Savings and loans – a way to make ‘dreams come true’
Despite working two jobs, Joséphine Rasoanantenaina was only able to earn half the money she and her family required to cover their daily needs.
Her story – including the efforts and decisions she made – shows how our Resilient Forests and Livelihoods (RFL) programme enables Malagasy people to lift themselves from poverty and food shortage, without resorting to damaging and removing sections of the rainforest they live alongside.
Our savings and loans projects – one of which Joséphine joined – are one way we help people improve their lives and livelihoods. In her case, they have helped her achieve some ‘dreams’.
In the village of PK7, in the heart of the rural commune of Andasibe, Moramanga district, Joséphine Rasoanantenaina, works as a farmer and shopkeeper.
A dynamic 52-year-old woman and mother of four, Joséphine runs a grocery store in the village.
But in 2022, her daily income from the store was 20,000 Ariary (£3.32) per day, just half the amount she needed to cover her family’s needs.
Sadly, that income – even though a fraction of what she and her family needed – is considerably more than many Malagasy people make: 79.9 per cent of people in Madagascar live on or below £1.73 per day, the global poverty baseline.
To set this injustice right, RFL provides opportunities for Malagasy people to improve their incomes, including Community Savings Groups (GECs) – community savings and loans organisations in which members contribute a membership fee, which is then used to back initiatives presented by those members, and all share a portion of those projects’ successes.
In 2022, Money for Madagascar partner the Mitsinjo Association set up a GEC in PK7.
Joséphine was one of the first people in PK7 to commit to the group, and as a result of her membership, and her own wise decisions, her life has changed from one in which her income did not cover her family’s needs, to one in which she can afford reasonable comforts and plan for the future.
In the GEC’s first nine months (in 2022-23), the group had 24 members (23 women, one man). Each paid 300 Ariary (around five pence) per week.
At the end of the cycle, Joséphine received 130,000 Ariary, which she used to increase her income.
She said: ‘I spent 40,000 Ariary (£6.64) on two ducks, which I sold for 50,000 Ariary (£8.30).
‘I invested 50,000 Ariary in my shop, so I could increase the stock I had to sell. This might seem simple, but it had a great effect. I more than doubled my income, from 20,000 to 50,000 Ariary per day. I could afford the things we need each day as a family.’
Joséphine continued with the GEC in 2023–24. The group had 30 members (28 women, two men) with a weekly membership fee of 500 Ariary (8.3 pence). At the end of the cycle, she received 170,000 Ariary (£28.82).
She said: ‘I used this money to fulfil a dream. Since I got married, I never had a real comfortable mattress. But I had never had the means to afford it. Thanks to savings, this dream has become reality. I bought a foam mattress.’
Changes like this, which may seem small to us, are a reminder that our initiatives – that development in general – are not ‘just’ about ‘economic advancement’, as important as that is, but about what it delivers: personal comfort and an escape from shortage and hardship.
Joséphine is now participating in the GEC’s third cycle, paying a weekly membership fee of 800 Ariary (13p). This time, she plans to renovate her house with the end-of-cycle returns.
She said: ‘This is something we have needed for a long time, and it’s good that I have a way to plan for it that is achievable and realistic.
‘I really like the community savings group. There is a great atmosphere, solidarity, and above all, I can make my dreams come true. I can improve my family’s life and find other sources of income, beyond what I earn for food and daily expenses.
‘This effective method really helps us out of poverty.’
YOU can help the RFL programme help Malagasy people and the extraordinary Madagascar wilderness, flora and fauna.
On Friday 25 April, we achieved our Green Match Fund target – thank you so much!
But if you still want to donate to the RFL programme, please do so here: your donation will be very gratefully received and will help Malagasy people lift themselves from poverty and hunger, and protect and expand the Malagasy rainforest, upon which we all rely.
Your donation will benefit:
Malagasy people who deserve as we all do to live in reasonable comfort, free from risk of malnutrition and harm: your donation will help us provide the platform from which they can increase their incomes, produce the food they need, and develop and manage their own initiatives and ideas. You will help change lives, absolutely for the better
The Malagasy rainforest and all the animals and plants within it (the Malagasy wilderness contains five per cent of all the world’s species of flora and fauna: 80 per cent of those are found nowhere else on the planet): your donation will give Malagasy people the means to protect and expand the forests, and safeguard the animals and plants it contains and supports
Everyone: the world relies on its forests. That includes all of us. Even if we did not have a moral responsibility to protect – or at least not be responsible for harming – the living things with which we share the planet, our rainforests provide air we breathe and are central to our hopes and efforts to reduce and mitigate the impacts of climate change. Your work and generosity will, in this way, benefit every person – every living thing – on Earth
Thank you!
Thanks so much for reading, and please help us give Malagasy people the platform they need to improve their lives and health, and protect and promote the magnificent ecosystem in which they live, and on which we all rely.
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