A Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) is only as good as its members – so when the sum of tenacity and determination is derived from 15 hardworking, goal-oriented individuals in the Hagamith Helem (Let’s Protect) VSLA in Chukudum, Budi County, the bar is set high. The members have realised that if they lift collectively, they can lift more than what one person can do.
With support from Roots of Generations (RoG) and the EU funded SPREAD Project, they are now saving to start one big business run and owned jointly by all members. You can meet three members of the Hagamith Helem VSLA below.
Lucy Charles
Wednesday is laundry day at Lucy Charles’ house – which is immediately apparent when you enter her compound. Every person, young and old, in the compound is engaged in washing, wringing, or hanging laundry. Containers, buckets, and basins with water and soap are dotted in the small yard and suspended above them are clothing lines with dripping clothes. Bushes and trees are draped with linen, trousers, dresses, shirts and more.
Lucy Charles stands in the centre bend over a bucket at an 80-degree angle rubbing clothes against a long green bar of soap as bubbles form. She gives directions to the others to continue as she gets up. It isn’t hard to see who calls the shots in this compound.
Lucy is 32 years old. The brickhouse she has built for herself and her household of 12 – with tin roof and light bulbs in the veranda – speaks volumes about her tenacity. Her neighbours – and many people in Chukudum – live in houses with mud walls and thatched roofs.
From refugee camp to grass hut – to bigger things
Lucy was brought up and went to school in Kakuma refugee camp in Kenya with her parents and siblings. The family was voluntarily repatriated in 2008 – during the ‘second repatriation’. And by the age of 15 she found herself in South Sudan – a country scarred by war and virtually void of opportunities.
“When we came back, we lived in tents provided by the UN in a camp. When the grass grew, we cut and dried it. And when we had enough, we built a hut that we moved into.”
“If I don’t work for myself, then who will?”
Lucy’s father always told his children “Don’t wait for others to do things for you.” – and Lucy took this message to heart. Asked about her determination she says matter-of-factly, “If I don’t work for myself, then who will?” It is apparent that she does not wait for anyone to lift her up – she does it by herself.
Earning pounds by the brick
Five years ago, Lucy started a business selling bricks. She bought bricks from local producers and re-sold them at a premium to people in the community constructing houses. Soon she was making a small income.
From the money she made from selling bricks she put some into a so-called ‘merry-go-round’; a small group of people – mostly from the same community – who come together to assist one another in saving money.
The concept is simple – every week or month members contribute funds, and they take turns to receive the full amount contributed by the group. The ‘merry-go-round’ that Lucy became a member of had 13 members who each contributed 2,000 South Sudanese Pounds (SSP) every two weeks – and so every two weeks one member would receive 24,000 SSP. And every member receives funds every 26 weeks – or twice per year.
Making the green grow
Whereas this was a good way of saving money, Lucy also wanted the money to grow – she wanted to multiply it. She was therefore all ears when she and others – with the support of Root of Generations (RoG) – got the opportunity to start a Village Loans and Savings Association (VSLA). By the end of 2024 there were 15 members in the group that they called “Hagamith Helem” (Let’s Protect).
The slightly more advanced structure of a VSLA adds the possibility of taking out loans – which can help further investments into small-scale businesses for the members – and the repayment of loans help grow the pool of funds in the VSLA. At the end of an agreed cycle – typically a year – all members get the money back they put in as savings – but this time with interest. The money has grown.
In the group they contribute 20,000 SSP each per month – with 15 members that is 300,000 SSP. With an exchange rate at around 6,000 SSP to the dollar that translates to 50 USD per month.
The group decides what loans are given – and there are some basic rules for what you can get a loan for. And what you cannot get a loan for. An important rule is that loans are not given for producing local brew or starting a business that involves selling alcohol.
VSLA support for school fees and mandazis
Lucy has spent money from the VSLA group on school fees – and she has started another business selling mandazis – deep fried pieces of sweet dough.
She also bought cooking oil in the neighbouring town of Kapoeta for re-sale in Chukudum. But the poor state of the road is a big issue – items can take weeks to arrive in Chukudum – even if it’s only 80 kms. So, for now she doesn’t sell cooking oil – but she has not given up on the idea.
Another option could be to buy from Uganda – but for that she would need US Dollars. And that is a challenge that all members of the Hagamith Helem VSLA face.
So they have a plan.
