Partners:

• Mothers’ Union Burundi (Literacy and Development Program), Bujumbura, Burundi
• Mothers’ Union UK

Program Type and Services:

• Christian Microfinance Institution: “Savings-Led” with Group Savings and Guarantee

Financial management and business skills for micro-enterprises, and community managed loan funds, with training on how to establish Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs), which enable groups to mobilize their own savings and lend to each other.

Training and Resource Examples:

• Budgeting and saving skills.
• Business ideas, planning, marketing, price setting.

The Community

Burundi is recovering from a civil war that devastated civil society structures, contributed to high illiteracy rates and poor health care, exacerbated gender disparity and plunged large numbers of the population into abject poverty.  Thousands of people died and others were driven from their homes, leaving women and children in particular vulnerable to gender based violence or abduction.  Burundi is currently one of poorest countries in the world, ranked 172 out of 179 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index -- with 93.4% of the population living on less than $2 a day, and only 52.2% of females able to read and write.

At the root of this are issues such as poverty and low levels of education among women; early marriage and pregnancy; and lack of access to land, credit and training.  Some or all of these factors result in many women becoming vulnerable and further trapped in poverty.  It is especially in more remote areas that women are marginalized and face fewer opportunities for training or credit to support income generating activities.

The Program

The Mothers' Union Literacy and Development Program has been successfully training Burundians in literacy and numeracy since 2005. Five Talents is now partnering with the Mothers' Union in order to provide business skills training as well as savings and credit group formation to the literacy program participants. In February 2010, we held train the trainer workshops teaching these skills. During the first year of the project, trainers anticipate training about 110 facilitators, who will help start savings groups throughout Burundi. Over a 3-year period, 340 savings groups will be started and it is anticipated that 10,000 people will be beneficiaries of this project. The target population for this project is the most vulnerable communities. At least 70% of participants will be women.

The Need

The goal of this project is to build the capacity of Mothers’ Union Burundi to be able to provide training and skills in the area of savings and credit group formation and small-business skills.  We hope for women to gain literacy, manage their assets, take part in household decision-making, join a savings and credit group (ASCA), establish or expand their businesses, and become empowered to take a lead on development issues within their own communities.  By the end of 2012, Five Talents hopes to reach a total of 4,400 group members. Please join us in praying for these needs.

2012 Funding Request:

• $80,469.60
• Cost per member to provide Five Talents' holistic services: $18.29

Help us empower the citizens of Burundi with the capacity to improve their lives by supporting this Five Talents International program. You will be fighting poverty, creating jobs and transforming lives!

 Read our latest update for the Burundi program

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