Mama Bahati Foundation

Established in 2007, the Mama Bahati Foundation (MBF) now serves over 5,000 women across Iringa and Kilolo regions in the southern highlands of central Tanzania.

MBF was founded by the former Archbishop of Tanzania, Donald Mtetemela, after he met a lady called Mama Bahati who was struggling to make a living selling bananas in Iringa. The high interest rates she was forced to pay to buy the bananas wholesale on credit meant that making ends meet was nearly impossible. The Archbishop lent her a small sum at a much fairer rate of interest so that she was able to increase her profits, feed her family and repay the loan. Soon after this encounter, the Archbishop appealed to Five Talents, asking for support in establishing a microfinance project in Iringa, and MBF was born.

The Mama Bahati Foundation focuses its services on women who are typically even more marginalised in rural society than the men. Since the women typically bear responsibility for feeding, educating and caring for children, supporting women through microfinance means supporting the whole family. Enabling women to become financially literate income-earners can also empower them within the family and community.

Learn more about our programs in Tanzania.

Staying the Course in Burundi: While Many NGOs are Fleeing, Five Talents is Here to Stay

Following the national elections earlier this year, political violence in Burundi has contributed to an economic downturn and a loss of investment and aid.

 Over 200,000 residents have fled to neighboring countries and there is fear of ongoing violence and reprisals. As a result, many development agencies and nonprofits have scaled back or relocated their operations.

Meanwhile, the people of Burundi face increased insecurity, higher health costs, and a loss of jobs and business opportunities. Four out of five Burundians live on less than $1.25 a day and each job supports an average of 7 or more dependents. According to Unicef, "The potential impact of the current crisis and an economic downturn on children cannot be underestimated. It could be devastating."

Despite these challenges, Five Talents is committed to staying the course in Burundi. Five Talents works with over 25,000 savings group members in Burundi and is pursuing an ambitious plan to expand into another 230 communities. We work with local church partners and leaders, especially in rural communities.

Our savings groups continue to operate and expand and are bringing communities together to focus on local solutions. Through small group savings and loans, families are able to access capital in times of emergency and are cushioned against the impact of decreased government funding of social programs. These groups are very grateful for "friendship in times of trouble" and our regional program coordinator, Claudette appreciates the support and prayers of all those who she knows and those who she does not. The knowledge of people who are praying and committed to walking together gives them courage.

Join us in supporting families in Burundi. Your gift helps to build peace and creates hope and opportunity for the vulnerable poor.

Political and Economic Change in Myanmar

Election results in Myanmar point to new opportunities for the poor.

Five Talents is working to spark micro-enterprise development in what, until recently, has been one of the most closed societies in the world. This week's election results points to new reforms in Myanmar, with a broad victory for Aung San Suu Kyi and the National League for Democracy. The election is a milestone in Mynmar's transition from decades of military dictatorship. It is the country's first general election since a nominally civilian government was introduced in 2011. That was the same year that Five Talents began work in Myanmar, strengthening pre-existing savings groups and helping to expand their growth outward into impoverished communities.

More than a third of Myanmar's 51.4 million people live on about a dollar a day. Rural poverty is widespread and urban slums surround factories with low paying jobs and an absence of public services. In September, the minimum wage was raised to $2.80 per day. Workers hope for additional changes with the new leadership.

Meanwhile, Five Talents is eager to continue equipping entrepreneurs across Myanmar with access to savings groups, small business training and loans. Take a glimpse at some of the lives impacted and small businesses developed through Five Talents work in Myanmar:

PHOTO ESSAY: Making a Difference in Myanmar

Lives are being transformed in Myanmar. The world’s 14th poorest country, local community partners are reporting immense impact from the Irrawaddy River Delta Region to the outskirts of Yangon due to the savings and loan groups, as well as, financial and literacy training. On a recent visit to Myanmar, the program team saw first hand the effects of implementing savings and loan association groups, the thriving partnership with Mothers’ Union and receiving positive feedback from group leaders. Take a tour below of the agricultural community in Myanmar.

A woman carries construction wire as she shops at a Delta General Store in Myanmar. The Delta region of Myanamar comprises almost 20,000 square miles and is populated by 3.5 million people who are mainly farmers. The whole area is low lying (as low as 3 metres above sea level) and was devasted by Cyclone Nargis in 2008 when well over 100,000 people were lost.

Red chillies are laid out to dry in the sun, then ground in a mortar and pestle for use in preparing traditional Burmese noodle and vegetable dishes. Crops such as chillies, potatoes, various leaf vegetables combine with various fruit trees such as mango, papaya, banana, etc. provide families with food for themselves and also for sale in local markets of Pantanaw.

Women harvest Betal Palm leaves and bamboo in traditional Burmese shade houses in Dyung Daw Galey.
The proximity to Irrawady River banks and the inevitable floods each year prohibits growing rice or participation in rice banks.
Bamboo is cut, stacked and sold for the purposes of constructing the shade houses.

