Talking ‘savings and loans’

 My final full day in Uganda included a return visit to Acholi Quarters, to spend some more time with the friends there who are so inspirational in their resilience, smile quota, community-focus and self-less and sharing attitude.

My visit started by spending a bit of time doing a video recording of the community through the eyes of some of the teenagers that we support and visiting the bits of the neighbourhood where they like to hang out. So we went to their homes, to the home of the lady who offers some home-schooling support (although she was out, so I didn’t get to meet her), to the football field where all the youngsters tend to gather now that the other sports area has been walled off by the owner, to the market area where they go when collecting food for an evening meal, and to the school that some of them go to – when schools are open. It was fun to walk round the areas with them and hear them chat about the spaces, and I’m pleased to say that I just about kept up with them, although I think they were going slower than usual, especially over some of the particularly lumpy and bumpy bits of ground!

The rest of the time was spent with some of the adults of the Lubanga Ber co-operative, which is the community group that we focus our support through. They had asked me to do some training with them on ‘developing a savings culture’ and ‘how to look after a business loan’ and so this was the two-pronged focus of our discussions.

In order to ensure that the training was relevant to them, I used a question-and-answer format whereby I asked the participants a question to lead into a discussion that was pertinent to their experiences and context. It worked well and it was good to see how much they all engaged in the process. Pretty much everyone joined in with some level of interaction, and there was a lot of sharing of ideas and perspectives. My role was definitely just to facilitate, to throw in some additional thoughts and perspectives, to probe a bit deeper to bring out more defined lines of thinking from them, and generally to lead the group forwards as they explored together how they might do a community savings scheme. 

Ultimately that was what the group were wanting to explore. They have already set up a community savings account and got the bare bones of a savings scheme in place. Miriam is chair, and Jessica and Florence are the other two signatories on the account. 

Members can bring money to the weekly meetings to deposit it. But the take up has been small, and the leaders of the group were keen to have some discussion to try and stimulate more of the members to get into the way of saving, by thinking about the benefits and not just the obstacles. There is no denying that it isn’t easy to save when earnings are so hard to come by, and none of them have reliable jobs or regular income. But it was interesting to hear some of the group urging others to ‘have courage and just put a few shillings in each time, so that slowly by slowly the amount being saved will grow’. 

I’m not sure when will be the next time I’m in Acholi Quarters. Covid continues to impact travel plans, and so everything is much more unpredictable than it was. But my prayer is that, as a result of the conversations that we had today, when I do return I will be greeted with stories of individuals who have managed to save small amounts and then use those savings to make positive changes in their lives.