Banking on the Future: A One Great Hour of Sharing Story from Ghana

by Jethro Pettit

"Saving for a rainy day" is not exactly a family tradition for Damata Hamidu, mother of two in a rural village in Samwo, Northern Ghana. That's because Damata and her neighbors are more concerned about how to feed their families if it doesn't rain. Drought comes often, destroying the annual harvest and withering people's hopes of storing any grain for the coming year.

For this reason, saving for a sunny day is a tradition for Damata and families like hers throughout West Africa's dry savannah region. If the harvest is good, Damata's family will keep enough sorghum or millet to last two years. She will fatten some goats and chickens and if she's lucky, perhaps a cow. Animals are like walking "savings accounts" that yield protein or cash in a time of need.

The problem is that drought has become more frequent. Once the grain is used up and the animals are eaten or sold, there is no safety net. Some families may be forced to eat their seeds, sell their tools or even worse, give up their land. Many will cut down trees to make charcoal for sale in the market. But harvesting trees increases the risk of drought, fueling a cycle of poverty and environmental degradation. Credit is available from local moneylenders, but they demand interest rates of 100 percent or more.

But Damata and her neighbors are feeling more optimistic about their future. With help from World Neighbors, an UMCOR partner, they formed a self-help group that serves as a credit union, making small loans at reasonable interest rates.

"Four years ago we were powerless, we didn't know how to organize ourselves, or to lead ourselves. We were weak," Damata told me. "Then we asked Mr. Amuah (World Neighbors country director for Ghana) to help us. Mr Amuah said ‘if you want our help, you have to help yourselves first.'" So Damata and her neighbors formed a group.

"When we started we were less than 15 women," Damata explained. "We all contributed 2,500 cidi (about $2.00) as registration. Some others saw it was good and joined in. New people came, until we got to 20, then 30. Then World Neighbors gave 10,000 (cidi) for each member. Then more people came in and paid the registration fee." The group has now divided into "clusters" of about five women.

Interest rates are set by the groups, in this case at 20 percent. The loans are used by each member as they wish. Some purchase goats, others buy seeds to grow peanuts for sale, while others collect and process oil from shea nuts to sell as a cosmetic ingredient. Damata is a small trader. "I buy things and sell them on a table in the market. I'm working hard to repay my current loan, so I can get a larger loan to expand my business."

Damata's group is only one of hundreds of self-help groups that have sprung into action in northern Ghana with support from World Neighbors and UMCOR. The help comes in the form of training, organizing and small deposits to match members' own savings. With just a little training and the smallest addition to her group's savings account, Damata and her neighbors and hundreds of women like them make it through hard times.

Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing support UMCOR Advance projects like World Neighbors. Your offerings, big and small, help women like Damata bring stability and hope to their families and villages.

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Jethro Pettit is the Director of International Programs for World Neighbors.

Photos: (top) Damata Hamidu is feeling more optimistic about the future. Credit: Jethro Pettit, World Neighbors; (bottom) Because drought comes often, harvested grain like this is kept so that it will last two years. Credit: Wendy Whiteside, UMCOR

About the One Great Hour of Sharing and UMCOR

One Great Hour of Sharing (OGHS) is observed by United Methodists on the fourth Sunday in Lent but you can give all year around. The OGHS offering supports ongoing work of the United Methodist Committee on Relief. Your gifts to One Great Hour of Sharing allow UMCOR to work efficiently and effectively in disaster response, hunger and poverty ministries, and refugee ministries around the world. UMCOR does not receive support from World Service. Give generously in thanks for all that God has given you.

Choose one of the following four ways to order your free One Great Hour of Sharing resources:

1. Complete and mail the order form that was sent to pastors in September/October (Send to Customer Service Team, United Methodist Communications, P.O. Box 320, Nashville, TN 37202-9907.)
2. Fax order to 1-615-742-5499.
3. Call toll free 1-888-346-3862.
4. Go online at Resources for OHGS 2006