Livelihoods Development

 

                                             

Click here for a slideshow and video of WORTH

 

Did you know that…

 

• The poorest people do not eat three meals a day
• Most people in the world are chronically in debt
• Most people live on $2 a day or less

 

Purpose:  To improve people’s economic well-being. 

We define livelihoods development as helping people to remove obstacles to earning a decent living.  Some of these obstacles include illiteracy, lack of access to credit, or savings.

When people have sufficient financial resources, they can send their children to school, access medical care, and improve their living conditions.  For SAWSO, livelihoods development is a key self-help strategy.

Description of SAWSO’s Livelihoods Development Programs

 

• Improving women’s Lives through literacy and savings opportunities
• Livelihoods program in Sri Lanka
• Livelihoods program in India

 

Key Achievements

 

• Helped people in tsunami-affected areas with one time business grants to get them back on their feet
• Reaching 20,000 women with savings-led microfinance through the WORTH program
• Thousands of women are on the waiting list to join the WORTH village banks
• Since joining WORTH, women in Uganda, Tanzania, and Kenya have started # businesses
• Women in the WORTH program are giving back to their communities, directly helping orphans, widows, disabled, and elderly with care and material support

 

Links

• Technical paper The Effect on Economic Strengthening for Female Caregivers on the Well-being of Orphans and Vulnerable Children [to be completed by September, 2008]

 

Partners

USAID - www.usaid.gov

Pact, Inc. - www.pactworld.org

Per Unit Costs

• $30 provides one woman with the opportunity to participate in the WORTH literacy-led, savings-based microenterprise program