Your Donations and Prayers Are the Bricks That Build the House of Transformation

If you were to ask 56-year-old Celestina about her life during a visit to the marketplace in Tarija, Bolivia, you would not have to wait long to hear about her children.

She'd probably tell you about her daughter Romina's continuing education.

With a twinkle in her eye, she'd no doubt brag about her grandchildren.

Celestina would also be sure to mention the house she has been building, brick by brick, with the profit from her micro-business. "One day," she says, "I will finish building my house."

Celestina's house is a great picture of what happens when a woman or man joins one of Five Talents' programs. When they learn to save money, invest loan capital in a micro-business, and participate in training workshops, their whole household is transformed.

Children are able to attend school. Extended family and friends benefit, as the group member's new knowledge trickles down into the community. Often, the household's living conditions improve as well – there's more food and better shelter.

Over time, an entire family's life begins to change – little by little, brick by brick.

Your donations, prayers and advocacy are the bricks that build the house of transformation.

When Celestina found Five Talents and our partner organization in Bolivia, Seeds of Blessing, she had already launched several micro-enterprises.

Celestina had first sold bread before moving on to corn. For a while, she was earning a decent profit from the micro-enterprise and began using some of that profit to build a house. But then unexpected costs began stealing from her profits. She'd not yet learned to save, and so her work on the house stalled. Worse yet, she no longer had money to invest in her business.

"I was worried because I needed to increase my capital in order to have more profit," Celestina said.

In desperate need of a loan, she turned to Five Talents and Seeds of Blessing.

When someone like Celestina joins a savings group, your donations help to provide loan capital, a safe place to save, and training in core business skills. In Celestina's case, an initial loan of $40 helped her to get the business back on track.

"The group gave me a loan, and with it I bought things that I needed," she said. "Now, I am selling more items, including corn, chilies and peanuts, and with what I earn I can finish building my house."

The impact of your support, however, extends far beyond the direct beneficiary, and this is part of what makes Five Talents unique.

Women like Celestina are not just getting a one-time loan, paying it back and going on with life. They are joining a community whose support and training inevitably trickles down into the lives of family and friends.

One of those in Celestina's life who has been impacted is her daughter Romina.

"I really admire my mom because she works very hard to build the house -- she wants the best for her family," Romina said. "She wakes up early to go to the market to sell, and she goes to bed late because we have to cook the corn and prepare the vegetables."

In fact, it's because of Celestina that Romina decided to join a savings group. She has now become a reliable partner in her mom's business.

"When I had my baby, she supported me a lot. She wants me to continue studying, and learn to be a good mom," she said. "Now, I go with her to the market to sell, and some days she stays at home to rest.

"She has been a good teacher to me. She always tells us that we should save and that we don't need a lot of money to begin a business. I give thanks to God because she is a great mom."

Little by little. Brick by brick. Such is the pace of transformation in towns like Tarija, Bolivia. But that transformation is real – and it extends across generations.

There are individuals like Celestina in every one of our programs.

Some have already been working hard at income-generating activities but need the boost of a low-interest, micro-business loan. Some lack training and support and need mentoring. All have family members and friends who are depending on them.

Little by little, brick by brick, households are being transformed – thanks to friends and supporters like you.

Please prayerfully consider making a donation today and help more women like Celestina.

Savings-Led Microfinance – It’s Not New, But It Is Transformational

A few years ago, The Economist highlighted a form of microfinance that Five Talents has been practicing for nearly two decades. The story, published on December 10, 2011, praises the savings-led model of microfinance, which involves groups of women and men who pool their savings before drawing out small loans from that pool in order to sustain and develop their micro-businesses. The savings approach to microfinance is much different than the microcredit model that is widely used.

We at Five Talents were delighted to see The Economist's coverage of savings groups, but we would like to make a few additional points that show how savings groups can also be an avenue for community transformation.

Five Talents has been working with this model for nearly two decades.  What is most compelling about the savings group model is that it can reach – and empower – the very poor. In other words, those people who are too poor even to have access to mainstream microfinance organizations that are giving loans of $60 or more.

Through this model, Five Talents has helped to facilitate loans as small as $7. There's the story of Leonie, a mother of eight children in the African country of Burundi. She joined 15 others to form a savings and loan association they called "Nyarumanga", which means, "Let's pray for each other." (In the above photo, the savings group is holding a meeting.)

