USAID/Guinea: Credit with Education: Reaching the Truly Poor

JUNE 9, 2003

Credit with Education: Reaching the Truly Poor

USAID-sponsored NGO (OICI) is working with the truly poor in Guinea in helping rural women improve their organizational and business management skills to better conduct small trading. The result? Improved economic and social status for rural women.

A year and a half ago, the members of the Sambaya-Nafaya Women's Association would have never dreamed that they were capable of achieving what they have in terms of improved living conditions and individual skills. It was only after having been explained the benefits of working as a group by a representative of Opportunities Industrialization Centers International (OICI)/Guinea in early 2001 that the women of the village Sambaya-Nafa, a District located in the Sub-Prefecture of Dounet, decided to form an official association. At that point, its sixteen members participated in five different training workshops led by PAVE on financial and human resource management that aimed ultimately at reinforcing their ability to achieve specific goals through activities executed by a formal structure with official rules and regulations. After receiving these initial basic trainings, the group was provided with small-scale credit through OICI's Credit with Education initiative, which amounted between $10 and $100 per individual and was paid back in weekly increments, along with an interest rate of 10% per loan cycle, or 36% per year.

Yero Diallo, in the USAID-sponsored Credit with Education program, gets her onions ready to sell in the local market.

By now, the women have mastered their newly-gained money management skills and are able to divide up their income four basic categories, based on their practical spending needs : (1) money for immediate basic needs: food, clothes, lodging, and medicine; (2) an emergency fund; (3) savings and/or investment; and (4) loan reimbursement fees. The end of 2002 will mark their fifth loan cycle and they have a record of a 100% a reimbursement rate. Most of the women have used the small-scale loans to engage in income-generating activities such as selling vegetables at the local markets, bee-keeping, soap-making, raising free-range chicken, sheep and goats, and buying cereals during the production period and selling them during the "hungry season" when the price is high. With the income generated from these activities, the members of Sambaya-Nafaya are making enough money to increase and diversify their foods, send their children to school, and pay for medical fees.

Having the funds is not enough, however, to guarantee a change of behavior in terms of nutrition, education, and public health. Before the women learned how to effectively mange their income through OICI's constant interventions and numerous trainings in financial management, the women had problems earning income and especially maintaining savings -- even when they earned significant amounts of money. "After the first loan cycle, I lost all my money. At that point, I still hadn't mastered how to manage my funds. But I didn't give up and now I am able to calculate my earnings and to plan my spending, so I have no more problems," proudly claimed one of the members. Most of the women had been borrowing money from neighbors or relatives before, and had constant problems in paying it back. The Coordinator of the Rural Credit Initiative, Mrs.Virginie Beavogui, explained the importance of training accompanying the loans: "Before we provided training and education to the local associations, they were rarely able to pay back their rate -- and loans. But now that PAVE requires pre-loan workshops in addition to constant training and follow-up, the women are able to reimburse their loans at a rate of 100% while paying interest and still maintaining personal savings!"

Furthermore, being part of a rural community in which tradition, folklore, superstition and natural remedies are a part of daily life, the education and awareness campaigns characterizing PAVE's Credit with Education Initiative have played a crucial role in convincing the women of the importance of schooling and frequent hospital visits, as well as teaching them about basic nutrition, local preventative health, and convenient treatment. "I has access to certain foods but I didn't know how to use them," said one woman. "I didn't realize the importance of a school-based education," added another. "I didn't understand the cause of diarrhea and didn't know how to treat my child who suffered from it," said another. Because of the combination of education and credit/loans, the members of Sambaya-Nafaya now eat three balanced meals per day, as opposed to one meal consisting of cassava and salt or white rice with oil, spices and only a few vegetables. They send their children to school, whereas they themselves have never set foot in a classroom. They are able to reduce the instances of diarrhea through special diets and to treat it with a homemade re-hydration mixture, rather than desperately feeding them teas from local leaves in hopes of saving their lives -- and failing.

women selling vegetables in the Mamou area

Women in a USAID-sponsored agricultural project in the Mamou area. Improved agricultural practices, education and micro-credit have been used effectively for poverty alleviation in Guinea.

As a result of these women's success in earning income and independently managing their finances, gender roles are changing and the status of women is increasing in the village. The women unanimously claim that, now-a-days, they feel more respected and appreciated not only by their husbands but by the community at large. Although their husbands, at first, were doubtful of their wives ability to manage money and were hesitant about accepting her increased independence and educational level, they now accept it because, according to one female beneficiary, "The men notice that we can be helpful and even necessary to the family, since before the men were in charge of everything." Upon interrogation, a couple husbands of women in Sambaya-Nafaya said that they were very pleased with the ways in which the women have increased their self confidence and begun to contribute to the family income. Among the advantages, they cited a decrease in their personal work load and an improvement in the quality of sauces prepared by their wives at meal-time. Another benefit mentioned was the fact that they no longer have to share clothes or shamefully borrow food, particularly chicken, from well-off neighbors or family members in order to serve an honorable meal to a guest or foreigner. "I really can't list all the benefits of this program -- they're too numerous!" exclaimed one husband.

When questioned about their capability to continue to manage their funds and earn income without future assistance from OICI, the women instantaneously nodded their heads and cried out "Of course!", "Definitely!" They insisted enthusiastically that they feel well-equipped with the knowledge and technical skills to continue independently in the future.

Story by Kimberly Ross, photos by Laura Lartigue