03 March 2009

Totota, Liberia: With UNV support, women volunteers in Liberia are teaming up to build their businesses.

Supported by UNV funds and local NGO Liberia Initiatives for Development Services, Volunteer Saving and Lending Associations (VSLAs) are a pilot project designed to promote the economic empowerment of women through volunteerism.

The VSLA project helps local communities pull their financial resources together through the purchase of shares. It also provides lending pools drawn from accumulated profits to help members get their businesses going. Such initiatives have resulted in the establishment of rural banks in other countries, in which funds are owned by the communities themselves.

There are about 30 members in each of the four VSLAs established so far, mostly women. Each association has developed its own constitution, holds regular meetings and has agreed on ways for members to buy their own shares.

Project Coordinator at the Liberia Initiatives for Development Services NGO, Nee-Isaac Duanah, said that the 120 members also benefitted from a month-long training in microenterprise development, club management and operations.

In February, UNV distributed essential equipment such as cash boxes to the four newly established VSLAs in Salala District, Bong County. The UNV Programme Officer for UNDP Liberia, Rukaya Mohammed, commended the women she met on their enthusiasm. She said the project will promote social cohesion and empower communities toward financial independence.

UNV Liberia's volunteerism ambassador, Hawa Veronica Sherif, vowed to visit the women on a regular basis to raise awareness on HIV/AIDS and Sexual and Gender-Based Violence. She encouraged the women to cooperate and remain committed. ”Through this project you will be able to avoid the dependency syndrome that has subjected women to all kinds of hardship in the society," she remarked.

Victoria Mulbah, the chairwoman of the association in Totota community, Bong County, sees that the VSLA has strengthened social cohesion; she now works with people she never even talked with since she came to the community. Ms. Mulbah added that the VSLA is good for single mothers to be able to expand their businesses and cater for their children. In the absence of financial institutions in local villages, the VSLAs can provide means of credit for communities.