None in the group had ever saved or borrowed, so in order to create some capital, they all labored together by carrying construction materials for a builder and pooled their pay. With Leonie's first loan of just $7, she bought salt and sold it for a profit in her community.

As it turns out, the primary beneficiaries of her success have been her children. "I can pay for school fees so my children can go to school," she told us. "All will go to school – I won't keep any at home because I was kept at home and I don't want that."

Group-led microfinance can also lead to significant social change. In 2007, Five Talents helped to build a community bank in a rural village in South Sudan. The village was subsequently burned down by a rival clan from a neighboring community, but the bank survived the pillaging. Later, the members who had savings in the bank became a force for reconciliation and brought the different clans together. Now the formerly rivaling clans live in peace and are using their savings to be productive and not destructive.

What's just as important as seeking to bring financial benefits to the poor is seeking to bring the social benefits of financial literacy, leadership development and unity. Thus, savings groups are engines for leadership development, empowerment and dignity – not just for financial gain.

Entrepreneur Supports Nine Dependents with Small Enterprise

Zawadi runs a fruit and vegetable stall in Iringa, Tanzania. She uses the income generated from her business to support nine people in total, including her parents and her parents-in-law. She said she would find it much harder to provide for all these people without the support she has received from the Mama Bahati Foundation that has helped her business to grow.

Carolina in Tanzania: A Soap-Maker's Dreams

Carolina was among the first women served by Five Talents' partner in Iringa, Tanzania, the Mama Bahati Foundation (MBF). She attended the first training session conducted by Five Talents back in 2006.

Initially, she did not take out a loan because she was already paying off one from another provider. Following the death of her husband in 2009, however, she decided to join MBF because she required a more manageable loan. Previously, she had been a housewife; now she needed to support her two children.

Carolina has since developed two main businesses. For one, she keeps poultry. Presently, she has 32 hens and 4 roosters. They produce approximately 30 eggs per day, which she sells locally. More recently, she has also started a liquid soap business. She makes the soap in her house (approximately 10 liters per batch), packages it and then moves around her local area selling it.

Carolina has also managed to make some additional income by renting part of her house to two families.

Most importantly, she has witnessed a growth in profits in both businesses – especially with the soap. She has been targeting the large student population who live within the local community (a university is 5 km away). Carolina also employs a helper to assist her with her businesses.

Carolina is in her 4th loan cycle, and her most recent loan of 200,000 Tsh ($125) was used to improve the cleaning process for her poultry project. She now feels that she is producing more nutritious eggs.

She used one of her previous loans to purchase a sewing kit, which she used to produce and sell furniture coverings.

Since joining Five Talents' local partner MBF, Carolina has learned to think on a much larger scale in terms of what she is capable of doing. She has also been able to share her experiences and lessons learned with the members in her savings and loan group. Lastly, she has been able to track improvements in her living standards.

Carolina decided to join MBF, as opposed to other MFIs, based on the fact that MBF is better at listening to their clients, especially those who are struggling. She says that because of the group-based lending of loans, her other group members are located close by and so they can easily communicate with each other and provide advice about their loans, as well as act as a source of support when times are difficult.

In terms of future plans, Carolina hopes to make a trademark label for her soap called "Rose Soap," which, if packaged properly, could help her sell the product more widely.

Photo courtesy of Adam Dickens

Dollar by Dollar: Building Capital for Micro-Entrepreneurs

Decades under the repressive rule of a military junta have sapped many women and men in Myanmar, or Burma, of the skill-sets and savvy needed to pursue entrepreneurial, income-generating activities.

Furthermore, leaders in Myanmar's Anglican church, which Five Talents also partners with, had been -- until recently -- reluctant to encourage members to pursue "business" opportunities.

"Money is difficult because it might cause some problems in the church," said Ethel, who works with savings group members in Pyay, and whose husband, Clement, is a pastor. "It might cause people to separate or fight, so the church has [been slow] to recognize its value. I try to explain that God wants us to save money and do business [to provide for our families]. Finally, people in the church have begun to recognize the value."

Five Talents works with local partners across many different cultures and countries. Each under-served community is different and requires a nuanced, tailored approach to micro-enterprise development. Myanmar is no different.