Savings and Loan group leaders gather for a photo before their annual meeting in Chaung Tha.
Five Talents and Mothers’ Union conduct training and interviews with the group leaders
discussing the value of the financial inclusion programs and their hopes and aspirations for the future.

Beside the banks of the Irrawaddy river is the village of Dyung Daw Galey.
The village is under constant threat from the river which, each year, erodes more of the village land into the river.
River floods in this region are a major challenge as they remove acres of land surrounding the village each year.
All of the houses in the village have been relocated as far as possible from the river bank as many houses and the village church have already been taken by the river.
The village itself, is under up to 5 feet of water for 5 months of the year due to the river breaking it’s banks
and flooding throughout the entire living area. Houses are built on poles to maintain a safe height for the occupants.

Fish are laid out to dry in a rural Myanmar village before being used to prepare traditional Burmese fish paste.
Fish comprises a large part of the dietary needs of the local people. Rice is the main staple.

Members of the Moses group in Dyung Daw Galey participate in the growing and harvest of their main crop of Betel Palm leaves,
for which there is a ready market in the nearest large town of Pantanaw.

The Palm Leaves are grown in specially constructed shade houses to enable ideal growing conditions.

Help us support more entrepreneurs in Myanmar. Make a donation to Five Talents today.

Micro-Enterprise Development in Indonesia: A Conversation with Five Talents Program Director Suzanne Middleton

Each of Five Talents' microfinance programs are tailored to meet the needs of the communities they serve. Here, Five Talents Program Director Suzanne Middleton explains how micro-lending, training and mentoring are transforming lives in Indonesia, where Five Talents partners with The GERHATI Foundation.

What makes the Indonesia program unique among our other programs in Asia, Africa and Latin America?
The Indonesia program is different to other Five Talents programs in two main ways. One, Five Talents was responsible for the development of this program from the very beginning, when the first request came from the Indonesian Anglican church for a micro-enterprise development program among the communities they serve. From board development and training to management and staff hiring and training, Five Talents has been the key partner from the start. Two, GERHATI's outreach is to predominantly Muslim communities. In fact, over 95 percent of the program recipients are Muslim.

If we were to take a walk through one of the communities served by Five Talents in Indonesia, what might we see, in terms of living conditions? What does the family unit look like in such communities?
Many of the communities suffer from poor or non-existent sanitation services, such as sewers or storm water drains. Access to clean water is often difficult and expensive. Many families – which, on average, consist of three to four children – make do with water from polluted water ways, and many suffer sicknesses as a result. Communities are often marked by uncollected rubbish, which pollutes the water ways and areas surrounding houses, attracting rats and other health hazards. Poorer communities are usually in areas prone to flooding, which occurs sometimes multiple times each year.

We talk a lot about the importance of Five Talents' local partnerships with indigenous organizations. Can you explain why such partners are critical to the success of the programs?
Helping indigenous communities and churches to help themselves and achieve meaningful empowerment and self-determination is at the core of the Five Talents mission. Assessing what key indigenous people want to achieve for their communities and country is crucial to working out the best methods of helping them achieve this. Partnering with a local organization enables Five Talents to align values and objectives to a well-governed and well-managed program that knows precisely what it wants to achieve and who to target. A strong local organization is well-grounded in its own environment and is there to stay.

Our partners are always striving to meet the needs of the women and men in the program. What are some of the ways that the Indonesia program has been evolving to meet members' needs?
GERHATI strives to "unlock" the natural gifts and strengths that people have through skills training and provision of a forum that enables them to discover, with each other in groups, the many different ways, individually and corporately, that will enhance their income, knowledge and general quality of life. Basic skills, such as numeracy, literacy, hygiene, book keeping, etc., can be taught by trainers who also encourage dialogue and discussions that help the group learn to work together.

In your mind, what's the measure of success for a program like this? What do you look for when evaluating the program's positive impact on individual group members and on the community at large?
One of the biggest indicators of success is the expression of hope for the future by the individuals and groups that our partner GERHATI works with. When people, after participating in the program for only a few months, begin to see new opportunities and possibilities for their families in terms of education, new business ventures and income opportunities and healthier living, then we can feel assured that the program is on the right track and its mission and vision is being achieved.

Sumiyati: Indonesian Entrepreneur at Work

Sumiyati's micro-enterprise involves making wedding accessories and renting bridal gowns. She has been in business for 13 years, and her success has made her a respected member in her community outside of Jakarta. As a loan group leader, she hosts regular group meetings in her home and helps to mentor other women who are just starting their own micro-enterprises. Sumiyati is just one of thousands of entrepreneurs in Indonesia who have learned skills and gained access to savings and loans through Five Talents.

Learn more about Five Talents' programs in Indonesia.

Why we Work in Myanmar

Have you ever wondered why Five Talents works where it does?

Since the organization's founding in 1998, Five Talents has focused on serving communities that are off the beaten path. They are often post-conflict, rural and far from the nearest bank.

