A single, Haitian mother of three, Emma Jean saves just 25 cents a week. “I did not save before because I did not have much money, and I didn’t know that I had enough to save,” she says. Emma is saving to have money on hand in case of emergency. She operates a small business in which she purchases and delivers flour to a baker who bakes bread which she then sells. In her savings group, she has learned not only valuable lessons on money but also lessons on family and community. “There have been lessons about how to talk to children and words not to use in front of them. To correct them, you must be the example, and it is better to correct them when you are not in front of others so that they are not shamed,” she explains.
![Before Eveness Mulungu joined the Walusungu (“mercy”) savings group through our church partner in Malawi, she faced days where she and her family ate animal feed because they couldn’t afford human food. But that changed when she joined the savings group. Eveness used her first group loan of about $1.70 (U.S.) to start a business selling doughnuts and beans.
“By the end of my first cycle I made $140 (U.S.),” Eveness shared. “My life is no longer the same now; [I] was regarded as no one in the community. ... This was the first time in my life that I ever touched and owned big money like this!”
Pictured: Eveness, with her husband in front of their piggery—a third successful business that she operates.](https://blog.hopeinternational.org/wp-content/plugins/instagram-feed/img/placeholder.png)