Savings Conferences

10/03/2021

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Serving food at the conference

At the end of February Julious Abate, the Agriculture Officer with the Diocese of Liwolo, and the rest of the Savings and Agriculture teams held two Saving Conferences. The aim of these conferences was to share knowledge, tips and stories with the groups to inspire them and help them to continue growing in strength.

Julious wrote:

“The events were colourful, marked with lots of joy and excitement. Representatives from local authorities, religious leaders and other stakeholders all attended.

Bishop Joseph was able to give a brief background of how CRESS came in to support these projects with the Diocese of Liwolo, and ended his speech with a powerful word of God.

The attendance was 218 from Imvepi Refugee Settlement and 621 from Mijale area. Altogether, 839 group members attended.”

Imvepi Refugee Settlement Savings Group Conference

The Savings Groups key aims are:

Ensure proper feeding and reduce malnutrition among children.
Provide access to financial stability
Promote the spirit of self-reliance and reduce dependency
Promote peaceful co-existent among communities of different cultural backgrounds

This lady sells fish for a living. She travels to neighbouring districts to buy the fish cheaply and sells it within the camp. She was so excited that her life has really changed.

The impact the project is having:

The projects have turned many of the group members into businesswomen creating many different kinds of businesses e.g., operating small hotels, selling pancakes, selling fish and other items.
Many of the members were able to build houses for themselves, bought land for agriculture, bought animals e.g., cows, goats, and chicken.

Looking forward, what are the hopes for this project?

We hoped that this project would create other sustaining projects, such as grinding mills, hardware shops, general merchandise shops etc.
It is our prayer and hope that this project would lead to the creation of financial institutions, such as a savings and credit company (SACCO), which develops into a community rural bank in future.

: Angudeyo Alice member of God’s will savings group. We started group saving in 2019, for six months and saved 3,555,000/= equivalent to $972. In 2020, we saved 5,500,000/= equivalent to $1,528 and shared out. Now in 2021, for 2 months, have saved 300,000/=, and planning to invest in grinding mill group project.

: The lady who prepared sweet potatoes for breakfast during the function

: Robina Gie Charles, Emmanuel Group in Bulomoni. We started with agriculture, and later introduced savings. In December 2020, we bought a bull and slaughtered in Christmas. It raised our total group savings to 3,480,000/= equivalent to $967. After share out, I bought a goat and has multiplied to 2, used part to pay my child in school, and reinvest some in pan cake business to continue saving.

: Loku Nobert, a P.4 child, raised by his grandmother who paid his school fees from P.1 to P.4. He joined the savings group to raise money to go to school, to provide food for himself and the grandmother. He also plans to build a house for his grandmother in future.

: Mijale Agriculture and Savings Group Conference

: Kiden Rejoice, member of Tiyu ko Ngun group. With the project money she bought a bicycle to help her in transport, started raising a wall for a semi-permanent house. Able to provide food for the family and also, she is able to pay children school fees and medical treatment.