Women (in VSLAs) Respond

CARE’s Women Respond initiative is an unprecedented listening exercise, learning from women to help us better understand the unique situation COVID-19 presents, refine our programming and advocacy and elevate women’s voices and concerns to meet their challenges. Women Respond is listening to 12,959 people—8,252 of them women—to understand how they are leading during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Women (in VSLAs) Respond sub-initiative focuses on how women and girls in Village Savings & Loan Associations (VSLAs) in Burundi, Ethiopia, Mali, Niger, Nigeria and Uganda are responding, and is supported by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.

Well before COVID-19 arrived, women in these six countries were already coping with political be a positive force during any crisis. Savings group members have assumed leadership roles in their communities, taking it upon themselves to educate their neighbors about COVID-19, refocus finances to support vulnerable community members and continuing to save, as the importance of financial safety nets has never been more critical than during the pandemic.