These communities have under-served populations stuck in poverty. Starting a savings group, offering micro-business loans and organizing training workshops -- these are services that such communities need desperately if fathers and mothers, husbands and wives are going to see real transformation in their lives and in the lives of their children.

For an example of why we go where we go, look no further than our Myanmar program, which was launched in 2011.

This infographic highlights the need for financial inclusion in the country:

The figures come from a recent report by UNDP, CENFRI and Finmark Trust titled Making Access Possible (MAP) Myanmar.

"Access to an appropriate portfolio of financial services can improve the welfare of the underserved population by helping them conduct their financial lives more efficiently, increase income, manage risks and build up wealth over time," reads the report, which was based on surveys and interviews of people in over 5,000 households.

Five Talents is beginning to help meet this need through its partnership with Mothers' Union. The early stages of this partnership has focused on establishing savings and loan groups in the mostly rural and undeveloped Irrawaddy River Delta region, and in the hot and humid outskirts of Yangon.

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

Local community leaders in the country, the world's 14th poorest, see the program as transformative – not just at the individual level, but also at the church and community levels. While change is taking shape across Myanmar, Five Talents programs continue to expand reaching refugees, rural farmers, and other marginalized groups across the country.

Five Talents’ Microsavings and Microfinance Programs Help Parents Send Kids ‘Back to School’

Children across the country are beginning the academic year. There's the requisite trip to the store for school supplies. The nice, new outfits. The big, yellow buses.

 In many of the communities where Five Talents works, the situation is quite different. There's no school bus, because there are often no roads – only dirt paths. Classrooms have no electricity. What's worse, many children never even have a chance to attend school. Their parents simply can't afford the uniforms, pencils and notebooks.

However, because of Five Talents, this is changing.

Our savings, microcredit and business skills training programs help moms and dads establish a sustainable micro-enterprise that can provide for their family and pay for their children's education.

The success of our programs – and these parents' micro-enterprises – trickles down into the family.

We have moms and dads joining our programs not only to improve their finances, but because they want their children to go to school – to learn to read and write, add and subtract.

Outside of Jakarta, Tina (pictured above with her children) is running a business selling snacks and drinks near a school campus. Before Five Talents and our partner in Indonesia, GERHATI, helped her launch this business, the former factory worker was unable to pay her children's school fees. But now she's earning enough to cover the cost of uniforms ($60 a year), books ($10 per semester) and after-school care ($10 a month).

Tina says that she wants her children to get the most out of school, so she does not ask them to do any housework. Her only request beyond studying hard? "Pray every day," she tells them.

In rural Peru, Francisca (on left) wakes her children every morning with a simple breakfast of oats, chuño and corn. "We have to eat very well because we have to go to the city on foot," she said.

With no other transportation options, journeys like this to school and work are the norm for Francisca and her family.

With the help of an initial loan of 500 soles ($167) from Five Talents, Francisca was able to put her children in school and launch a second micro-enterprise selling fruit in bulk.

Virginia in Burundi (pictured below) couldn't afford to send any of her five children to school before joining the local Five Talents literacy, financial education and microsavings program. But after building up savings and taking out a small loan of 20,0000 Burundian francs ($14), she began to sell cassava leaves, bananas and vegetables to two restaurants.

"I have gained much profit," she said. "With that profit, I have improved my family life conditions and sent two children to school."

On their first day of school, they wore shoes and uniform and carried a ruler and some pens in a new book bag. "I am the model in my community. Even my neighbors have joined a saving group after seeing my conditions changed," Virginia said, adding, "Even my children are very smart compared to others."

When moms and dads are empowered to use their God-given talents to provide for their family, children are able to attend school.

With that new pair of shoes, Virginia's children will be able to kick around a soccer ball with classmates. With those pens, they'll learn to write their name and balance a simple math equation. With the food that Francisca provides every morning, her kids will have energy to study hard. With the after-school care that Tina pays for, her kids will get assistance with their homework.

With Five Talents, families are being transformed – and their hopes for the future are being fulfilled.

Make a gift today! We need your support to continue helping women and men build a sustainable living and provide for the needs of their family.

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."

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.

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.

Growing a Community Bank in Kairi, Kenya

Like most of the community banks Five Talents has helped to found, the one in this photo by Adam Dickens started as a local trust (or savings) group in the Kenyan village of Kairi. Five Talents partners in Kenya with the Anglican Diocese of Thika and the Thika Community Development Trust (TCDT).

For almost seven years, a high school teacher named Susan Kamani has served as the chairperson of the trust group-turned-community bank. The bank is open to everyone in the community and now has 753 members.

According to Kamani, the village and the surrounding area has in recent years suffered from a drop in world coffee prices. As a result, many small farmers are abandoning coffee planting and turning instead to small-scale dairy or poultry farming as a means of generating income for their family.

Five Talents' program in Kenya has achieved a maturity and a sustainability that we desire for every one of our programs.

Learn more about Five Talents' programs in Kenya.

Photo by Adam Dickens for Five Talents.