In the core program, most of the women enrolled in the program (60%) are illiterate and their capacity of counting, read, and using numbers are very low.
One of the objectives of the program is to empower them economically through practicing income-generating activities. Exercising these activities requires business skills and it is very hard to apply them without knowing how to read and count.
To respond to this challenge, the Women for women Rwanda program has included in its package for new women enrolled the training for 3 months of Numeracy literacy where women are trained in the following topics:
- Problems solving: Addition, subtraction, Multiplication, and Division. This training helped women to open their mind vis a vis to business management
- Calculator use: This helps women involved in business to count with minimum errors
- Key business terms: This helps participants to be familiar with terms used in business in their daily life
- Record keeping: This helps participants to be familiar with calculations in their small businesses, hence, knowing whether they are making a profit or loss
All these skills help the women open their minds and be prepared to acquire business skills that help them start small businesses and use the loans taken from VSLA to change their livelihood conditions. Numeracy /Literacy training is the 1st package given to women enrolled in the program.
One of the participants in Kayonza in VSLA and Literacy numeracy shared with us the importance of the training she is going through.
Ingabire Flora 28 years old, legally married, and a mother of 2, she lives in Kayonza District, Mukarange Sector, Kayonza Cell, and Kabungo village; she participates in Mukarange group 3. Flora didn’t have a chance to pursue her secondary school, she dropped out in senior 2.” Before Joining the Women for women program, I used to cultivate in other people's fields to make money and consume all I worked for, but now I know the benefits of saving for a better future.” Said, Flora.
As she said, after being enrolled in the WfW-Rwanda program, she started being trained in numeracy with negligence because she was not intended to gain something new. But after some time, they have been trained in how to use a calculator, and the importance of saving, she becomes a new learner and started to save in VSLA but deposing a small amount. Later, after being sensitized, she started increasing her savings. joined the WfW-Rwanda program in July 2022.
“With my savings in our VSLA group, I will request the loan in the middle of November 2022 for starting a chicken firming. After sharing out I hope to reach the amount that will help to buy my land, and I hope my goal will be achieved”. She added