Story from the Field: Building Alliances in HIV & AIDS-Impacted Communities
Submitted by: Linda Jones, Past Chairperson of SEEP's Board of Directors
Before joining a savings group, Marie Chantal Mujejende was jobless and panhandling on the street in the Kabuye parish of Kigali district, Rwanda. With a small loan she took from her savings group, Marie was able to purchase bananas, make compote, and sell it in the community. The dress that she is proudly wearing is a recent purchase from her ongoing profits. Along with her fellow group members, Marie saves about 250 Rwandan francs (about fifty cents) every week. 
Marie is a member of Abatigayubuke, a savings group that has been mobilized by Catholic Relief Services (CRS) through their local partner Caritas in Rwanda. These savings groups utilize the SILC methodology (Savings and Internal Lending Communities) and CRS and Caritas are extending this methodology to be inclusive of HIV & AIDS-impacted people. True to the group’s name, which means “even if the number is small, you can still do great things,” members have been able to pay for school fees, start businesses, and improve their quality of life through this simple approach to asset building.
Marie’s group in Rwanda and others like it in Sub-Saharan Africa are part of the SEEP Practitioner Learning Program (PLP) called BASICS - Building Alliances to Serve HIV and AIDS Impacted Communities in Sub-Saharan Africa. This PLP is promoting the development of alliances that enable economic strengthening by working within each partner institution, sharing amongst partners, encouraging industry contribution, and reaching into communities. Microfinance institutions and enterprise development programs increase client viability through a range of services provided by partners. At the same time, partners benefit from access to financial and enterprise services through the lead institutions. Partners in the SEEP BASICS PLP are: Mercy Corps, Ethiopia; Sinapi Aba Trust, Ghana; Fantsuam Foundation, Nigeria; EMG, Uganda; Catholic Relief Services (CRS), Rwanda; and CHF, Rwanda.
From this PLP, four learning products will be developed, and they will all be published by SEEP in the early fall of 2009. These will include a General Partnership Toolkit, Partnership Models for Reaching Impacted Communities, Services that Support Economic Strengthening, and Partner Capacity Building - two comparative cases from Rwanda.
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