Jeannette's story is an example of a success story in self-sustaining long term development. © CAREThere is a lot of press around at the moment talking about impact and detailed assessments of how effective aid is. Understandably, as a UK taxpayer, I feel very strongly about this, but what seems to have happened is that some of the general public are now questioning overseas aid in general. I recently returned from Rwanda, where I met a woman called Jeannette whose story, to my mind, sums up what longer-term overseas development is all about.
Jeannette is married with children and lives in the countryside about one hour’s drive out of Rwanda’s capital, Kigali. Not long ago, she borrowed 4,800 Rwandan Francs (approximately £5) from a village savings and loans scheme CARE set up in 2009. With that money, she bought a goat. She looked after the goat for a short period of time and then sold it in the local market for 6,000 Rwandan Francs - a profit of 1,200 Rwandan Francs. With that, she bought some tomatoes and a chicken, which she kept for eggs for the family. After just two months, she had paid off her loan. With increased confidence, she took out a second loan – this time of 25,000 Francs. She travelled to a more distant market and bought sorghum, which she then sold at a profit of 3,000 Francs. The story goes on successfully, but after three months, she had made a profit of 29,000 Francs (approximately £30). This enabled her to part-rebuild her house and put an iron sheet roof on it.
There are many other such stories in Rwanda where communities now have an on-going savings and loans scheme which is perfectly self-sustaining. The initial input given by CARE is around one year’s training for the community. This includes business and basic financial expertise. After that, no further support from CARE is required.
Village savings and loans schemes are having a dramatic effect on long-term sustainable livelihoods. They are extremely effective and have substantially increased the relevant communities’ ability to be self-sustained.
