Nearly all of the women of Sotokoi-Daru are unemployed. Most of them are illiterate. Some of them embark in small scale gardening in a village two and a half kilometres away due to uneasy access to water in the village. Others fetch firewood to sell while others wash clothes for people in towns. The money they get from activities is just hand to mouth. They need help to enable them to earn better living conditions.

Two years ago Friends of Take Care Nursery School, being aware of these womens unfortunate condition, gave an amount of money to be given to the women in the form of micro-loans without interest. In a meeting attended by more than 80 women I informed them about the good news and listened to their views. The meeting was dominated by loud applause, laughter and cheering. Speaking on behalf of the women, three of the participants expressed their delight and said that the gesture was timely.

In accordance with their wishes 3,060 Dalasi was given to three womens groups to be paid in six months time without interest. There are nine womens groups of 20-25 members each. So in a period of one year three months all the womens groups benefitted from the loans. The groups in turn gave out the money as loans to individual members to be paid at a particular time without interest. At the end of the six months every group had a good amount of money which they invested in soap making and tie-dye to generate more income.

As all the groups have benefitted I decided that the loan be given to individual people this time. The question then arised “who should be the first to benefit”? About seventy women attended on this day and only eighteen are to benefit at this time with 500 Dalasi each. So seventy pieces of paper were cut out. Eighteen of them bearing “Yes” in blue and the rest “No” in red. These papers were folded and put in a plastic bag to be picked. The women were told that those with “No” or in red will not receive a micro-loan and those with “Yes” or in blue would receive a micro-loan. It really was fun and laughter. The fortunate ones formed a queue to receive their loan while the rest left without. There was laughter, joy for others and jokes. The money will be paid back in three months and then another eighteen people will benefit in the same procedure.