Axella, 23
Softly spoken Axella lives with her husband Leopold, their two-year-old daughter, Arlene, and her younger brother in Mahama Refugee Camp, Rwanda. She is one of the women to have benefited from a UNCDF’s programme that promotes financial inclusion among refugees and host communities.
Axella’s health deteriorated without the money to pay for nutritious food, so she finished school early to work and care for her brother. And later met Leopold in Mahama camp who became her husband. They now live and work together and have a two-year-old daughter.
In 2019, UNCDF and its partners introduced REFAD in Mahama refugee Camp and Axella and her husband were among the refugees who have been involved since the beginning.
Their business selling bananas and tomatoes was struggling, so Axella received training on financial literacy and business management. They received their first loan in 2021 and immediately started to see the change. Within six months, they’d already paid it back with interest. So they took out a second, bigger loan, and their already thriving business continued to grow. They now have a shop from which they sell all kinds of everyday goods, mostly cosmetics, that are delivered to the camp for her to sell. Axella’s husband likes to help her in the shop, particularly at the moment, because she’s pregnant!
The effects of COVID-19 and the return of many refugees to Burundi in 2020 put their businesses at risk of a significant loss. But with the skills learned and the security of the savings group, to which they now contribute RWF 1000 (US$ 1) each day, Axella has managed to grow her business. Now, instead of worrying about the basics, she’s confident she will thrive and plan with optimism for her family’s future.
I left Burundi at the age of 15 with my younger brother. We were alone and lived in misery for some time. When we arrived in Rwanda, they welcomed us and helped us as much as possible. This year is my seventh as a refugee. I live with my husband and two-year-old daughter. My younger brother, who is now 20 years old, stays with us too. Life is still difficult, but my husband and I work together to take care of our family while still supporting my brother to meet his basic needs.
We first thought of working with a bank at the end of 2020 because we could see that we were definitely wasting money. We took the first loan in 2021 and since then we have started to see the change. We applied for a loan, and they accepted our request. We started to add more items in our camp-based cosmetics shop. We worked hard to pay the loan back 100% with the interest. Clients were coming in and we found that our business was thriving. So, we wondered what would happen if we went back to take another loan. We then took a new loan of RWF 700,000 (US$ 700) that we are using and we are still paying for it.
Let's just say I was not working… I would not have food, the child would not get soap, she would not have basics to go to school… What a miserable life! But now, I am at work and I'm doing my best to get those things done.
Being in business also helps boosting my confidence as a woman. When a woman stays idle the whole day, sometimes her husband disrespects her… but when he sees that you are doing something benefiting the family, he respects you because you are playing a role in the development of your family.
My goal is to increase investment more than what I started with. I feel like I in my future I can see a house that is bigger. That is my idea ¬– to buy a house and then I can do business from there.
Axella, 23
Faustine, 36
You’ll usually find Faustine at the one-room workshop she and her husband built, with some of the women she’s teaching to sew. At lunch, she’ll head home to eat or one of her children will bring her something they’ve made. She has five children with her husband, a bricklayer, who sometimes struggles to find work.
Faustine joined the programme in 2021. After being trained in business, saving and investing, she decided to join the bank’s loan scheme to expand her tailoring business. Despite some challenges, including the impacts of COVID 19 on her business, the profits have increased and she now has three sewing machines. She’s formed a support group with other women in the project and is planning to set up a tailoring school with them. Faustine is hopeful that the time will come when she no longer has to be a refugee.
I cannot say that life here in Mahama is either good or bad. As you know, refugee life is difficult. Of course, no one would be as happy to live in a refugee camp as they would be at home.” But when you have something that is generating income there is a difference. As a tailor, I feel well – whatever else comes later. I have tried to face poverty and its impacts because I was fortunate enough to be a refugee who has a vocational education.
In the beginning, I had one sewing machine and a place to establish my workshop. The machine had a value of RWF 65,000 (US$ 65). I had about 10 kitenge cloth pieces valued at RWF 100,000 (US$ 100). Since I was using that capital from which I also had to support family, it was not easy. One day, agents of Umutanguha Finance Company (UFC) came to the camp to educate us about financial services. They taught us how to use financial loans to do business.
