Savings clubs uplift Hwange villagers

VILLAGERS from Nemananga Ward in Hwange District have taken informal savings clubs to another level by contributing money to buy livestock to empower members.

About 12 savings clubs have been formed in the area since November last year with an average of 10 and 19 members per club. The 12 clubs form the Nemananga Savings Cluster established this year.

The majority of the members now own goats bought using contributions from the savings clubs.

Umhambi Children Fountain of Hope, which implements the programmes in the area, has capacitated the clubs with sewing machines to enhance self-sustenance and to make reusable sanitary pads for the girl child.

Umhambi director, Mr Misheck Ngulube, and the ZB Holdings Victoria Falls branch team of Ms Vivian Kulube and Ms Caroline Dube, met club members on Friday last week, and encouraged them to develop a culture of saving.

Savings clubs are sometimes called “stokvels”, which are popular in South Africa where the name originated from the term “stock fairs” as the rotating cattle auctions of English settlers in Eastern Cape were known in the early 19th century.

Mrs Khayelihle Ndlovu from Silibinda Village, who is the cluster vice chair, said the clubs had changed their lives.

“We work together and contribute money in what we call ‘qogelela‘. We then choose a day when we meet as a cluster to help each other and each club contributes US$10 and all the money is given to the hosting club,” she said.

“There is also food and each member pays US$2 for a meal, including a drink, and all the money remains with the host club. We meet every three weeks. We started in November last year while the cluster came into place in April this year.

“We started this after looking at the challenges we face as women and families. That US$1 cannot make a difference on its own, but if we contribute with others it makes a whole difference,” said Mrs Ndlovu.

“As we speak, we have started buying things, we now have livestock as women since we started buying goats for each other.”

She encouraged young women and the youth to join savings clubs, which are also platforms for men and women to discuss societal issues such as prevention of child marriages, teenage pregnancies, child and drug abuse, gender-based violence and divorce.

Ms Simphiwe Dlamini (20) is one of the young people who have joined the club. She said she has benefitted from the teachings of the club members and is now empowered to start her own business.

Mr Benard Ngwenya, chair of Indonsakusa Club, an all-men savings group formed a few months ago, said all members have bought goats from the savings.

ZB Bank branch official, Ms Kulube, said there were several low-cost packages that small-scale businesses could take up at the financial institution.

“Such programmes help prepare a good future for your families so we have to be women that lay the foundation for a brighter future for our children,” she said.

“As ZB Bank, we have facilities to help people who have such programmes to prevent abuse of funds. We encourage you to take your savings to the bank to avoid risks.

“Some accounts offer free charges for clubs to help encourage a culture of banking and our wish is not to have cases of people losing their savings, but formally put their money in the bank and use it to start projects,” she said.

Ms Thandiwe Sibanda, one of the Nemananga Savings Cluster executive members, said the idea is to empower families, communities and the nation in line with the Second Republic’s Vision for an upper-middle-income society.

“We have a common vision to uplift our families, community and nation by putting our resources together. Our wish is to fund our children’s education so that our community has graduates in different professions,” she said.

“We also want to buy an ambulance for our clinic, among other projects,” she said.

Umhambi director, Mr Ngulube, reiterated the need to embrace a culture of saving and capacity building and encouraged young people to start projects.

Umhambi focuses on taking care of orphans, among other developmental areas, and works with Government departments.