It started with light. A small solar grant meant the women could work after dark, which meant they could work at all once the day’s chores were done. Nobody had planned what came next.
With the extra hours, a few of them began making soap to sell. The soap sold. The profit went into a shared box, and the box became a savings group, lending small sums for school fees and stock.
None of this was in the original grant. It was compound interest of the human kind: one small enabling thing making room for the next, each step chosen by the women as it arrived.
First we had light. Then we had time. Then we had a little money. Now we have a plan.
Cooperative member
The lesson we keep relearning is modest: give a woman one solid rung, and she will often build the rest of the ladder herself.
