Benin Savings Groups Help Build Livelihoods
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
Every Friday, Aissatou Zakari welcomes fellow Savings and Internal Lending Community, or SILC, members to her home in Gando village in northern Benin’s Bembèrèkè commune. The women spend most of the morning and early afternoon under the hot sun sorting, grinding, boiling, stirring, straining and cooking soybeans into fresh wedges of soy cheese. This popular and nutritious local specialty is high in protein and is used as a substitute for more expensive meat and fish.
Aissatou, who has been making soy cheese for the past seven years, says she used to struggle to make a significant profit. She only had enough capital to produce on a very small scale.
SILC member Aissatou Zakari displays her finished soy cheese outside her home in Gando village in northern Benin.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
So when a field agent from Catholic Relief Services’ McGovern-Dole Food for Education and Child Nutrition program, known locally as Keun Faaba, came to her village, she was interested.
Implemented by CRS and its partner Caritas Benin, with funding from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, Keun Faaba helps community members create and manage Savings and Internal Lending Communities, or SILC groups. SILC groups provide members with safe and efficient ways to save money and borrow small loans. This is important, as many people in this area of Benin have difficulty accessing traditional financial institutions.
“I decided to join SILC because you can take out loans and also earn interest on your savings,” Aissatou says. “It motivates you to generate more business. And the group brings joy.”
She trained some of her fellow SILC members to make soy cheese, and now, in addition to making it on her own, the group pools its resources to buy soybeans in bulk. They also work together to produce more cheese. By sharing costs and combining production, their profit is higher from selling what they produce at their homes and the local market.
Members of the Nonkannera SILC group strain liquid from a soy cheese mixture. Nonkannera translates as “strength in unity.”
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
Aissatou says business has been booming. On most Friday afternoons, neighbors are lined up to buy some of that day’s fresh, warm soy cheese before it’s finished cooking.
“People love it,” says Aissatou, who makes cheese on her own throughout the week. “I often run out quickly. Everyone knows to come to me for soy cheese.”
Aissatou and the other SILC group members put extra earnings into their SILC groups savings and loan funds. Currently, they’re saving up to buy a grinding machine so that they don’t have to pay to use one. They are also working to find better acess to water, which they need in large amounts for production. The women must walk to a nearby well and fill giant basins with it, which they then carry back home.
Dried soybeans will be used to make soy cheese, a high-protein meat substitute in Benin.
Photo by Jennifer Lazuta/CRS
Even with these challenges, Aissatou says she is grateful.
“I am so proud of myself and my life right now,” Aissatou says. “I am taking care of my family thanks to this soy business. I can pay my children’s school fees and meet our needs. My advice to others who are struggling to earn money is to think about what you can do and then join a SILC group to start your activity. Then you will find success.”
The McGovern-Dole International Food for Education and Child Nutrition program (MGD21 - also named KEUN FAABA III - in local language) is a five-year (2021-2026), multi-sectoral project funded by the United States Department of Agriculture and implemented by Catholic Relief Services in Benin. In partnership with the American Institutes for Research, Caritas Benin, and the Organization for Sustainable Development, Reinforcement and Self-promotion of community structures, and alongside a cohort of national ministries, Keun Faaba III aims to provide daily meals to schoolchildren, improve student literacy via strengthened teacher capacity, promote good sanitation practices, and ensure the quality of locally sourced school lunch ingredients. The project works with more than 110,000 children, teachers, and parents in 168 schools across four municipalities. To help increase economic activities and help families afford school enrollment fees, parents are encouraged to take part in Savings and Internal Lending Community groups.