The early stages of Five Talents' partnership with Mothers' Union in Myanmar has focused on establishing savings and loan groups, or "associations," in the mostly rural and under-developed Irrawaddy River Delta region.

Some of these groups are creating joint agricultural enterprises – an innovative approach that has proven to be remarkably effective, given the context.

Moreover, church leaders across the country are on-board and are encouraging members to participate. They see the program, which began in 2011, as transformative – not just at the individual level, but also at the church and community levels.

It all begins with business skills training workshops like this one – and with an emphasis among participants on building up savings.

"Sometimes it is hard to save even 1,000 kyat ($1.03) every month," said Ethel. "But I encourage them to find money for that amount – through a small business or a small chicken farm, or something."

Out of the groups' savings, members lend to one another. The 3% interest rate on the micro-business loans is returned to the group's collective savings, "liberating" the members, Ethel says, from having to borrow from local money-lenders, who often charge exorbitant interest rates.

Helen, one of the group members present during Sonia's budgeting workshop testified to the benefits of building up savings and taking out small loans to support new income-generating activities.

"My life has changed," she said. "I can produce more because I have more capital."

Eiber in Bolivia: ‘The Greatest of My Jobs Is To Be a Husband and Father’

Eiber, a 30-year-old father of two, loves to play soccer.

He admits, though, at times in the past, he has loved it a little too much.

"All I did was work, and the little free time I had I dedicated to playing soccer with my friends," said Eiber, who designs and manufactures flip-flops with his wife, Marcia. (Read about Eiber's business).

That was before they joined a savings group with Five Talents' partner organization in Tarija, Bolivia, Semillas de Bendicion (Seeds of Blessings). While participating in the group savings program and learning core business skills, Eiber was also challenged to become a better father.

"My brothers' and sisters' families all live in the same house with us, and our children always play together. My nieces and nephews are very, very naughty and often have accidents and do poorly in school," he said.

"One day, Marcia made me reflect [that] I wasn't being a very good husband or father. In fact, no one in my family was – we all had married very young."

Participants in Five Talents' Bolivia program, like Eiber and Marcia, have access to additional workshops designed to strengthen communication and relationships within the home. He remembers how, early on, another family member pushed him to attend the sessions on family life.

"Each week, on the day of the meeting, a family member would always come, room by room, shouting, you are going to become psychologists! Prepare yourself! Let's go!" he recalled.

Slowly, the workshop attendance began paying off. Eiber and Marcia saw their marriage grow stronger and their home life become more stable.

"After each meeting, we left more in love," he said. "At the beginning, this seemed to be very corny and awkward, but, in the end, I learned to be more affectionate with [Marcia]. [And] we have organized ourselves better. Not only do we provide material food in my house, but we also give ourselves psychological food and – the most special – spiritual food.

"Now I know that the greatest of my investments, the greatest of my jobs, is to be a husband [to my wife] and a father to my children."

Click here to make a donation to our microenterprise development program in Bolivia.

Patience and Attention to Detail Key to Eiber’s Growing Sandal-Making Business

Earlier this month, we shared the story of Eiber, a savings group member in Tarija, Bolivia.

Both Eiber and his wife, Marcia, take part in Five Talents' micro-savings and training program and have seen some remarkable changes in their lives and marriage.

In our first post, we focused on the couple's participation in training workshops. Here, the 30-year-old Eiber shares in his own words the successes and challenges of growing his sandal-making enterprise:

"Regarding my work, before I got married I was an assistant to my uncle. I remember that no one wanted me to help me [with] capital to form my micro-enterprise. But with the help of God, I was eventually able to obtain a loan. Now that I am a member of a savings group, I can help other people to bring together capital that they need. This makes me very happy.

I make 10 dozen flip-flops (leather sandals) a week because there is so much demand. When I [recently] received a group loan of 280 bolivianos ($40), I used all of it to buy some accessories that I needed for the flip-flops.

This week, a woman came to my workshop and asked me to make 30 dozen flip-flops so that she can take them to Oruro (another department in Bolivia). Since then, other people also have placed orders [to be sent to] the interior of the country.

This is a new experience, and I am excited.

I want to hire three more workers to make more flip-flops and store them for my clients. For this, I will join a rotating savings group that loans more money, because I want to travel to Santa Cruz to buy leather in bulk for the flip-flops.