The plan
First part of the plan is for each member to raise 150,000 SSP and put into the group – which will give them 2.25 million SSP. That money is then converted to US dollars – which should give them just over $400 that they will take to Uganda to buy grain and cooking oil. These goods will provide enough stock for them to open a joint business for all members of the VSLA. “People in this area are starving, and the lack of food stuff from outside is a big issue,” says Lucy. This is the need that the business will tap into, she explains.
Helen Ochii (28)
Helen Ochii is 28. She joined Hagamith Helem in 2022 after returning to Chukudum from Juba where she was selling vegetables. She was also a member of a Savings and Loans Association in Juba – and was quick to join the VSLA upon her return to Chukudum. She knew what difference a membership can make.
Helen says that it was hard to make ends meet in Juba, and she missed her life in Chukudum – the nature and the farmland that she grew up with. But saying that life in Chukudum is easy would be a stretch. Helen explains that she is the only one with an income in her household of six people – and they are renting on someone else’s land. Like Lucy and many others here she bakes mandazis. She has taken out money once to buy flour to start her mandazi business – but since then she has been saving as much as she can after paying rent for the house they live in. It’s 10,000 South Sudanese Pounds per month – roughly two US Dollars.
Selling soap and soup
Helen quickly skips to the joint business they are going to make as a VSLA – and her visions include a soap business and a restaurant both run jointly by member of the VSLA. The men will sell soap, and the women will run the restaurant. It’s an idea that excites Helen.
“Opening one big business as a VSLA could really help us a lot.”
“A business of this size would really help us a lot,” she says hopefully. She highlights the support and training that RoG has provided through the SPREAD project – support that helps members manage and grow the VSLA while ensuring sound plans for the businesses they start.
One stumbling block that remains is the insecurity in and around Chukudum – the ever-present risk of conflict and violence.
But with new skills available, funding opportunities, and new businesses opening new opportunities will also arise. Opportunities that are alternatives to crime and violence.
Lino Narumo (28)
Lino Narumo has been a member of the VSLA since 2023. When he joined new members were selected among the most vulnerable in the community – and Lino was picked as a ‘vulnerable youth’, he explains. And he was eager to join – to create a better life.
“My father was poor and couldn’t provide for us – I do not want to be the same kind of father to my children,” he says.
Lino went to school until class 4 – then he had to drop out as the family couldn’t afford school fees. He is hesitant to provide detail on what he did after quitting school – but says he was also involved in conflict and was affected by violence.
“My father was poor and couldn’t provide for us – I do not want to be the same kind of father to my children.”
He owns a plot of land where he stays with wife, four of his own children, and three orphans. For some years now he has earned an income from growing and selling tobacco. Some of it he sends to the neighboring Kapoeta town to be sold.
“When I started doing business and joined the VSLA, I saw that engaging in conflict and violence is no good for the progress we want for ourselves and this community.”
Cattle cause conflict
Lino mentions several things that can spark conflict – cattle rustling being chief among them – and highlights that whereas Chukudum in many ways lacks opportunities and development, residents here are still much better off than people in smaller communities outside town.
“Our neighboring communities have almost no development, no schools, no clinics, and they have very little farming. They come her to steal because they lack food – and because they want cattle,” he explains.
He adds that even in Chukudum the embers of conflict can flare up easily – and as a farmer conflict is often linked to land disputes. Proper demarcation of land and engaging in dialogue is the best way to solve these disputes. He has also decided not to keep cattle for safety reasons. And of course – Lino still keeps a gun at home. Just in case.
Big business will lead to big changes – for the better
Lino’s hopes for the future start with the grand business that the members of Hagamith Helem want to start jointly. Not all details of the business are in place – but something good will come of it. That he is sure of. And that will lead to bigger changes – for his children and for their future.
“I want my children to have a higher standard of life than mine. I want them to live in a house with iron sheets on the roof. I want them to go to a better school. And I want them to have a life in peace and a nice environment free of fear, “ says Lino outlining his hopes for the long term.
About SPREAD
- Exact/full title: Strengthening integrated Peace, Resilience and Disaster Risk Reduction for cross-border communities in the Karamoja Cluster
- Period: February 2024 – January 2027
- Partners: SaferWorld, ROG, ICPDO, ECC, APAD
- Amount: 14,000,000 EURO
- Target of 80,000 people reached by end of project
- Donor(s): EU & Danish Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
