Meet Isobel…I travelled to a remote rural village in Rwanda where ten women’s Self Help Groups started eight months ago. I wasn’t expecting too much. I mean, what can happen in that time?
But you haven’t met this group of women.
They come with examples of businesses they’ve started. Josephine tells her story then proudly lifts a grain bag to take show two cabbages. Huge cabbages.
I see Isobel holding a bag. I look over expectantly. She’s a widow with seven children. She struggled to feed them more than one meal a day or send them to school. She states, “I came to the group with nothing. No skills and no ideas. But we come together and share our ideas. So, I took a loan for AUD$3 and bought 5 rabbits.”
Then, she reaches into the bag and pulls out a rabbit!
It’s the metaphor to end all metaphors. It reminds me that SHGs take impossible situations and bring hope and life.
Isobel sold her 5 rabbits for AUD$14 to buy a pig. Now the pig is having piglets and she’s selling the manure as fertiliser. She’s bought a small field. One daughter has joined in her in the SHG and in business. She’s optimistic that soon they will buy a cow. How life has changed!
You see, the Self Help Group approach is always pulling a rabbit out of a hat. And there’s absolutely no chance this bit of magic isn’t going to spread far and wide.