The most difficult part of my job is making the soles of the flip-flops. I am the only one who does this on my work team, because it [requires] a lot of strength and patience to do it well. If I am not patient to measure with care the leather to the iron, I can lose a lot of money.

I believe that the craftsman is an artist."

Help us empower more craftsmen like Eiber: Make a gift to Five Talents today.

Starting a Business Has Helped Me Rely More on God

To the children swarming her tiny toy stand in Cileungsi, Indonesia, Melia (R) might as well have been Santa Claus.

The nearby school had let out for lunch, and before parents could corral their kids, some made a beeline Melia's treasure trove of Pokemon cards, Play-Doh packages, Winnie the Pooh books, and toy cars.

One girl settled on some stickers and turned to her mother to ask for money. Moments later, Mom was fishing a couple of bills out of her purse.

Melia is just one of many micro-entrepreneurs I met during my recent visit to our programs in Indonesia and Myanmar (Burma). During the trip, I was reminded of how God is using our micro-enterprise development programs – not only to improve the financial conditions of families, but to strengthen the faith of believers and to extend the work of the local church.

As we celebrate Christmas, the coming of Emmanuel – "God with us," it is my honor to explain how Five Talents is serving as Christ's hands and feet in some of the most downtrodden and impoverished communities in the world.

The slums of Jakarta. The Irrawaddy Delta of Myanmar. The mountains of Peru. The post-conflict regions of South Sudan and Burundi. Five Talents has been called to places like these, and I'm humbled to report that, because of God's blessing, lives are being transformed.

It is easy to consider only the economic impact our beneficiaries feel when they launch a new micro-enterprise, or improve on an existing one. For example, a woman makes crackers out of cassava leaves to put a child through school. A water distribution business provides a community's first regular access to clean water.

Indeed, in each of our programs, parents are creating a steady, sustainable income and learning how to budget their finances. Children are going to school with new uniforms and the required textbooks. Women are making savings deposits and preparing their families for future expenses that might otherwise stall the growth of their micro-enterprise. Communities are growing more united.

But there's more. We've found that women and men, after joining our programs, become more hopeful. Many report that their spiritual lives are maturing, and that their faith is growing.

I remember one such example vividly. I'd just spent the good part of an afternoon running a budgeting workshop for women in the "Phoebe" savings group in Yangon, Myanmar (L).

Near the end of our time together, some of the women shared how their spiritual lives had begun to change since joining a savings group and launching a new micro-enterprise.

"Starting a business has helped me rely more on God," Jean, who sells cosmetics, told me.

Her testimony was echoed by other members in her group.

Investing in a micro-enterprise – or any business, for that matter – can be scary. These women shared how, by taking a risk and seeking to do more with the resources and talents God has given them, they were being blessed far beyond their financial situation. Their spiritual lives were enriched. Their relationship with God was strengthened.

Some of these woman also said they are now able to tithe more to the church and thus are extending its ministry throughout the local community.

Another woman in the group, Lydia, runs a small daycare center. With her savings she was able to buy new pillows and mats for the children under her care.

As we celebrate Christ's birth during this holiday season, I hope you will join with me in prayer for the women, men and children in Five Talents' programs. God is indeed with us.

Please also consider making a transformative gift that will enable our holistic approach – combining services targeting the financial, personal and spiritual – to deliver hope year-around in new communities in Indonesia, Myanmar, Peru, Burundi and beyond.

Savings Groups Making Healthier Families and Churches in Rural Kenya

NAIROBI, Kenya -- I saw a miracle yesterday.

I've been in Nairobi attending the second GAFCON Conference with a number of fellow Five Talents Board Members and leaders, meeting many of our clients and partners and making new friends. We took a day away from the conference yesterday to drive up to Thika to visit the Thika Community Development Trust, a savings group sponsored by Five Talents.

Under the guidance and leadership of Bishop Gideon Githiga, and the direction of Peterson Karanja, Program Director, the Trust has grown dramatically from its modest beginnings in 2005. The program now has almost 5,000 members, 41 savings groups, and over $1 million in accumulated savings. The program is being acknowledged a great success, and is already being replicated in one adjacent diocese, with two more dioceses planning to launch similar programs. I spoke briefly this morning with Archbishop Eliud Wabukala, the Primate of Kenya, who spoke highly of the Thika program and said that he hopes that they will eventually have similar programs in every diocese in Kenya!