UFC first conducted campaigns in the camp, they educated us on how to use credit and after that, they taught me personally how I can improve my workshop. So, I was offered a loan that I paid in six months. I was able to use it effectively and it has uplifted me. They gave me a loan of Rwf 350,000 (US$ 350). I used to have one sewing machine, but now I've been able to add two sewing machines and I use them to train girls and women here in the camp.
I remember I started working with this bank last year, but now I have moved from owning one sewing machine to three. Now things have changed a lot. When I got the loan, I started to do a lot and purchased more textiles to make clothes for my clients.
This job is very helpful to me; in addition to the refugee living allowance – in a family with little children, that allowance is insufficient. So, you can see that this profession helps me to be able to take care of the children and the whole family.
My husband supports us because he is a mason. Here in the camp, there are rarely construction jobs but sometimes he gets a job outside, and we work together to provide for our family.
My business is helping the refugee community, because customers come and tell me their child is naked and has no clothes. Then we agree that once the money is available, they will come and pay me. They can even have a financial problem and ask me to lend them some money. When I have some, I lend it.
After being able to buy two more sewing machines I started teaching people sewing. The idea of teaching them came when I realised that there were many women sitting at home doing nothing. When you see the problems your peers face, you find how you can help. So, I started to teach them sewing and up to now I have taught seven people – among them are women and girls. Those I teach pay RWF5,000 (US$ 5) per month.
THE PROJECT
Through its Inclusive Digital Economy (IDE) strategy, the United Nations Capital Development Fund (UNCDF) in Rwanda, supported by Comic Relief and Jersey Overseas, work to deliver basic financial services and provide financial and digital education to displaced people in refugee camps in Rwanda with a focus on empowering women and young people through Rwanda - Expanding Financial Access & Digital and Financial Literacy for Refugees (REFAD) programme.
UNCDF introduced refugees to standardised practices for saving groups in humanitarian contexts and empowers them to use digital saving platforms to improve their financial management activities. Through four implementing partners, they also provide business and entrepreneurship training to refugees.
The aim of this programme is to increase access to and usage of safe, affordable and convenient financial services by refugees in these camps. By increasing refugees' digital and financial literacy, the project aims to increase confidence in using digital financial services and ultimately works towards reducing poverty, supporting local economic development and increasing financial inclusion.
Emmanuel, 38, manages the REFAD project at Umutanguha Finance Company (UFC), one of UNCDF’s implementing partners. He is also in charge of coordinating activities of UFC in Mahama refugee camp and Kirehe district.
First of all, because refugees have little or no means, some lack the basic skills in creating and managing financial resources. So, we start by offering them a financial literacy training. This training is available to all of our clients in refugee and host communities.
After training them, we show them the different banking services that are customised for their needs and make them feel there is a way to save, invest, and run a business that would lift them out of poverty. The bigger banks are reluctant to allow them to open accounts due to the lack of identification papers, so we have helped them to open accounts with only refugee registration proof.
We also introduce them to the different loan products that are tailored to their means. They are our customers and as a development focused financial institution, we do not want our client to be poor. We teach them about loan access and its management and when someone needs a loan, we approach them and help them to learn the basics, give them a small loan related to their capacity and even monitor them, from the beginning to the end of the loan to see if the loan is well used and repaid.
We started a free digital banking (push and pull mobile banking) system to help our clients connect their mobile phones with their bank accounts, enabling them to use their mobile phones to save, withdraw, and transfer money without leaving their businesses or homes.
Thanks to the REFAD programme, we have solved a lot of problems in this camp. Refugees have always had problems with the law enforcement in the camp due to stolen money and cases of destroyed banknotes due to lack of bank saving facilities – in addition to a lot of cash mismanagement. Such problems have declined thanks to our financial education and services among these refugee communities.
Pictures by Serrah Galos