Micro Loans For Women Impacted by HIV/AIDS, Zambia

Micro Loans Program

Power of Love’s women’s empowerment program has improved the quality of life of hundreds of women and their families. At present, this program benefits more than 11,000 (current enrollees and graduates) vulnerable adults and children in Zambia. All 551 women enrolled receive three loans, business training, ongoing business mentoring, and monitoring. All training is COVID safe, participative, hands on, and in the local language as most women have never been to school. So far, this year 680 women received business training, 81 new loans were added, 470 women received refresher training, 255 women received business mentorship. In addition, all women and their families receive insecticide treated nets to keep them safe from malaria and so that children do not miss school due to ill health. Finally, clean cooking stoves were provided to 8,500 community members and education on COVID is provided regularly. All these program activities help families break the vicious cycle of poverty, poor health, and low education so they can and enjoy a higher quality of life. Micro loans, along with training and support, are transformative.

How Loans and Training in Business Change Lives

In the short term, earnings from businesses help pay for food, medicines, rent and school expenses. The diet and nutrition of all families improves leading to better health; more than 1,100 children are attending school/skills training classes, families are better informed about HIV prevention, many women have invested in income earning assets such as an extra room or a plot of land, and loan recipients have built strong social networks. In addition, the women have become more financially literate, and many loan recipients enjoy a higher status in the community.

In the long term, the community is stronger and more self-reliant as more children graduate high school, women encourage others to work hard, there is reduced HIV related stigma, and there is a change in the culture as men come forward to help with businesses. All these lead to social and economic empowerment of women and improved gender equity.

Next steps and plan for Nov/Dec 2021

• Provide 50 new loans to bring the total to 600.
• Provide business training to 209 women.
• Provide refresher training to an additional 81 women to bring the total to 551 women this year.
• Provide business mentoring to an additional 215 women to bring the total to 470 women in 2021.
• Track the 551 active businesses, so they continue to operate in the community.
• Stay connected with graduates and encourage them to mentor/train new loan recipients.
• Encourage recipients of clean cooking stove recipients to use these as an income generating asset.
• Launch a program for women/families to start back yard gardens.

At Power of Love, we measure success by ensuring sustainability of the family and not so much by repayment rates and financial sustainability of our program. Further, since this project is part of a larger comprehensive health care program, the impact is much bigger and sustained over a long period of time. 

Thanks for giving vulnerable women an opportunity to become successful entrepreneurs. 

Links:

• Micro Loans Are Transformative
• About our micro loans program
• Mechanics of this program

The ongoing pandemic has made life more difficult for vulnerable communities globally. In resource poor communities, more families face food insecurity due to the impact of COVID, and other factors such as climate change and conflict. For the last 18 months our goal has been to keep families in our program educated on COVID prevention and healthy, and to ensure that children attend school/continue with schoolwork. 

Currently, we have 550 women who are running successful businesses in their communities. These businesses have become a valuable part of the community fabric as they provide services that may have not been in existence before such as a new hair salon that sells hair accessories or braids hair at affordable prices close to home. Also, most businesses provide employment to family members. These first-time entrepreneurs inspire us every day with their positive attitude and their creative solutions to overcome challenges. All of them are heroes. Given below are two stories of women who are proud business owners on the path to self-reliance.

Mary (name changed) is a widow and the sole caregiver for her five children. Life became exceedingly difficult after her husband passed away as he was the only earning family member. Two of her children had to drop out of school, and her son became extremely sick. Her son was enrolled in Power of Love’s pediatric HIV care program and his health stabilized soon after. Being a part of a health care program gave Mary hope, and subsequently she enrolled in our micro loans program. In November 2020, Mary received business training and loan funds to open a hair salon as she has expertise in braiding hair. She located her salon near a bus station with high traffic and visibility (as advised while building a business plan). Her business is doing well, and she is on track with repayments. At a recent visit to her salon, Mary explained that she is planning to increase savings to purchase more hair supplies. She has continued working hard through COVID and was able to purchase more braids for reselling. Her children are back in school, she is on track with repayments, and proud of working for herself. In her words, “running a salon has made life easy”. As of June 2021, Mary had opened a second salon, and paid for her niece to complete a beautician’s course. Her niece is helping her run the second salon though business is slow due to COVID. Her son is much improved in health. Mary says that she does not have to depend on anyone for food or rent, she is her own master, and her quality of life has improved.

Emma (name changed) is the sole provider for her seven dependents. Before she enrolled in Power of Love’s micro loans program, life was hard as she had no source of income. After completing business training, she received a loan and started selling used clothing. She sought advice from the loans officer regularly to develop business skills and add to her capital and inventory. Over the past few months, she increased sales and revenues considerably, is on track with repayments on her third loan, and working hard to expand her business. She is happy as she can provide three meals a day for her family. She is thankful for the support and says that due to her business success she can smile as her family is able to pay for rent, food, medicines, and school expenses.

It is the positive attitude of the women that makes this program unique. Each woman is special and inspires us every day. 

Our goal with this program is that the women continue to run successful businesses, earn a stable income, build assets, and keep children in school. 

Thank you!

Links:

• About our micro loans program
• Business training modules
• Mechanics of this program