Exciting as this is, Five Talents has always been about more than numbers. Indeed, there are numerous microfinance programs in existence that can boast growing membership and good financial performance. However, Five Talents has always had a commitment to reach the "riskier, poorer, and smaller" areas that have been underserved by commercial programs, and has maintained a focus on the whole person, rather than just financial performance. And by that standard, this program is even more impressive.

I had visited Thika twice before, and had heard Bishop Gideon state previously his commitment to microfinance as a key part of ministry in his diocese. But yesterday I heard firsthand the testimony of a parish priest, who stated that families in his community had grown stronger as a result of their participation in their savings group, and that their prosperity and well-being had increased to the point that they were able to meet their own needs, and were able to contribute more to the life of the church as a result.

One outcome of this development has been that the congregation is better able to support itself and the diocese, including greater material support. Bishop Gideon had previously told me that he could tell which of the parishes in the diocese had active microfinance programs, because they became healthier parishes. But this firsthand confirmation extended all the way to the individual family! Their goal is to expand until they have a savings group in every parish in the diocese.

I saw Bishop Martyn Minns last night after returning to Nairobi, and told him the story of the day's events in Thika. I reminded him that Five Talents was started at his house just 15 years ago, and has grown from that outlandish vision into a ministry that last year served 72,725 clients around the world, and is living out daily its commitment to "create jobs, fight poverty, and transform lives".

I feel amazingly privileged to be a small part of this ministry, and am thankful beyond words for having been able to witness this miracle unfolding! To God be the glory!

Jim Oakes, a 30-year veteran of the health care information systems industry, is on the Five Talents USA Board of Directors.

Low Interest Rates Help Micro-Entrepreneur Launch Second Business

Rukia in Tanzania wasn't about to take "no" for an answer. She had a hunch and she was going to see it through.

For a while now, the 54-year-old mother of three children in the Anglican Diocese of Ruaha had been selling chapatti, a kind of flat bread that originated in India. But with her brother's passing, she had to begin taking care of his two children as well. And the income from her chapati business just wasn't enough to put her brother's kids through school.

So Rukia had hatched a plan to start a second business – selling charcoal. Rising kerosene prices had given charcoal more appeal as a local energy source. The problem was that sellers like Rukia needed a permit from forestry officials to transport charcoal into town.

These permits don't exactly grow on trees -- at least, not in Tanzania.

But like a lot of determined entrepreneurs, Rukia kept pursuing the permit until, finally, it was awarded. She has since used loans from Five Talents and its partner, the Mama Bahati Foundation (MBF), to spark growth in the new business.

Besides paying for her nephews' school needs, Rukia has enough money to cover their hospital bills. What's more, she has continued selling chapatti because, she says, that business introduces her to new customers for her charcoal business.

She is now on her fourth loan cycle.

As a Muslim believer, Rukia is discouraged from taking loans with interest. But she has continued with Five Talents and its partner MBF in part because of the low interest rates.

"This makes Five Talents and MBF different from other MFIs, and this is why I am still with MBF," she told us. "Through [these] loans I have extended my support to my late brother's children and to my neighbors' who are in need."

Click here to read more about Five Talents' program in Tanzania.

Carmen Pays for Son's Surgery Out of Accumulated Savings

Editor's Note: This article by The Reverend Jeff MacKnight first appeared last week on the official blog of the Episcopal Diocese of Washington. Father MacKnight, a Five Talents board member, is the Rector at St. Dunstan's Church in Bethesda, MD.

I know we'll never all agree on the hot-topic issues, but I still hope we can act together on basic Christian values, like helping the poorest folks in the world. Five Talents is an Anglican organization that does just that through microfinance services at the grassroots level in the poorest countries of the world.

Five Talents was started at a global meeting of Anglican Church leaders, in response to their deep concern for the poorest of the poor. The founders wanted to guard the dignity of poor people, and assist them by creating jobs and opportunities to rise out of poverty, so in 1998, Five Talents was founded. Its byline says it all: "Fighting Poverty, Creating Jobs, Transforming Lives."

