Strong Family Circles Empower Women in Zambia
Our family is a circle of strength and love. With every birth and every union, the circle will grow, every joy shared adds more love, every crisis faced together makes the circle stronger.
Strong family circles keep hope alive for the poorest in Zambia. In city slums and remote villages, Family Circles of Care empower women and their families with support and friendship. CMMB community health worker Pastor Charles Zulu is a program coordinator with the Kusamala Project. He works with families in Kabwe, one of the largest slums in Zambia. He describes the program this way:
“By joining Family Circles of Care, the most vulnerable women learn together how to overcome shared challenges. We teach savings and lending concepts and positive parenting skills. We educate the women about child abuse and the rights of all women and children in the community. It’s really helping.”
In each family circle, members have chosen one another – they know each other and are accountable to one another. These vulnerable women face the same challenges in their daily lives so they feel empowered to share their experiences and learn from one another.
These families are living day-to-day, so saving is difficult. Within Family Circles of Care, members learn slowly how to save, because they have an obligation to save as part of the group. They learn that savings gives them the capital base for any small business they want to pursue.
“The program is successful because these mothers have the passion to see that their children are educated, that the family has food on the table.”
So through the savings and lending component, Family Circles of Care support women and their small businesses. Now, these women are able to send their children to school and meet basic needs. As they find success, they want to grow their businesses so that they can save money for future use, creating a positive impact on the whole community.
In rural Mwandi, 43-year-old Kalema is chairwoman of the Tibelelo Family Circle, which has 12 members. She says, “Since we started our family circle and received training, we have helped each others address family issues, especially with children. We have come to learn to talk to our children in a way that takes their thoughts into consideration.”
For the women in the Tibelelo Family Circle, the benefits are beyond expectation.
“We started learning about savings and lending in our group a few months ago and we agreed that each member would donate one chicken. Today we have more than 30 chickens and three pigs,” Kalema says with a smile.
“We are making such a difference in each other’s lives every time we meet. We were able to assist one of our members when her daughter was hospitalized for a few days. Our family circle lent her the money to pay for care and she didn’t have to worry about a thing because we had everything under control.”
In Kalema’s Lozi language, “tibelelo” means “waiting for the good things to come.” The women in this Family Circle of Care know that this is just the beginning of good things to come for their families.
Kalema says, “With the money in our savings box, we plan to send all the kids who dropped out of school due to financial reasons back to their classrooms. We want our children to start dreaming again. We are grateful to CMMB for bringing this program to Mwandi. It has brought real change to our lives.”