Hi all - this is a short story I submitted to Empower Women.org. This is a story from my time as a volunteer in Malawi on what women's economic empowerment looks like to me. Enjoy!
Even today, over half of Malawians are considered “unbanked”, meaning that they don’t have access to proper financial services. Despite this, there has been a steady rise in the use of informal banking systems such as the Village Savings & Loan (VSL) model. This is where people form groups and lend money to each other to start small enterprises. So while the poorer and more remote populations are isolated from financial institutions, Malawians are employing their own methods of saving and investing their money. These community-driven banking groups provide important small-scale economic opportunities, especially for women.
Even today, over half of Malawians are considered “unbanked”, meaning that they don’t have access to proper financial services. Despite this, there has been a steady rise in the use of informal banking systems such as the Village Savings & Loan (VSL) model. This is where people form groups and lend money to each other to start small enterprises. So while the poorer and more remote populations are isolated from financial institutions, Malawians are employing their own methods of saving and investing their money. These community-driven banking groups provide important small-scale economic opportunities, especially for women.
As a Peace Corps volunteer in the
central region of Malawi, I had the amazing opportunity to work with a women’s VSL group that had been saving and lending
to each other for over four years. As a foreigner working in the country, I had
been taught that Malawian women are
generally uneducated, illiterate, and unable to start a business because of
gender inequality. While this may be true in many cases, I found this group to
be the most entrepreneurial, hardworking, and intelligent women that I could
have imagined.
Without a doubt the Kakunga Women’s Group has taught me more than
I could have ever given to them. I have learned that economic empowerment for
these women mean being able to provide school fees for their children, to
afford hospital visits and life-saving medicine, to start a business and ensure
food security for their family, and to gain decision making power within their
home over how money is spent. But even more, I have learned that a small group
of women who bank together can overcome the challenges of poverty, gender
inequality, and lack of access to financial services. To me, the Kakunga Women’s Group are the epitome of
women’s economic empowerment.
