Women ending poverty: WORTH notes from the field

A glimpse of the impact WORTH is having...

For the past two months, I have had the fortunate opportunity to intern with the WORTH program under Project Concern International Zambia. I could never adequately express my gratitude and appreciation for having been a small part of such an amazing initiative. As soon as the WORTH model was explained to me, I knew it was something special. The motto of "dependency is not empowerment" signaled to me that this is a program that truly values women. Coming from the United States, I was only familiar with women's development programs that provided some kind of start up money or micro enterprise loan to begin with. After working with WORTH, I can't imagine such models since WORTH women are given no such supposed "assistance"; they are taught that they must help themselves to improve their own lives.

Every WORTH woman I have met has fully taken this advice to heart. I had no idea women could even be as strong and empowered as the remarkable women I met are. On my very first field visit, I visited a WORTH group composed primarily of elderly women. These women were engaging in testing physical labor to build a chicken pen. I remember watching in amazement as they stacked their freshly made bricks row upon row. What impressed me even further was how genuinely selfless these women were. They repeatedly explained that their ultimate goal was to raise money by selling chickens so that they could more adequately care for the Orphans and Vulnerable Children in their communities.

This noble spirit proved to be a common thread among all the WORTH groups I visited: WORTH groups building schools for OVCs, WORTH groups visiting the elderly and sick of their community, WORTH groups rescuing the troubled youth of their area who were dabbling in prostitution and drinking. These women are not satisfied with merely being empowered- rather, they are so thrilled with their newfound voice and strength that they want to touch as many people and do as much good as they possibly can. I was touched and inspired a million times over by the women I met. I always found myself thinking that American women could learn a great deal about hope, gratitude, and perseverance from these dignified Zambian women. I always felt apprehensive about intruding on their meetings, but each time, they greeted me with lovely songs and passionate dancing, immediately making me feel welcome.

I feel unbelievably thankful and privileged to have caught a glimpse of the impact WORTH is having on Zambian women. I'll never forget standing in a circle with other WORTH women and listening to each woman share how WORTH has ameliorated her life- in the final testimony, the woman proclaimed that she does not need men because she is married to WORTH.

That's empowerment.

Tufune Social Work

The inspiring women of the Tufune WORTH group have begun to use their collective power to fight promiscuous behavior and early pregnancies among young girls. The women of this group live in Kabulongo village where there exists a noticeable problem of girls being wild and drinking. The WORTH women explain that many of the community parents fail to meet the basic needs of their children such as food and clothes. At their impressionable age, the girls want to look good and own new clothes, so they often go to bars to gain money from men. The Tufune women want their children to be brought up in a good way; they are scared of HIV/AIDS and don’t want their youth to make themselves susceptible to it.

The women tackle the issue by first approaching the girl’s parents in hopes of gaining their permission to talk to the young girl. Once the parents give their blessings, the elder women of the group sit with the girl and try to teach her lessons to make her realize that what she’s doing is wrong. So far, the women have successfully approached three girls.

The first is Violet Chilubano, an 18 year old girl who dropped out of school when she was 15 because she was pregnant. Violet had lost both of her parents at a young age. She explains that she was simply bored and attracted by the dancing in bars. Before she knew it, she was in too deep. Thankfully, Violet’s aunt, Agnes Zambu, is a member of the Tufune group, so the women were able to convince Violet to change her ways. Violet expresses genuine gratitude for what the Tufune women have done for her- they have given her hope. Violet now plans to return to school soon.

Violet’s friend Harriet has also benefited from the intervention of the Tufune group. Harriet happens to be the daughter of the Tufune WORTH group’s chairlady, Emelda Nyangu. Harriet’s father passed away when she was in grade 4, and Emelda could not manage to buy anything more than food for her family. Harriet could not accept the fact that her mother would not buy her new shoes, so she ran away. Emelda asked the group to look for her, and they soon discovered that she was working as a barmaid. The group was able to convince her to come back home, and she is now receiving treatment for TB.

Katherine T. Phiri, another Tufune WORTH group member, was also able to save her daughter with the help of her WORTH peers. Her daughter Louisa became pregnant at the age of 15, and the man wanted to marry her. The Tufune women encouraged her to refuse the man and to return to school. Louisa agreed and is now a member of the WORTH group. She is back at school and has taken out a loan from the group to start a business of selling candles, and dried fish. She proudly says, “ I want to learn so I can keep my child”. The women of Tufune WORTH group hope to touch even more girls. Undoubtedly, they will.

New-Found Literacy Helps Defend and Win a Court Case

Taitu Bekele is a member of the Gergis Group in Bekay, Ethiopia. Her WORTH group started in September 2006 and Taitu has already found that her new literacy skills benefiting her life in more ways than expected.

In Taitu’s area, any adult woman who had attended any kind of education had learned to read and write in Amharic script. When the regional state decided to officially adopt Afaan Oromo language, which was transcribed with Latin letters, this left virtually all adult women functionally illiterate in the language of the state.

