Business & Community: Breakfast with Ed Perry from COOK

Business & Community: Breakfast with Ed Perry from COOK

This blog post was written by Megan Henderson, our Senior Communications & Events Officer.

Five Talents’ partners support entrepreneurs across the world every day. Recently, we had the opportunity to sit down and have breakfast (virtually!) with a UK-based entrepreneur, Ed Perry, the Co-Founder & CEO of nationally recognised COOK! Ed joined us to discuss his journey as a business owner and one thing is for sure: whether you’re creating homemade food in the UK or starting a tailoring business in eastern Africa, you’re sure to meet many of the same challenges. Just like Savings Group entrepreneurs the world over, Ed shows us that with passion, courage, a clear goal and a lot of hard work, business can support a community.

A Year on: Growing Confidence & Resilience

This blog post was written by May Mak, our Senior Trusts & Foundations Officer.

Group members meet in Tanga, Tanzania, one of the new regions where we work.

Every year, Five Talents participates in the Big Give Christmas Challenge: a match funding campaign that brings charities, philanthropists and the public together to raise funds for good causes. Last year, your generosity through our Big Give Christmas Appeal, raised over £80,000 to expand our work in Tanzania across sixteen dioceses in partnership with the Mothers’ Union Tanzania.

To date, the programme has started 251 Savings Groups, enabling 5,959 women and men to learn, earn, save and invest together to build stronger, more resilient futures by themselves and to the benefit of their children and wider communities. The funds raised through last year’s Big Give campaign will continue to support the programme through to the end of 2022, doubling the impact as our partners aim to start, train and mentor an additional 57 new Savings Groups (c.1,140 women and men). Mariam and Agatha are members of different Savings Groups in Tanzania, but both demonstrate the resilience and determination of those we work with to be agents of their own change.

Mariam is married with two children. “Before joining the programme, my business was too small and I was losing hope that I could make enough money to provide for my family. Thanks to God and my Savings Group, I borrowed money to expand my business. I was able to renovate my cafe and because of my profits, I could purchase health insurance for my children. This is a big relief because I know if they become unwell, they will be taken care of.”

“My name is Agatha and I am blessed with five children. I used to depend solely on my husband for my family’s financial needs. My life was not good. I wasn’t able to do anything. I tried to establish a business many times, but was never able to because of my lack of capital and business skills. When I joined my Savings Group, I was finally able to save. I learnt about business management and then I borrowed money from my group. I started a business selling ground nuts, seeds and spices - this changed my life. My life became happy, I can pay my children’s school fees, I am even able to help people in my village with their needs. Now that I am a business woman, I am taken more seriously in meetings and I can contribute to discussions and decision making. This has improved my self-worth.”

What strikes me most about Mariam and Agatha is their new found confidence, their self-belief and self-validation that they are able to make change by and for themselves and their children. This is the power of financial inclusion and education and the difference your support has and continues to make. Thank you. If you’d like to learn more about our 2021 Big Give Appeal for Burundi please click here.

Climate Change: Already the Next Crisis

Climate Change: Already the Next Crisis

This blog post was written by Megan Henderson, our Senior Communications & Events Officer.

Five Talents’ mission is not to address climate change or advocate for climate justice. But the Savings Group members our partners support are disproportionately affected by climate change. For Savings Groups, climate change isn’t the next crisis - it is a real challenge they are already facing every day. Currently in northern Kenya, two years of extended drought is causing hunger and conflict among communities. Our partners in Marsabit have reported food scarcity and seen an increased burden for women as primary caretakers of their families. At the same time, 22 of South Sudan’s 78 counties are experiencing flooding with 466,000 people affected. 

The UN Climate Change Conference (COP26) begins on the 31st October. The nearly two week conference is sure to raise complex questions around what we can do about climate change, but often the voices and perspectives missing from these conversations are from the communities who are already facing climate change’s adverse effects like drought, flooding and unreliable weather patterns. We sat down (virtually) with three expert panelists to hear them describe what problems climate change is presenting across Africa, and to ask them what are the solutions? 

Watch our virtual panel below featuring: Philip Macloud (Team Environment Kenya), Claire Nasike (Greenpeace Africa) and Jackie Opera (SciDev.Net) - and share it with others to continue the discussion on climate justice. Contact us if you have any further questions.

Make a Will month: Inheritance Tax

This blog post was written by Vaughan Pomeroy, a Five Talents supporter.

Members in Morogoro, Tanzania.

When I received a legacy after the death of my parents, I wanted to give some of it away to support a charity in their memory. This was much easier than I expected thanks to the generosity of the Inheritance Tax regime in the UK. 

As strange as it seems, Inheritance Tax rules can make a really generous gift even more attractive and give you a wonderful feeling of really making a difference in memory of a loved one. 

HOW IT WORKS
If you are able to give to charity at least 10% of the net value of the estate (that is, after deducting the tax-exempt elements), tax rules allow the rate of tax payable on the remaining net estate to be reduced by 10%. 

AN EXAMPLE
It sounds much more complicated than it seems, but here’s an example: If the net estate value was worth £100,000 and was to be taxed at 40%, then the beneficiaries of the estate would expect to receive £60,000. But, if the decision is made to give £10,000 to charity, the tax is immediately reduced by £4,000 because charitable donations are free of tax. 