I've been involved with Five Talents for years, and now serve on its Board. St. Dunstan's has supported Five Talents projects in the Dominican Republic, Peru, Indonesia, and South Sudan.

One of the things that excites me about Five Talents is the faith-based organization's focus on transforming not only the financial situation of their clients, but also their social and spiritual well-being.

A great example of this transformation is the story of Carmen in Bolivia. This 35-year-old woman, a single mother, sells cosmetics and, on weekends, works as a kitchen assistant in a restaurant. Carmen is also the treasurer of a Five Talents savings group that calls themselves the "Saving Bees."

Awhile back, Carmen's son, Luis, became very sick. Under normal circumstances, she would not have had any money to pay for medical treatment. As a result, she would have had to borrow money from her business – or from a loan shark. Either one of these options would have set her family back.

Fortunately, she had been saving money every week through the Five Talents savings group. So when Luis became sick, she was able to use some of that savings to pay for a medical procedure.

"If I had not saved money, I don't know what I would have done to get the money," she told staff from Five Talents' partner organization in Bolivia, Semillas de Bendicion (Seeds of Blessing).

But this is only half of the story.

Carmen's spirit was troubled when she first joined the Five Talents program. She rarely smiled and could sometimes act harshly with others.

"She didn't leave her house, and she didn't talk much with her family. The saddest part was that you didn't see her smile – she simply escaped from any activity that could provoke a smile," said Sara, a staff member at Semillas de Bendicion. "But without a doubt she was the best in how she handled numbers, and she was very honest." That's why, last year, her peers elected her to be the group's new treasurer.

Slowly, as Carmen grew into her new role, her outlook began to change. She smiled more often. She began thinking about attending night school. And everyone – including Sara – noticed her gradual transformation.

"Now she is a friend to all of us, and when she sees us, she has a beautiful smile on her face. Moreover, she isn't as harsh with the members of the savings group – she is cordial and friendly, and they always laugh with her. We are happy for her because she is beginning to live with joy."

Carmen's transformation is a gift from God, through Anglicans working together at Five Talents. Through training, savings groups, and microloans, Carmen has lifted herself – and her son Luis – out of grinding poverty.

Workshop Sparks Ideas for Rural Income Generation

PATHEIN, Myanmar  -  City dwellers in Yangon, Mandalay and Pathein are feeling the impact of the government's ongoing political and economic reforms. Real estate prices are rising. Traffic is growing. Visitors from all over the world are pouring in. But folks in rural areas of Myanmar still have little to show for all of the historic changes that are making headlines around the world.

On Tuesday, women and men representing three Mothers' Union savings groups in the Irrawaddy Delta area of Myanmar shared about their lives and discussed how taking part in the joint Five Talents-Mothers' Union microsavings program has begun to benefit their families.

All of those present on Tuesday are involved in agriculture, growing either rice or betel plants. Some had seen their crops destroyed by recent flooding. Group members said the microsavings and business training program has given them more skills and capital, and they came on Tuesday eager to develop some ideas for new income generating activities.

After hearing stories about micro-entrepreneurs in other parts of the world, the women and men began to brainstorm ideas for new income-generating activities. Five Talents Executive Director Sonia Patterson, in Myanmar on a program visit, led the informal workshop.

Before the day ended, savings group members had also participated in a budgeting exercise that helped them evaluate their management of both family and business finances.

Portrait of a Village: Bringing Basic Financial Services to Rural Kenya

Hop on a bus heading out of Kenya's capital, Nairobi, and you'll soon learn one reason why formal savings and lending opportunities are often hard to come by for women and men living in poor, rural villages. The further out you go, the fewer banks there are – until you get to a village like Thungururu, where there's no bank at all.

According to Martin Givachu (R), a local teacher who is chairman of the Thungururu Savings Trust Group established by Five Talents in partnership with Thika Community Development Trust (TCDT), the village was the last settlement within the region to receive a proper electricity supply.

The lack of infrastructure and development in Thungururu is due, in part, to the fact that the most profitable cash crops – like sweet potatoes, tomatoes, and flowers – are not grown here. Martin said the villagers mostly rely on subsistence farming, growing fruit and grain and rearing poultry on a small scale.

Without the savings trust group that Five Talents has helped to establish, villagers would have to travel by two matatu (minibuses) in order to make use of banking facilities.

