Village Savings and Loans Associations

This week, I had the opportunity to go with Geofrey, one of KIDO's field staff, when he did a training in a village (Olusai) about VSLAs (Village Savings and Loans Associations).  I enjoyed seeing Geofrey in action; he got the participants involved and was very enthusiastic in his teaching. 

There are thirteen farmer groups in this village and seven of them already have been trained in VSLA and have savings boxes.  The other groups are just starting.

In the training, the groups who have already started saving were asked to teach the principles to the others.  They also shared the ways that they have benefited through the savings groups.

Each week, the group meets together.  They sit in a circle with the box in the middle, open it together and get out the record books.  They count the money in front of everyone, record each individual's deposits from the day, then give out loans.  People talked about how these savings allowed them to pay for school for their children, get money for emergency medical care, and buy nutritious food for their families.

The one unfortunate part of my visiting this training was that it was entirely in Ateso.  Basically, unless Geofrey translated what he was saying for me, I had to just listen for the few words that I recognized.  But when other people shared, Geofrey told me what they were saying - this is why I know as much as I wrote above!  So, I was challenged to make a big effort to learn Ateso better.