Susan and Betty are both members of the St. Monica Village Savings and
Loans Association (VSLA) group in Bugoye Sub County, Kasese district. Like many other
people, emergency health needs have made them accumulate debts that they did
not have a clear payment plan for. Before starting to save for health, Betty
said that she had to borrow UGX 100,000 (24€) for a health
emergency in July and put her saloon as collateral security. Luckily enough, I
was able to have it cleared timely within a month with an amount of UGX 113,000
(27€). Experiences like high interest of over 10% per month, risk of losing
collateral assets, and the tedious processes of acquiring the loans gave them the
inspiration to start saving for health on 20th October 2023 after a
financial and saving for health training for their VSLA by the Enabel-trained
Ambassador, Tinka Tadeo in September 2023.
Susan said
that she loves her life and therefore wants to ensure that she is prepared for
any health emergencies through her health savings. “The group
ensures that members who are already saving for health get interest-free loans
whenever they want to seek medication; that to me is security for me and my
family in case I find myself in a situation that requires me to access
medication or pay for a medical bill”, said Susan.
Betty on
the other said that she has high blood pressure and diabetes, conditions that sometimes
require her to have frequent visits to the health facility for checkups and
medication. As a result, she does not want this to find her without enough
money to meet the costs that come along with the medical visits. “If it wasn’t
for our group’s saving for health pool, timely meeting these costs would have
been a challenge, and I would worry so much about the high interest rates every
time I borrow money. My group savings are now available to rescue me from that
and I can easily access them through the chairperson and secretary”, said
Betty. In the previous month, November 2023, she borrowed UGX 20,000 (5€) to buy medicine from a clinic because she could not find it at Bugoye
Health Centre III, the closest government health facility.
The
training by the ambassador on modules such as; personal financial management,
budgeting, investment, planning for old age, debt management, savings
management, and saving for health inspired them to embrace the idea of saving
for health in their group. Betty who gets her income through the sale of farm
produce ensures that she sets aside part of her profits for the weekly VSLA
general savings as well as, saving for health. She saves between UGX 1,000 -
2,000 (0.2€ - 0.5€) weekly for
health and has a cumulative total of UGX 28,000 (7€).
Meanwhile, Susan runs a mini saloon in Bugoye trading center which gives her an
average monthly income of UGX 120,000 (29€). It is through this venture that
she gets money for her weekly savings at their group. She saves UGX 2,000 (0.5€) weekly for health
and plans to increase her savings premium to 5,000 (1.2€) in 2024 to have
enough savings for her two children and niece.
They have both
continued to share the savings for health knowledge among their circle of
friends to encourage them to embrace the idea. “I have friends who have had
their own experiences with unplanned medical expenses, and when I told them
about saving for health, about 3 of them have already been positive and shown
interest in joining. In our next saving cycle, I am sure the number of people
saving for health will increase because members are getting to see the benefits
for themselves”, said Betty.
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