Building Community Resilience Through Grass Roots Building Our Wealth (GROW) Groups

GROW is a flagship of the Child Aid program. This is an innovative and cost-effective economic empowerment model that helps women and men to build their social and economic capital.

GROW aims at increasing opportunities for women to access financial resources through the GROW group loans through harnessing capital from respective members of the groups.In 2019, Child Aid worked with various government departments and initiatives such as Poverty Eradication Department to support women’s economic strengthening groups. Various organizations also contributed to the success of this community approach. For instance, the Orange Foundation Digital Skill Training Centre in Child Aid Ghanzi provided training in ICT in order to enhance skills of women to access information on how to grow their income generating activities (IGAs). Beneficiaries received lessons on business planning to ensure that they run their group IGAs efficiently.

A number of income generating activities were generated by the GROW groups such as establishing poultry production with the support of broiler chickens from Ross Chicken Breeders. The project also mobilized disadvantaged and vulnerable local women to be part of the savings and lending groups in the community. Through Child Aid Ghanzi a total of 95 women participated in the GROW groups to address their families’ financial challenges.