Studies by Emory University Students Kathleen Holmes and Brittany Moore

by Astrid Pregel

Imagine spending your summer vacation contributing to the understanding of how women in developing countries benefit from Village Savings and Loans programs. And then imagine having the opportunity, even before you graduate, to provide concrete actionable advice to professionals working in the field. Kathleen Holmes and Brittany Moore of Emory University's Public Health Program made their first presentation about their summer field studies in Africa to the Women Advancing Microfinance fall launch event at Emory University in October 2008.  They recently had an opportunity to brief staff at the CARE International headquarters in Atlanta, Georgia  and Astrid Pregel who was pleased to attend to represent WAM sends us this report.

Brittany Moore spent her summer in rural South Africa in Limpopo province. Her goal was to study the processes through which microfinance provides positive outcomes such as mitigating financial shocks and improving well being and access to health care and education. Twenty percent of adults in the area are HIV+ and women are disproportionately affected both directly and indirectly as they do the lion's share of caring for the sick and the dying. The unemployment rate in the region is over 60% and the locals rely on government transfers as well as remittance from the village men who seek employment in distant cities.

Kathleen Holmes traveled to the Ivory Coast which has the highest HIV infection rates in West Africa. Many people living with HIV in the Ivory Coast are too poor to afford treatment. The purpose of Kathleen's study was to determine whether the expansion of CARE's HIV program to include economic strengthening activities had benefited recipients. CARE launched a Community Saving and Loans program called POWER which targets widows, commercial sex workers and people living with HIV with a view to mitigating the effects of aids.

Both young women delivered practical and well researched lessons learned to the CARE staff.

In Limpopo province, Brittany found that the Village and Savings Loan programs provided a viable alternative program to the local money lenders and served to stretch government and family remittances. She found that most VSL funds were used to improve the quality of a families life. Members of the VSL expressed a greater sense of pride, developed new skills and benefited from the group social support they received from other VSL members. In terms of lessons learned, she found that VSL members benefited significantly from the psycho social benefits of being with the group. She felt it was important to organize PLHIV into groups to offset the impact of a members death. Anonymity was critical to a PLHIV ability to enter into successful economic activities. The women she interviewed reported  that they felt more empowered as they were better able to take care of their families and did not have to beg or borrow from family.

Brittany suggested that cross linkages between programs needed to be strengthened. Only some of the VSL groups were working robustly with some being stagnant or disbanded. In general, she found that the more remote and poor the village the greater the obstacles the groups faced in terms of income generating activities. Where there was no water or electricity or transportation to markets, it was most difficult for women to find economic activities to increase their income. VSL groups that were made up of mainly elderly women were more interested in the social support of the group than in becoming economically active.

Kathleen carried out in-depth interviews and focus group discussions with women who were members of the CSL program. She found that the stigma of HIV aids reduced the PLHIV ability to borrow funds as lenders felt that they might die and not repay, hence CSL programs were found to be particularly important for PLHIV. The psycho social benefits from the groups were found to be substantial with a need to ensure confidentiality about a members health condition. Group models with 3-4 with sick members working together and being able to relieve each other during a working day were quite successful as PLHIV often are unable to work a great deal.  

The presentations were well received by CARE staff members. There was a lively discussion of CARE's experience in working with group lending projects in India, ill members working with bulk sales and for women focused on agriculture, the possibility to work with mixed crops to better smooth out the revenue stream over an entire year. The need to deliver better income generating strategies and skills to particularly the more distant and under served rural areas was discussed.

The two researchers were congratulated enthusiastically for their contribution to CARE's work in Africa.