did not know how to keep money for future use.

Even when her children would assist her with some money for grinding maize, she would use it for other unnecessary purchases instead of investing in her business. Now that her group is a Village Bank, she is proud that her savings are safe in the three-lock cash box, or out in loans to other group members, earning interest. She has also learned to be more proactive in her savings, often contributing money into her voluntary savings fund, from which she can withdraw when the need arises. In January she sold mangoes and was able to put K250,000.00 ($64 USD) in her voluntary savings, which she later withdrew for her grandson’s school fees, enabling him to start grade eight.

Being part of WORTH has helped Maweta learn how to be an effective entrepreneur. She used her first loan to buy in-demand foodstuffs. Then she repackaged them in smaller packets in order to sell them at a more affordable price to a growing number of customers.

Maweta and her granddaughters. Monica is on the left.

Maweta’s 13 year-old granddaughter, Monica, is proud of her grandmother for having joined WORTH because she is now able to meet the basic needs of the family. Monica feels excited watching the women on their banking day putting their weekly savings into the locked cash box. She especially loves these days because the women meet at her house. When she grows up Monica hopes to be a WORTH woman, too.

-Jacqueline Siame
WORTH Coordinator
Zambia

For more information about WORTH, please visit our website at: http://www.worthwomen.org

Tanzania: Meet the Kisha Kya Maria group

"The Kisha Kya Maria group, based in Ibosa Village in Bukoba Rural, is very special. The group was formed by elderly women between 50 – 90 years old and with the wonderful help of the local Empowerment Worker (EW). As she was working with the groups she came to the realization that old women didn’t have the courage to join WORTH because they didn’t have enough strength to do manual labor in order to earn income. The EW decided to spend extra time telling them about WORTH and the several opportunities available to them, in terms of literacy, savings, and microfinance.

As a result, she was able to mobilize them to form the 22-member Kisha Kya Maria group. Most of the women in this group are grandmothers - widows who are taking care of orphans left to them by their deceased children. The 22 members of this group solely care for 105 orphans (the highest number of orphans in all the 260 WORTH groups in Tanzania!).

The group is very active and has readily embraced the WORTH program. Despite their old age, they are working through Our Group because they are committed to becoming literate. I attended one of their reading classes and each woman was proud to read one page from the book and explain to the others in their vernacular to make sure each one of them understood what was read. The members expressed their need for reading glasses as they were saying that the scripts were very small.

One of the group members, Asteria Ernest, is very grateful for her involvement in WORTH. She is the chairperson of the Kisha kya Maria group and also a 78-year-old widow caring for 4 orphans left behind by her deceased children. Talking about WORTH, the friendly grandmother had this to say:

'Before the program was introduced to us I was finding it very difficult to take care of the children left under my care. Now I have joined the group where we do our savings every week. I have taken a small loan of 5,000 at 10%.  I am doing a small business of selling fish and tobacco. Whatever I am making from the business is helping me feed the children. I am hoping that in the future I will be able to buy a piglet'.

Another inspiring group member, Pulkeria Mkaryoga, is 87 years old. She is a widow as her husband passed away in 1987. She never had any children. When Pulkeria's husband died, she was left alone on her small plot to take care of herself. As years passed by, her house collapsed and she had to sell the plot in order to meet her needs for food and shelter. After a while she became homeless. She was taken in by good neighbors until last year when they told her to leave.

The Empowerment Worker (EW) in her area found her in very bad shape: her feet were swollen and she was extremely withdrawn. People had begun thinking that she was mad. The EW, eager to help, invited Pulkeria to her home. Since then Pulkeria has been staying with the EW and her family, and her condition has improved. The EW encouraged her to join the Kisha kya Maria group.

Pulkeria has this to say about the program:

'When I was young I used to be a good neighbor and a member of some women's groups in my village.  In one of the groups I was the chairperson. As the age was catching up with me, I became less involved with the groups since in most of the groups members were doing manual work to increase their income. My strength was failing me and I gave up on the idea of becoming a member of any group. When WORTH was introduced to me by the EW, I took up the challenge and joined the Kisha kya Maria group. In this group we are learning how to save our money on a weekly basis and also do some businesses.'

When asked where she gets the money for her weekly contributions she said that, 'whenever a Good Samaritan gives me some money to buy tobacco, I use the money for my weekly savings. You know I cannot do any business because I cannot walk far.'  The EW sometimes helps Pulkeria earn money for saving. She has a kiosk for selling tea and buns and asks Pulkeria to go there when she can to oversee the business. In return Pulkeria gets her money for savings.

Pulkeria is very grateful to the WORTH program because it has given her a new home in her own community. She said, 'I am very happy to have a family through WORTH. Without the group even if I was to die today, nobody would have noticed it. People would come to realized later that the old lady passed away long time ago.'

The other women in the Kisha Kya Maria group shared similar sentiments. They also are very grateful to the program because through the group they have learned to save small amounts of money on a weekly basis. Some of them have taken some loans from the group and have started small businesses that sell tobacco and fish. From their businesses they are able to improve the lives of the orphans under their care in a meaningful way."

-Victoria Munene
WORTH Coordinator
Tanzania

For more information about WORTH, please visit our website at: http://www.worthwomen.org