What's more, once at the bank, the villagers would have to pay fees both to set up an account and to make a withdrawal.

''This is a big problem here," said Martin, "because in addition to the time spent traveling to Thika or Matu, it would cost 600 KES (US $7) [to set up an account] – money which villagers do not have available."

Tiny Accounts Unprofitable for Traditional Banks

Banks in Kenya – and in many countries throughout the developing world – do not like to handle small accounts, largely because of the expense of running them, write MIT Professors Abhijit V. Banerjee and Esther Duflo in their book, Poor Economics.

"Deposit-taking institutions are heavily regulated, for good reason – the government is worried about fly-by-night operators running away with people's savings – but this means that managing each account requires bank employees to fill out some amount of paperwork, which can quickly become too burdensome, relative to any money that the bank can hope to make from these tiny accounts."

In the future, Five Talents hopes to upgrade the savings trust in Thungururu to a full community bank, which would offer a wider range of banking services within this marginalised rural community.

''Not only would this benefit our current 105 active members, but we could also expand our operation and serve the whole community," said Martin.

Below, you'll find a selection of photographs taken by Adam Dickens that show the beauty and the poverty of this village in rural Kenya:

The rural village of Thungururu, Kenya was the last place in its region to receive proper access to electricity.

Rose, a member of the Thungururu Savings Trust Group, sells garments and shoes at a market stall. To purchase much of the stock in her stall, she took out a loan of 20,000 KES (US $234). She estimates it will take her about 10 months to repay the loan. Without it, she said she would not have been able to open the market stall and provide a livelihood for herself and her young son.

This is one of the garments that Rose has on display in her stall.

A boy without shoes runs through a field in Thungururu.

UPDATE: New Community Bank Opened in Thurunguru

Five Talents is pleased to announce that the Village of Thurunguru has now successfully opened the first Community-Owned Bank in the region:

Special thanks to Five Talents UK Program Manager Rachel Lindley. Photography by Adam Dickens.

Dress-Making Shop Opens for Business in Kenya

This photo, taken by Adam Dickens for Five Talents, features the dress-making shop of Beatrice in the village of Kibugu, Kenya.

Beatrice once made ladies' garments on a sewing machine at her home. But after joining a Five Talents savings and loan group, she set her sights on expanding her business. Today, she has her own shop, a second sewing machine, and an employee.

In the coming weeks, Beatrice hopes to invest in an embroidery machine with the help of a $160 loan.

Learn more about Five Talents' programs in Kenya.

In Her Own Words: Matilda Discusses Saving and Developing a Micro-Enterprise in Bolivia

Matilda, a mother of four, was washing clothes for a living when she joined the Five Talents program in Tarija, Bolivia. Since then, her life has begun to change. She's saving for her children's education. She started a new micro-enterprise. And she's participated in workshops designed to equip her with new skills, such as marketing, accounting and goal-setting.

But we'll stop here and let Matilda tell her own compelling story, which has been translated from Spanish:

On saving money

"My husband and I had many problems saving. For years, we saved our money in a ceramic piggy bank that we kept in our house. It took us two years to save this money – the piggy bank was full of money, and we were happy because we had a lot of plans to invest the money.

One day, though, my sister came to visit me at my house, and I asked her if she could stay for a week so that I could go visit my parents in the country. When I returned, she had a lot of new clothes, shoes, and jewelry. I thought that she had bought all of this with her money, but three days after she left I was cleaning my things and I noticed that my piggy bank had a hole in it. Hardly any money remained. I was very angry – it was two years of savings, and I went to my sister to confirm my suspicions. My sister told me everything – she had robbed me. I was very frustrated because she had spent everything. Since then, I've had a hard time trusting anyone.

One day I was invited to be part of a savings group. I took a risk and joined, saving again, little by little. Everything went very well – it's a very serious and transparent group, so in the following years I continued to save a lot more money. And this year, my husband was very excited about all that we had saved in the group."

On developing a new micro-enterprise

"I had washed clothes for the last 15 years, and my hands were very battered. The doctor told me to stop washing clothes; if I didn't, I would lose my hands. So I was very worried, I didn't know what to do to work because on some occasions my husband's income was not enough. One friend told me that selling cosmetics was a good business, but I needed money for my capital investment. So we used the money that we had collected in the savings group to begin building a shop that I really wanted, and also to start my cosmetics business. Now I earn money and my hands do not suffer, and with the income we can help our children to study."

