Financial Literacy
Background
Sudan is recovering from a civil war which lasted for more than 20 years. This war resulted in 2 million deaths, devastated civil society structures, exacerbated gender inequality, and plunged millions of people into abject poverty. In 2005 a peace deal was signed. However, 1 in 4 children will die before the age of five, only 2% of children will complete primary school and 90% of people live below the absolute poverty line of $1 per day.
Working with the Mothers' Union
In August 2010, Five Talents started working in Sudan in partnership with the Mothers' Union UK and the Mothers' Union Sudan. The Mothers' Union in conjunction with Five Talents and World Concern has been awarded a Comic Relief grant towards a literacy and financial education programme in Sudan over the next 5 years; 2010 – 2015.
In Sudan, Five Talents is working to alleviate poverty and address gender inequality by building the capacity of women in the following areas:
- budgeting, saving and borrowing - resulting in improved skills for good resource management;
- the opportunity to establish community owned and managed saving and lending organisations; and
- basic business skills training - to improve the performance of income generating activities.
The programme builds on the successes of the Five Talents savings group model developed in Wau and combines this with the Mothers' Union literacy training which has been conducted in Juba, Renk and Khartoum. The Mothers' Union Literacy and Development Programme will equip participants with basic literacy and numeracy skills. Five Talents will come alongside the Mothers' Union to provide training in business skills and savings and credit group formation to the newly accredited learners. Five Talents will provide trainers and develop the financial and business training curriculum. We will also be assisting with mentoring, monitoring and reporting. Eventually, two additional regions will be added to the programme.
During late August and early September 2010, 18 Mothers' Union trainers from 6 dioceses in Southern Sudan – Juba, Renk, Khartoum, Wau, Lainya and Malakal - gathered in Juba to receive business skills training and Savings and Loan Association training from Five Talents. The training that these 18 women received will now be cascaded down through the Mothers' Union network.
Over the next 5 years, the programme will result in roughly 1,000 communities forming savings and credit groups and 30,000 people (70% of whom will be women) given basic literacy and numeracy skills.
Invitation
Please consider supporting this programme. This is crucial work that is reaching some of the poorest people in the world. The total budget for Five Talents over five years is £135,000. Five Talents UK is aiming to raise £35,000 in 2010/2011.