A person can either discipline their finances or their finances disciplines them...

“A person can either discipline their finances or their finances disciplines them.” -Orrin Woodward

Last month, we facilitated Financial Education Workshops with women in the Mtaya area, chosen for being one of the zones that is part of NetGirls Zambia. Over the course of 5 days, workshops were held in 6 different villages. In total, 347 women participated, many of them NetGirls players from both the junior and varsity leagues. This was all made possible through funding from Deloitte Zambia! The workshops were broken down into five relevant modules – money management, budgeting, saving, investment, and entrepreneurship. The content was prepared by the projects team using various resources and tailoring all messaging to the local context.

Mwangala, one of the participants from Chavuka village, had this to say about the financial education workshop: “I have learned about managing money, budgeting, saving and investment. I have liked this project because it will give women and girls something to do and challenge us to learn more about how we can manage our money better. Secondly, our community has less activities for women which has contributed to women engaging in … risky behavior. The financial education and income generation project will give us an opportunity to engage more women and girls in income generating activities.”

The sessions were very engaging and included introspection, sharing and brainstorming in groups and several practical activities. This was an inclusive space where the women could share their personal experiences of managing finances and learn from each other.

On entrepreneurship and investment, another participant, Monica, had the following to say: “I have enjoyed all the topics that have been shared today. I especially enjoyed the modules on entrepreneurship and investment because they have made me realize that I do not need to have a lot of money get started with certain types of business - like selling scones, freeze-its, and sweets. I have also learnt that before investing, I need to know more about the business from people who have or are into the type of business that I want to invest in.”

All participants were challenged to put what they learned from the modules and from their interactions with the other participants into practice. Over the coming months, we plan to make the financial education workshops available to a total of 1,500 women and girls in our NetGirls zones. Everyone who participated was also given the opportunity to submit a group proposal for an income generation project that is the second phase of this project. We’re excited to share more on this in a few weeks!

- Busiwa and Elida