In 1994, community members of Nyakabungo came together to form a Village Savings and Loans Association (VSLA) with the sole aim of supporting their children in school. Group members would collect money for one parent at a time to support the education of his or her children. As families became more stable to solely support their children in school, the group transitioned to saving for burials. Members who lost a close relative would be supported to manage the financial burden during the funeral.

In 2023, the group now, Nyakabungo Bakyara Tukwatanize was among those that received financial education and savings for health training by Enabel trained ambassadors under the Decent Work and Social Protection Project. With a membership of 34 (31 female, and 3 male), the group was empowered with financial management and savings knowledge. After the training, 18 members (16 female, and 2 male) embraced the idea of saving for health. With a minimum of UGX1,000 to a maximum of UGX 5,000 (0.2€ - 0.5€) per member per week, the group saved UGX 93,000 (22€) for health between October and early December 2023.

The chairperson, Emily Kyenserikora said that many mothers in the community, including herself have had challenges such as delays in accessing health services and the inability to meet urgent medical bills. “I have used my past challenging moments to motivate myself and encourage others to save for health”, added the chairperson of the group.

Another group member said that she has a kidney disease, which requires her to have frequent medical checks at a health facility, her inspiration to save is the fact that when it is time for these medical visits, she will have her savings ready to meet the costs; transport and buying medicine.

Her story is quite similar to that of another group member, Gloria, who has diabetes which requires regular medical attention. Gloria said that borrowing money from friends and neighbors has been a challenge because they either do not have it or require something valuable as collateral. Her health savings are now a safe space to run to when she needs to access medical services.

As part of their future saving for health plans, Emily Kyenserikora said that the Nyakabungo Bakyara Tukwatanize Village Savings and Loans Association members intend to do community mobilization and awareness raising on saving for health so that other community members can become part of their VSLA health savings and benefits. They also plan to encourage actively saving members to increase their weekly premiums so that they can have enough money at their disposal to meet all loan requests at any given time, throughout the year.