Says Taitu, “After WORTH, I am now able to write my name in Afaan Oromo language. My children are able to read Afaan Oromo script. I am using my literacy knowledge during the kebele meeting and when the Farmers’ Association calls a meeting. We use literacy at the clinic and hospital when we are paying and taking receipts. We also use literacy for writing things in the court. If two farmers are quarreling over a border, they will go to the social court in our kebele. The court then sends a letter to identify the case. They must read the letter and sign it”.

“After organizing into WORTH groups, we have learned our rights and obligations. We are learning through the program materials. If we face a problem, we ask each other questions. Then the whole class discussion clarifies the issue.”

“After learning to read, I have come to know my rights and obligations through different means. I was in court for a land claim case, and I was able to defend myself. I sent my application to the kebele. After identifying the receipts, I took the receipts to the court. This was taken as evidence. I also witnessed different documents. And because of this, I won the case! By looking at this evidence, the court decided on my behalf, and now everything is ok!”

“Before WORTH, I was sending five children to school. Now I am sending an additional one. …. None of my children are out of school now”.

“I may be old, but I can understand the importance of education.”

Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of 2008 presidential hopeful Dennis Kucinich, hosted by WORTH groups in Uganda

Last month WORTH women in Uganda invited Elizabeth Kucinich, wife of American Democratic Congressman and 2008 presidental hopeful Dennis Kucinich, into their groups to learn about WORTHs unique model and the amazing results of their participation in the WORTH program.

Upon her return to the U.S., Mrs. Kucinich wrote the following account about her most recent trip to Africa and particularly about the WORTH program on her own blog.

        "As you may already know, I lived for 16 months in East Africa, in a village of subsistence farmers. There was no electricity and no water bore hole in the village, and I loved it. I learned to value and respect the ‘peasant’ culture of self reliance, community, respect for the environment and freedom from the tyranny of an industrial society with its constant economic demands. There I learned a great deal about the industry of international development and experienced for myself the tremendous Western disparity and confusion between the simplicity of the lifestyle of peasant culture and the label of poverty. Something I am working very hard to remedy, working to create opportunities for peace, prosperity and a healthy environment to flourish, without destroying a valuable way of life that we in the West should be learning from.

It is with this heart that I flew to Uganda to visit some women’s groups in villages in the Mbale region. These communities have benefitted from a WORTH, a women’s empowerment and savings based microfinance program that was developed in Nepal with the help of a wonderful lady called Marcia Odell and her husband Malcolm who encouraged her to use ‘Appreciative Inquiry’ a method that instead of looking at problems and solutions, looks at how we can strengthen our strengths so our weaknesses fall into insignificance. WORTH is now in eight different countries, serving hundreds of thousands of women through their empowerment and education, providing them with the skills to run their own community banks and strengthen their communities through micro-enterprise, education and basic community led savings and loans services.

It took three and a half hours to make the drive from Kampala to Mbale and then about an hour driving into the rural villages to meet with one of the groups of 25 women who were running their own WORTH microfinance savings group. They meet each week to learn literacy, skills in micro enterprise and community banking, as well as to save together and lend their collective savings to one another at 2% interest, so that each member of the group has the benefit of the use of capital to start and develop their enterprise...

I spoke to one lady who explained the value of WORTH to her and her family. She had 14 children of her own and was now looking after her brother’s five children, after he and his wife had passed away due to AIDS. Through the ethic of the WORTH model, with emphasis on group support and strengthening, community empowerment through women’s empowerment, education and microfinance through the mobilization of savings, this previously illiterate women with little hope to support nineteen dependents explained how she could now clothe them, feed them and send some of them to school. A dream come true. Her microenterprise started after joining the WORTH group and realized that people had to go great distances to buy medicine. She took out a loan from the community’s joint savings and invested in a small number of medicines. She set up a little stall in the village and sold the medicine to those who needed it. She used her profits to pay back her loan and to buy a larger stock of medicine. She now has a thriving business that provides affordable medicine to the community and now advises people on aspects of healthcare. She supports nineteen dependents using a mixture of her income from her microenterprise and the produce from the land she and her family farm.

According to a recent government report, 1 in 8 people in America live below the official poverty line of $19,971 per year for a family of four. Over 97 million live on less that twice this level and all those are without adequate healthcare. 50% of bankruptcies are due to healthcare costs. Having come from a country with a tremendous national healthcare service, I am astounded that America of all places still does not serve its people with this most basic need. Whilst Dennis and I strive for the transformation of the health industry to become a health service and for sane economic practices which enable equity rather than debt, it is my dream to for those models that are working in the ‘Global South’, namely WORTH to help those in need in the ‘Global North’ who in many cases suffer great levels of poverty through systemic faults (which Dennis and I are working to correct), which can be overcome to some degree through community networks and empowerment. It is the responsibility of us all to encourage and facilitate the creation of systems of education and economy that provide communities with the skills to employ their own enterprise to secure the fulfillment of the needs of their families."