Like many war-torn countries, women in Burundi remain the most vulnerable. After 13 years of civil war, women have been ostracised from the country’s financial community and occupy a mere 28 per cent of the private sector.

Lifeline Energy is working with internationally reputed organisations CARE International and Microfinance Opportunities to change this through the Ishaka: Courage for the Future initiative. The project – initiated in 2008 – has empowered over 6,178 poverty stricken girls from the ages of 14 to 22 in peri-urban and rural provinces of Bujumbura and Gitega.

   
Burundian women listening to financial literacy broadcasts

According to the UN Development Fund for Women, Burundi’s political struggles have had a “severe impact” on women through the “disruption of social and economic development.” Coupled with discriminatory laws and a patriarchal system, women are more susceptible to early marriage, sexual exploitation and early pregnancy.

Chala, a 16-year-old Burundian, is an example of how the country’s instability has affected its female population. In an interview with CARE International – an organisation that has been active in Burundi for 13 years - Chala said she met the father of her child four years ago who “initially gave her food”, but after she became pregnant he left, resulting in her “family refusing to accept her back home.”

As Burundian women receive only 1.9 per cent of loans made by commercial banks, the Ishaka project helps girls who live in households and are heads of households to access safe savings and financial resources.

Lifeline Energy's solar-powered and wind-up radios play an integral part of this initiative, by allowing groups of up to 40 to listen to financial literacy and life skills broadcasts.

Chhavi Sharma, Lifeline Energy’s project manager, says these radios are important, given that radio is the most widely used communication tool in Africa.

The project is run through village savings and loans groups – also known as Solidarity Groups. Each group develops rules and regulations that meet the particular savings and loans needs. As the fund grows, members take loans to invest in income generating and social welfare? activities. All reimbursements are made with interest, allowing the fund to grow.

By the project end, it is hoped that the girls in these provinces will be financially literate so they can safely navigate the transition from youth through adolescence to adulthood.

Sharma, who trained the girls to use the radios, says the girls were “bursting with questions.” She added that the girls were “curious” as to how the guardian of the radio was chosen: “They were impatient to know why only one person had been selected as the safe-keeper of the radio, and if it was a fair process in the Solidarity Groups, as the group’s savings are kept in a locked box that has three padlocks, held by three different girls,” Sharma says.

Notably, Sharma says that some women said they were “blessed” by the Ishaka initiative. She recounts the story of Irene, a mother at the age of 19, who lives in a slum outside Bujumbura. The woman, Sharma said, wanted to get into the habit of saving money regularly to expand her small business – buying palm oil and reselling it at a higher price – and providing for her children.

Sharma says that the woman was also “excited that the girls in her group get together every week to talk about the problems they face in their day-to-day lives.”

The Ishaka project has grown in the past two years, with over 3,624 functioning village savings and loans group. The loans and the financial information available through Lifeline Energy's radios has already helped thousands of girls in a country like Burundi increase their choices in life.

Related Pages

• Financial Literacy For Adolescent Girls In Burundi
• Village Savings And Loans Project In Burund