WORTH

Name: WORTH
Dates: April 2005 - April 2010
Donor: The Salivation Army (TSA)

Under Round I of the U.S. President's Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR), the Salvation Army received funding to implement a five-year program to improve the lives of orphans and other vulnerable children (OVC) affected by HIV/AIDS and awarded a subcontract to Pact to provide technical in implementing Pact's award-winning women's empowerment program known as WORTH. In WORTH women support other women to take charge of improving their lives, families and communities. Organized in groups, the women save their money on a weekly basis and learn how to read and write. As their group fund grows, women are able to borrow and start small businesses, at the same time they continue learning from each other. Women not only generate income from their small businesses but from their group lending, as the interest on loans returns to the group for distribution. Through WORTH women are also learning about issues related to HIV/AIDS such as stigma, care and support and how to mobilize the community resources to improve the lives of OVC.

The WORTH program complements the other two Salvation Army project components' community counseling and psycho-social support activities. In order to achieve the economic empowerment of the women who are caring for children, the caretakers are organized into groups of between 20 - 25 members.  

The women in these groups have learned to save their money on a weekly basis and in most of the groups the average saving per week per woman is 100/=  shillings ($0.08). Women in these groups are very excited to see their savings grow, and in most of the groups members have taken loans to start their own small businesses. Even with 5,000/= shillings ($4) loans, women have been able to start some small businesses which they wouldn't have been able to do if the program was not brought in their communities.

In Tanzania WORTH has a special focus on improving the economic life of orphans and vulnerable children (OVC). As the women grow in their groups and businesses they become more involved with issues related to OVC. WORTH women are currently taking care of more than 2600 orphans (about 700 are cared for by grandmothers over 70 years old). From their small businesses the women have been able to meet some of the needs of these children such as food and shelter. Yet the needs of these children are so enormous that caretakers are unable to carry the load alone. Some of the groups have organized special days for OVC and invited people from their community to come and share a day with the children. This sensitizes the community about the presence and the needs of the OVC, but it will take time before the communities understand that the burden of taking care of the orphans is on their shoulders and not to neglect them while expecting some day help from the outside will come.

Emerging results

• As of June 2007 Pact had established 260 groups with a total of 5840 women.
• The total savings of the Worth groups in Kagera at the end of May 2007 is Tanzanian shilling 15,822,000 (USD12,657) and in Kilimanjaro Tsh 9,597,525 (USD15,678). This is a substantial amount of money taking into consideration that most of these groups were formed only a year ago. The women's average savings per week is Tsh 200/= ($0.16)

Staff contacts

Victoria Munene WORTH Coordinator Victoria@pacttz.org