Livelihood Empowerment Group Training

The Social Economic Empowerment department has switched gears from its traditional ways of operation in which they would offer gifts in kind and even financial aid to offering skills that can help members of Mukuru improve their livelihoods.

In a training led by Terry Gachau, 33 women were taken through a financial literacy crash course at Ruben Centre on the 26th of January, 2022. Terry works with Real Fountain Enterprises, a training agency that provides business and management development services to interested groups through training, research & consultancy. During the training, the women covered the following topics:

1.      Household Budgeting 

·         Planning, spending,

·         seasonality calendar,

·         Business money vs your money

2.      Family Saving

·         African concept of saving

·         Saving plan, saving goal

·         Saving on a limited budget

·         Reasons to save. 

·         Challenges when saving

·         Where to save

3.      Banking- It is defined as the business activity of accepting and safeguarding money owned by other individuals and entities, and then lending out this money in order to conduct economic activities such as making profit or simply covering operating expenses.

·         Myths about banking

·         Banking products

·         Matching bank products with personal needs

4.      Credit Management

·            Personal assessment for a loan

·            Starting a business with your money vs starting with a loan.

·            Good loan vs bad loan 

Just like the proverbial “teach them how to fish instead of giving them fish”, Ruben Centre is eager more than ever to empower more people in the Mukuru community to be self-reliant and become providers rather than dependents. Ruben Centre would also like to express thanks to Edmund Rice Foundation Australia (ERFA) for supporting our organization in actualizing this dream to a reality.

By: GB