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

The community-based Accumulated Savings and Credit Associations (ASCAs) in this program enable group members to mobilize their own savings and lend to each other.

Training focus:

• 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 185 out of 187 countries on the UN’s Human Development Index (2011). The life expectancy at birth is just 50 years, and only 52.2% of females are able to read and write.

At the root of the country's problems 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 for 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. By the end of FY2013, 340 savings groups will have been 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.

We'd appreciate your continued prayers for this transformative program. Please help us expand our work in Burundi either by making a one-time donation or by signing up to "Walk with Us" as a recurring donor. A monthly gift of $10 will transform up to five lives.

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Updated December 2012

We post to this blog three times a week, on average, but even regular visitors to our website are unable to catch every single article.

Below, you'll find a list of our most popular blog posts from the last month. If you've been away for a while, these program updates will get you caught up in no time.

If you're unfamiliar with Five Talents' microfinance programs, then this is a great place to start learning more about the nature of our work. As you'll soon find, every program is unique. Some are savings-led; others are credit-led. Some have a literacy and financial education component. Some target communities in urban slums. Others work in extremely rural, un-banked communities.

All of our programs are empowering women. All are helping parents to develop a sustainable micro-enterprise that can improve their quality of life and help their children to stay in school. All are bringing folks living in impoverished communities a chance to save money, take out a small loan, and learn basic business skills, like accounting and marketing. And all program participants are reminded of their God-given dignity and encouraged to use the unique gifts their creator has placed in their care.

Please check out any of these program updates you have missed, and share your favorites with folks on Facebook and Twitter: