adminevery bank that dishes out HIV and Aids information. Still, not every bank specifically targets women – rural women – and responds to their needs, which are always relegated to the backwaters.
In this regard, the Women Development Savings and Credit Union in Gokwe, dubbed the “Village Bank”, is something special. The bank, which celebrated its first anniversary recently, holds a special place in the heart of this predominantly farming community.
It has made a difference to the lives of over 2 000 women and their families. The bank was opened by President Mugabe last year. The philosophy of the bank goes beyond the truism of empowering a community through a woman, it seeks to grant the woman health for a healthy community as a topmost priority.
This explains why the bank offers female and male condoms as well as material on HIV and Aids, which impacts on the lives of women.
“Women are the ones who take care of everyone,” explains Mr Lenin Mawonde, an investment officer and acting manager at the bank.
“For them to be informed on reproductive health helps everyone from the children, husbands, families and communities.”
It is a fait accompli for the exponents of the concept of a village bank, which was born in 1999 out of nine women’s desire to change the lives of other women.
“We seek to impact on the lives of families through serving the needs of women, specifically women from marginalised, rural and poor backgrounds,” says Mr Mawonde.
Not much is expected from these women and all they have to do is look up to men, he explains, and they do not have the collateral that would make it in the normal banking system. The bank gives the women a start in life and offers services that are responsive to the situation of a marginalised rural woman.
“We have different kinds of products on offer,” says Mr Mawonde.
“We have the girl child account which parents can open on behalf of a girl child. This is a vehicle through which they can save and invest in the future of the child.
“We have a savings account, which is as good as any from other banks. There is also the fixed deposit account for a short to medium-term in which we agree on an interest rate for a particular period. Of late this has been fixed at 5 percent.
“We also offer loans and we are lenient in terms of collateral as we are a micro finance organisation. We accept cattle, goats, scotchcarts, electrical gadgets, generators and so on,” says Mr Mawonde.
The repayment period is a maximum of three months.
But there is also something that sets the village bank apart from the rest.
“The difference between us and other banks is that we operate as a credit union and co-operative and a woman who wants to be part of us has to buy shares. “The minimum number of shares one can purchase is
100 which are sold at US$0,40 each. We give options: you can be a member for savings only and not loans.”
The past one-year has been a huge success for the village bank.
Granted, everything here has a season and the natural play of the elements impact on the operations of the bank. The beginning of the farming season sees high demand for loans, while the end brings more savings.
The festive season – and the community here is not lost to it – sees demand surge for disposable cash.
Said Mr Mawonde: “The bank has a big membership, at 2 140, which perhaps is attributable to the grand opening ceremony which was attended by President Mugabe.
“It has managed to pass on knowledge to its clients to try and ensure the success of people’s projects. We usually deal with women who already have something on the ground that needs financing.”
The village bank has also have managed to work with large organisations such as the International Labour Organisation which provided funds to set up apiculture (bee-keeping) and horticulture projects.
The projects benefited 300 youths from Gokwe.
The bank also works with women and development organisations, which see a pool of women whom they work in areas such as reproductive health.
Widowed Ms Theresa Mawere (47) a teacher at a local primary school, is one of the beneficiaries of the village bank project. When The Herald caught up with her, she was at the bank working out papers to redeem her little investments.
Ms Mawere has a fixed account with the bank and has been depositing amounts averaging US$20 per month. Now she had to have her rewards.
But at home, she is already reaping rewards of a poultry project that she started with funds from the bank.
At the moment she has 200 birds ready for the festive Christmas period. She also has been selling chicken pieces she buys from Kwekwe. “I now want to expand on my poultry project by building more fowl runs and constructing a fence around my homestead,” she said. And she sees the nobility of supporting women’s initiatives through ventures such as the village bank.
“Women empowerment is good. Now we see even men hiding behind their wives to access development funds. If well managed, empowerment of women brings more family cohesion,” she said.
Mr Mawonde believes improving the lives of the likes of Ms Mawere could be realised if various partners who should plough back to the communities support such concepts as the village bank.
He wants to see the capacity of the bank increase and this could be achieved when big organisations invest in the bank.
This will ensure the self-sustenance of women and give stability to women.
Online Reporter