Spreading the wealth

With a little training, village women in Mali lead a community finance revolution, helping others start their own savings and loan groups.

Minata Coulibaly takes a straightforward approach to her business raising chickens in the village where she lives in Mali: "I sell the largest ones for the most money."

Coulibaly got the capital to start her business from her Saving for Change group. Since she joined the group, she has been impressed with the way it has helped women earn money and improve their lives. "If you need money, you can ask for a loan," she explains outside her mud-and-thatch home. "When you earn some income, you can buy clothes for your children, buy food, and solve a lot of problems."

Married, with a six year-old daughter, Coulibaly, age 30, launched her business with a $14 loan and four chickens. Now she has 23 chickens and has earned enough money to set up her newly wed goddaughter with a new bed and a well-equipped kitchen.

With her business flourishing, Coulibaly wanted to help other women. "I decided to create another group in this village so more would benefit," she says—as if starting a group is like filling a bucket of water at the well: when you see a need, you fill it. To date, she has helped form four new groups. Thanks to Oxfam and the efforts of women like Coulibaly, there are now more than 11,000 Saving for Change groups globally with 223,000 individual members. Participants—mostly women—have collectively saved more than $2.7 million.