Savings Groups Have Lasting Impact
Friends and neighbors in the Kenya Tigania program join together to save money according to a “Village Savings and Lending Association” (VSLA) model that is quickly boosting both income and possibilities for participants.
One member, Francis, had a shoe repair business that had failed, but lacked the funds to revive it until he joined his VSLA. His group’s constitution allows members to borrow four times what they’ve saved so, on the strength of what he’d amassed in just one month’s time, he borrowed enough to buy the materials he needed to continue operating his shoe repair business out of his home.
Little by little, he was able to earn enough to support his family’s basic needs such as food, salt, soap, and fuel for lighting lamps. He kept saving while managing to pay off the loan. A second loan allowed him to move the business out of his home into a nearby shopping center, and he plans on expanding further once he qualifies for his third loan in a year.
The chairperson of Francis’s group said, “The VSLA project has helped our members more than any other projects we’ve done before. Now that we have established a culture of saving money, its effects will last for a long, long time.”
Kenya Tigania Program
Led by World Renew and and Local Partner Anglican Development Services – Mt. Kenya East