Girls' Savings Group led by World Vision Mozambique

Multidimensional Poverty

It is a defining moment of our childhood when we begin to understand money. Its value and its scarcity. Its ability to feed or starve you. Its power to house you or make you homeless. For millions of children, that lesson comes early and hits hard. around one to two of every three children in Southern Africa, a region where I live and work, are affected by multi-dimensional and inter-generational poverty. They don’t have access to their basic rights or to essential social services, such as healthcare, HIV/AIDS awareness, nutrition, education, WASH (water, sanitation and hygiene), and child protection. They don’t, their parents didn’t, and if we don’t do something, their children won’t either.

What It Means for Children

I can’t think of anything more important than breaking the cycle of poverty. Childhood is a time of unique opportunity for child development and poverty is particularly damaging to children.

Lack of money for these children isn’t just about not having coins in their pocket, or cash in the ATM machine. Economic deprivation has insidious effects that translate into problems we try to address with separate solutions. For example, take child marriage. For both girls and boys, early marriage is a survival strategy to relieve their family of what they perceive to be a financial burden in the face of extreme poverty.

I got my first job when I was 11 years old. I cleaned windows at a pharmacy and delivered medicine, followed by mowing lawns at age 13. The money I got was partly to pay for a pair of shoes my parents couldn’t or wouldn’t buy for me. The money I earned did not pay for my family’s dinner. It didn’t for my school uniform. In Mozambique, 22 percent of children aged 5–14 work in unsuitable and, in some cases, dangerous labor conditions, mainly to support household businesses or supplement family income. I have met parents of these children. They don’t want to watch their children go to work, come home exhausted with no time for school or homework. But they lack choices. Inter-generational poverty robs parents of the power to make choices - good choices - for yourself and your family, and this is heartbreaking to witness. This is why we work with families to build protective family environments for children, supported by a robust child protection system and infrastructure to boost their evolving capacities to be parents, citizens and productive members of society.

In some of the worst cases, children are forced into commercial sexual acts as a coping strategy for extreme poverty means and to fulfil family expenses.

Breaking the Cycle of Poverty

The implementation of Article 27 of the Convention on the Rights of the Child (CRC) by member states will go a long way to holistically protect children and help them reach their full potential. Building the financial capacity of parents and caregivers to provide well for their children will ensure that no child left behind by 2030.

So, how do we get there? Savings for transformation groups are where we, quite literally, see money growing under trees. And in village halls. And in empty classrooms, and anywhere community members can find a meeting space. The numbers are compelling. In the past five years, World Vision Southern Africa has established more than 16,000 savings groups with more than 410,000 members with approximately over US$4.5 million in savings. Hundreds of thousands of children have felt the benefits of this work, including nearly 7,000 adolescents and young people who are members themselves.

These groups provide the most vulnerable families with loans and savings that can be used to enhance their income generation ability. This enables parents and caregivers to provide for their children. At 12 years old, he has a cow, a calf, a goat and a dream of being a doctor. He credits his grandmother for teaching him how to save through a group.

Another example is 19-year-old Gloria, who has been a member of a youth savings group for 2 years. She was due to join one of my colleagues and speak at the Global Savings Groups Conference in Durban to share her experience of starting a small business and helping her parents purchase vital school supplies for her. The conference was unfortunately canceled due to the global coronavirus outbreak.

Carmelia’s story has also stayed with me since I first heard about her. For years in Mozambique, she painfully watched other young girls give up school and their dreams. When she turned 13, she was determined that early marriage would not be her ultimate destiny, and she joined an adolescent girls’ savings group through a World Vision child protection project.

With the loans we were able to start our own small businesses and with the proceeds we can now buy our own clothes and school materials and have our hair done. We are going after our own dreams.

Brian, Gloria and Carmelia are learning the true value of money. Through our work, we’re determined to continue empowering them and other children and their families to ensure it is a positive, life-changing lesson for generations to come.

Learn more about World Vision’s Savings Groups approach or contact Angeline Munzara with any questions.

Follow us on Twitter: @MarkTurekKelly @AMunzara @World Vision; @WorldVisionSARO

Mark Kelly has served as the Regional Director, Southern Africa for World Vision International since January 2018. In this role he oversees operations in nine countries - Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Eswatini, Lesotho, Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa, Zambia and Zimbabwe - with more than 3,500 staff.

Previously, Mark was the Country Director for World Vision Zambia and Chair of Vision Fund’s Zambia Board. Prior to this, he served as Regional Chief Operating Officer, South Asia and Pacific, working with 6,500 staff across ten countries. He has more than twenty years of experience with the organization and has worked in over 50 countries.

In 2016, Mark was awarded an Order of Australia for international development. He holds a degree in Commerce, and a Masters in Development from the Australian National University; and executive training in Governance from Harvard University. Mark is married with two children.