The Adventist Development and Relief Agency (ADRA), through its Soul Cocoa Livelihood Project (SCLP), has successfully completed a three-day refresher training for women’s savings groups in Guadalcanal Province.
The training sessions were held at Ghombua on March 23, Geza on March 25, and Govu on March 26 in Northeast and East Central Guadalcanal.
Mac Joe Luvu, a private consultant hired by SCLP, facilitated the loan refresher training.
The primary objective of the refresher training was to assess and reaffirm the savings groups’ rules and guidelines regarding their savings and loan activities which SCLP had initiated for women in the communities that ADRA SCLP is working closely with in the cocoa livelihood project.
A total of 36 women from Ghombua, 26 from Geza, and seven from Govu attended and participated in the training sessions, which were conducted in their respective villages.
The refresher training was fully funded by ADRA Australia through the Soul Cocoa Livelihood Project.
Reidly Harold, project officer for the Soul Cocoa Livelihood Project (SCLP) said the refresher training was successful.
“This training was essential in reaffirming the rules and guidelines. Some of these were not being strictly followed by certain groups, so the women’s groups were very happy to have this refresher training.
“The training covered savings techniques, loan rules, loan commitments, timelines, the sustainability of savings, savings rules, updated savings memberships, and the latest updates on savings cash at hand.”
Meanwhile, Jerolyn Jim, a member of the Saving Group from Ghombua, thanked the ADRA SC Team for the refresher training.
“Thank you, ADRA SCLP, for visiting us again after such a long time. We had not met for a while and had even breached some rules of the saving scheme.
“This refresher training will help us get back on track after being inactive for some time. It allows us to reunite as a group,” Ms Jim said.
Mabel Gogoni from the Geza Women Saving Group shared similar sentiments.
“We are happy that ADRA SCLP came back to help us revisit the saving loan scheme, as some of us had forgotten important aspects of it.
“It’s good that we reviewed the requirements of the savings loan scheme again and reminded ourselves of our responsibilities as members of the team,” she said.
Liean Patterson from Govu, the centre leader of her saving group, also expressed her gratitude to ADRA for the refresher training.
“To be honest, it has been a long time since we last gathered to discuss this scheme due to our various commitments.
“Most of us women live far apart, making it difficult to meet regularly. But thank you, ADRA, for organizing this refresher training and bringing us together to revive this saving loan scheme,” Ms Patterson said.
The initiative aims to help cooperative members develop a savings and loan culture so that profits from cooperative proceeds can be saved.
The collective funds can then be used to provide small loans, enabling individual members to improve their farming processes.
These loans will be repaid to the group, ensuring that other members also benefit in a continuous cycle.
