RUYIGI March 14th (ABP) – Women in Ruyigi province (eastern Burundi) are reaching a very important stage in their family’s development participation. That statement was made by the provincial coordinator of the Family and Community Development Center (CDFC) in Ruyigi, Mr. Dominique Havyarimana, in an interview with the check by Burundi News Agency (ABP), the day after the celebration of the International Women’s Day.
He positively appreciates that many of Ruyigi’s women are currently members of savings and loan associations that help them reach a significant level of development.
According to Mr. Havyarimana, the CDFC Ruyigi has just made an assessment of the implementation of the government’s policy to empower women and promote their participation in the development of their families, via savings and loan associations commonly known as “VSLA”. He said that this assessment fits well with the theme of the World Day, saying that women are at the center of innovative social protection programs. He noted that to that fact, the CDFC Ruyigi made trips to the seven communes of the province to raise awareness to encourage women to meet in savings associations and to realize the step already taken by the associations previously set up.
The provincial coordinator of the CDFC Ruyigi expresses his satisfaction with the 72 associations that are already operational and the step they have already taken in their activities. Indeed, he says, these associations are already present in all communes, and women flock to them, even if there are some indecisive women who have not yet understood the foundation of those associations and do not take their decisions. He said that of the 72 associations, 48 have already shared the return from their savings equivalent to 103,527,606 BIF.
That information was confirmed by the members of those associations that the check by ABP contacted in all communes. Those women also report that these savings helped them complete some family projects that they saw as dreams and hard to reach. Some of them claim that they were able to equip their homes with solar power, others say that they have already started modern livestock after buying either cows, goats or sheep. Still others who wanted to trade could combine their capital and start doing business. Those women indicate that their participation in those associations facilitates the purchase of chemical inputs for the fertilization of their soils. Indeed, those chemical fertilizers are directly routed to the addresses of those associations, since they have a physical address of their association.
The husbands of the interviewed women are unanimous in saying that the participation of their wives in those associations is an added value to the development of their families and that it is better to let them participate in those associations than to keep them at home for housework.
The coordinator of the CDFC Ruyigi deplores however that some women of Ruyigi remain indecisive and do not adhere to the said associations. He calls on all women in Ruyigi province to flock to those VSLA associations so as not to stay behind in development. He also said that the sensitization continues so that the number of those associations should be at least doubled by next year, the same date.