On establishing goals for herself and her family

"One of the workshops that I most enjoyed in the savings group was when I wrote our savings goals on paper. I had planned to use my money on something a little vain, but after we spoke in the group about making good investments, I changed my goal.

I remember that Sara and Eva [the group facilitators with our partner Semillas de Bendicion, or Seeds of Blessings] asked us to draw pictures with markers to identify our savings goals. The other option was to write them out. I don't know how to write very well. I never had liked to; in fact, I am scared to write. But on this day I wanted to write my savings goal: "I am saving for my children's studies."

I felt very good that day. I and all the other women that shared our goals – we wanted to change our situation, and so we were going to help one another to save. But the best of all is that we understand that saving should be the job of the whole family.

So I took this paper to my house and I spoke with my family that night about what Sara and Eva had said in the workshop, and my family was united even more to save. Then I hung the paper on the wall of our room so that the whole family can remember that we are saving for our children's studies.

This year, the whole family is saving in the savings group to finish building the shop and to continue using our income for our children's studies. My oldest son, Donato, 20, didn't finish studying because he wanted to work to help us. I am very sad because of this, so now when he returns from a trip I want to encourage him to study and finish school. My daughter Margarita, 16, also was working, but now she has quit her job because now she has money so that can study calmly [without worrying]. My younger children also are happy to study and are good students."

I Give Thanks for the Help We've Received in Our Business

Simona, a 55-year-old mother of seven, runs a micro-business selling empanadas and other food in Tarija, Bolivia. She is a member of a savings group organized by Five Talents' local partner in Bolivia, Semillas de Bendicion (Seeds of Blessings). Here, Simona opens up about her life, her husband's health, and her experience participating in a savings group.

"I [was born] in the countryside, near Camargo, a beautiful land where there is a lot of fruit. As I am female and my family is very poor, I didn't go to school. We worked in the field, but I liked to sell vegetables and fruit more than planting and harvesting, so I always went with my parents into the city to sell.

"Later, I got married and had seven sons. My life was very difficult. I wanted my sons to have the opportunity to study, so we went to live in the city, but [there it] was even more difficult. There wasn't enough money, and my husband, who worked as a bricklayer, began to drink.

"One day he had a stroke, and [for a while] he couldn't move. Little by little, he began to recover, but he was still very angry because he couldn't work or do anything. He always sat at the door chewing coca leaf and looking at people angrily.

"Two years ago, I began to sell food and empanadas to earn money. I didn't sell much, and my husband sat by my side angrily watching as people walked by on the street without buying anything.

"However, one day I was invited to join a savings group. Out of curiosity I went. They taught us about saving and lending the money [to one another]. I had never heard of this, so I joined because I wanted to learn new business ideas, and also I wanted a micro-loan.

"The first time when I saw them give all the money that we had collectively saved to another group member, it scared me. I feared that she wouldn't return to the group, but after she returned and re-paid the loan, my mind began to change.

"When it was my turn to receive a loan ($15), I was happy. I bought a crate of oil, and I felt very relieved. My business made a lot of profit.

"Something that I really like [about participating in a savings group] is that we learn each week something good for our family and business. And I learned to pray and to pray for my spouse, and he has started to heal more and more.

"Now, my husband walks better, he moves his right arm a little more, he is friendly, and he helps me cook and sell the food. Last week, we went to our plot of land in the field, and he told me that he was going to stay a week longer to continue working a little more.

"Recently, he also received some glasses that he really needed. He felt very happy because no one had ever given him something so valuable. I continue to pray for my husband and my family, and I give thanks for the help we've received in our businesses."

This article first appeared in April 2014 on the Month of Microfinance website.

The Secret Ingredient to Hidaya’s Successful Pastry Business

In this photo, Hidaya is preparing the legumes that she uses for her pastry business in Tanzania. She sells her pasties at a nearby school and to others in her community. Before joining a savings and loan group with Five Talents' partner, the Mama Bahati Foundation, Hidaya could not afford to buy the legumes in bulk. Now, with the help of a loan, she is able to buy her ingredients in bulk and, thus, save money and increase her profit margin.

Click here to read more about our work in Tanzania.