Hope for the Women

30 October 2004

In villages along the Niger River leading to the fabled Timbuktu, people are farmers and fishers. The women here wake at 3 a.m. during the month of Ramadan to start a fire and prepare breakfast. During this period of fasting, Muslims must eat before the sun comes up. Once the sun rises, the women begin cleaning their homes, collecting water for the day, weaving straw mats, grinding millet and sorghum, and de-hulling rice. The repetitive thud, thud, thud of women and girls standing over wooden bowls and pounding baseball-bat sized pestles echoes in villages across Mali .

Depending on the season, women work in the fields, helping to plant or weed alongside the men. By 4 p.m. , they start the evening meal, which families eat once the sun goes down. They clean-up after dinner and go to bed by 8 p.m.

“The women are contributing a lot, especially during harvest time. They are really tired,” said Aliou Maïga, chief of the village of Sadjilambou .

In this village, Daya Moussa is raising two boys and two girls. Her husband immigrated to the capital, Bamako, to find work. He visits once a year and sends money when he can. Moussa makes and sells beignets to support her family.

Until last year, she sold straw mats, but couldn’t earn enough money. She joined a group of women in a savings and credit group, and was able to borrow enough to start her beignet business. The profits are greater, she said, and she gets daily income. She uses the money to buy school supplies for her children and “little things” for herself. She speaks like a woman of means, “I buy what I like. If I see a fabric I like, I can buy it.”

There are thousands of Malian women in “Hope for the Women” groups launched by CARE International. The program began in Niger in 1991 and has been replicated throughout Africa . Roughly 30 women meet once a week. Depending on the group, each contributes 25 to 100 CFA (5 to 20 cents) to the pool. Members are eligible to take out loans, which they repay with interest.

The system allows women to improve their social status, and to generate year-round income.

Many groups establish a social fund to help members in need. They also fund community projects. Moussa’s group is saving to build a cereal bank.

But the benefits go beyond making money. Take Ber, for example. Tucked among sand dunes in the southern end of the Sahara desert 36 miles northeast of Timbuktu , Ber is home to Tuareg nomads and their former slaves, the Bella. Men here earn a living trekking goods through the desert and herding cattle. The women make and sell bread, tea, dyed fabrics, leather work from camel skins, straw mats, butter and cheese.

Last year, the women of Ber began three savings and credit groups, calling themselves Beauty, Respectability and Harmony.

“With this group, we help each other,” said Yakout Mint Bilal, 30. “Before, we were isolated. One woman could die and nobody would know. Now we have friends and we exchange information.”

Bilal, president of the Harmony group, said in the past, if she saw a foreigner or authority figure, she would hide. With the confidence of their accomplishments, she says, women now go to authorities to raise issues and seek services.

CARE trains groups in cash management and market analysis. Members also receive literacy skills and training in health, education, nutrition, women’s rights and civic action.

“This opened our eyes and ears,” said Aicha Walet Agaly, 35, who uses her money to pay school fees for her three children. “When we have needs, we can find the solutions in ourselves.”

Roughly 600 groups have been created in the Timbuktu , Ségou and Mopti regions since the program began in 2000. CARE aims to have 100,000 women participating by 2007 and 500,000 by 2012.