Throughout the pandemic, the value and impact of our development work has been clear.
The entire region, including our local team, has been affected by Covid. Schools were closed for over a year and lockdowns have resulted in poverty rates doubling. A staggering 24.5 million more people were plunged into poverty.
Our team of local staff has responded incredibly well. They were fast to respond in distributing information through our group networks on how to reduce transmission of the virus through good hygiene and social distancing (although in a country with such a dense population, this is challenging).
Salam, one of our local team leaders explains, “The people in the wider community who are not connected with our organisation do not have the same awareness as our group members.”
Our local team spent significant time with the 20,000 group members to encourage them to continue saving or access savings as needed. Salam tells us, “We work with very poor people. But they have savings to help them through this time.” These savings are either invested in income generation projects or ready to be accessed for emergencies. Prior to being part of a group, members would work for their food each day with no safety net.
The 75 community based organisations (CBOs) that have grown out of our work provided leadership within their communities.
By offering additional capital to the CBOs, we were able to bolster their ability to support their most vulnerable members, while they continued to help members access government support, manage their income businesses and address social issues that come from hard times.
As a team we all learned how to communicate via technology which means my Australian based colleagues and I have been able to walk alongside the local NGO staff, even when we couldn’t be there in person.
Never have we been more aware of the importance of the work in the lives of the region’s poorest and most vulnerable people. It is a delight that our dedicated staff are helping to grow their resilience in the face of these challenges and even flourish.