With a gift of £10,000 the remaining £90,000 would only be taxed at 36% - leaving beneficiaries with £57,600. Amazingly, this means the beneficiaries have given £10,000 to charity in honour of their loved one, but it has only cost £2,400 to make the donation.

WHEN TO DECIDE
Not only can you decide to write into your own Will now that you would like 10% of your net estate to be given to a chosen charity, but as an inheritor you can choose to make a donation of 10% of the net estate you inherit after your loved one has passed on. And you don’t need to make this decision whilst dealing with the hectic and distressing period of grief - you can make use of this inheritance tax rule within two years of the date of death.

When sorting out my parents’ estate, and with my brother’s agreement of course, I could enjoy making a real difference by giving over four times what the gift actually cost me. It is an extraordinarily generous provision and not well understood. The joy of giving is certainly amplified when the tax man provides such support.

Enjoy the gift of giving!

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If you’d like to learn more about making a will or leaving a legacy for Five Talents please click here. Please note that this is not professional legal or tax advice, do speak with your own solicitor and accountant when making legacy gifts.

“But where are you really from?”

This blog post was written by May Mak, our Senior Trusts & Foundations Officer.

Book covers from Amanda Khozi Mukwashi and Afua Hirsch.

I am British-born Chinese: a BBC. I look Chinese, but speak with an English accent and it throws people. Curiosity about my origins has always been something I’ve had to deal with throughout my life. I know what people want me to say when they ask me, ‘where are you from?’, but I have never seen the importance of someone knowing that - least of all strangers on a bus or on the street - but not wanting to be rude, I’d always respond with the truth: ‘I’m from the UK.’ I immediately know that I’ve not answered the question with a response the interrogator wants to hear. Unsatisfied by my answer not fitting their criteria of acceptability, the dreaded question then follows: the question that suggests (usually unintentionally) that I do not belong; the question that really makes no difference to the context in which the conversation is being held; the question that is deeply personal: 

“But where are you really from?” 

Don’t get me wrong, I’m not ashamed of being Chinese, nor do I mind sharing where my parents/grandparents were born (because let’s face it, that’s what is really being asked here). I love finding out about people and their heritage. I am just as curious and interested about cultures and countries as most people are. However, what may appear to be a harmless question, underlyingly, even if unintentional, carries with it suspicion, prejudices and discrimination. My reading in recent years has confirmed to me that I am not alone in my thinking and experiences, and that these feelings I have towards this question matters. Books such as ‘Brit(ish)’ by Afua Hirsh and the aptly titled, ‘But where are you really from?’ by Amanda Khozi Mukwashi speaks into this questioning of identity and the ‘othering’ that takes place when that question is uttered. Some of their experiences of being black and living in Britain heartachingly echoed mine of being Chinese and British-born, while others made me realise the prejudices and privileges that exist around different ethnic minority groups. 

Diversity, inclusion and shifting power are key topics that Five Talents is continuing to understand and work towards. In spite of and because of my experiences, I am excited to see and be part of the change towards this work. I am unlearning and relearning what it means to be ‘anti-racist’, recognising my own privileges and understanding how to use this to walk with others who haven’t had the same opportunities and whose voices should be equally valued. I’d highly recommend both books mentioned above: Mukwashi’s book is a shorter read, but both are equally beautifully written, insightful and will take you on a rollercoaster of emotions. Perhaps one day, I will write my own memoire and title it: I am really from London.

Meet a Microfinance Member: Lucia in the Democratic Republic of Congo

This blog post was written by Megan Henderson, our Senior Communications & Events Officer.

Lucia in the Democratic Republic of Congo.

We’d like to introduce you to a Group member from Aru in the Democratic Republic of Congo, Lucia.

Lucia is a single-mother of five children. When she was young, her parents did not believe in educating girls. Unfortunately, this meant Lucia was not able to finish primary school. She didn’t have the opportunity to learn how to read or write and felt she was unable to develop her own talents. Despite this, Lucia hoped that one day she would become literate and numerate. At the start of 2020 she discovered her community’s Literacy Group and everything changed.

“After three months of joining the Literacy Group, COVID-19 happened. Even though the programme stopped for a short while, in three months, I had already learnt the alphabet, basic arithmetic and was reading a little. Before I had joined the Group, I received my confirmation certificate from church. I found it recently and discovered that I had taken my friend’s certificate because at that time, I couldn’t read my own name!

Before, I had difficulty in educating my children. I was struggling to pay school fees, which meant that my two older children had left school. If the children were hospitalised, I faced the same difficulties of paying fees. 

Now, because of the literacy programme, I am managing my business better and I know how to plan for my family and business. I also lead the hymns at church and I can teach Sunday School because I can read! 

I can stand in front of a crowd and have no fear, I am a Group Leader and I can be social.”

Literacy and Savings Groups support members with safe financial services and access to skills training they would have difficulty accessing otherwise. Although COVID-19 made meetings less frequent, it did not stop Lucia from learning, earning, saving and investing in a brighter future. Lucia’s determination has made her a leader in her Group and her community.