LAST week, as Africa Day commemorations unfolded across the continent, a different kind of celebration took place in Hopely, Zimbabwe.
While others were hosting events and issuing statements, Martha Mhembere, vice-chairperson of the Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe Harare Chapter, gathered a group of women for a simple bring-and-share get together. Over tea and conversation, they discussed the challenges they face, massaged away each other’s tensions and mapped concrete pathways towards financial independence. What emerged from that small gathering was a powerful reminder that women’s liberation is not always won in grand gestures; it is built in quiet rooms where women decide to take charge of their futures.
At the heart of that gathering was a conversation about mukando, the Shona word meaning “to pool” or “to throw in,” a community based savings arrangement where members contribute money regularly and take turns receiving the pooled funds or borrowing from collective savings. This is not a new invention. mukando is a long-standing tradition in Zimbabwe, existing in communities long before independence in 1980. In the years following Zimbabwe’s economic crises of the 2000s, these informal savings clubs became even more significant as women sought to safeguard their earnings and sustain their livelihoods amid prolonged uncertainty. Today, mukando remains a thriving financial lifeline for women, informal traders and organised group investments across both urban and rural areas, helping them to purchase everything from groceries and household appliances to furniture, things that once seemed impossible.
What Mhembere and the women of Hopely are doing mirrors a quiet revolution happening across Africa and beyond. Village savings and loan associations (VSLAs), known by many names, from mukando in Zimbabwe to VICOBA in Tanzania, are among the most effective tools for women’s economic empowerment in low-income communities. The evidence is striking: a CARE study found that for every US dollar invested in VSLAs, the return is nearly US$19 in economic and social benefits. Across 67 countries, more than 30 million savings group members have amassed over eleven billion US dollars in cumulative savings. In Zimbabwe alone, women participating in internal savings and lending schemes have used their pooled resources to expand businesses, increase customer bases and even employ others, often starting with average monthly savings of less than US$50 before turning those small sums into sustainable enterprises. These figures are not abstract statistics. They represent school fees paid, hospital bills settled, livestock purchased and households lifted out of the precarious cycle of hand-to- mouth survival.
Yet, the benefits of these women only savings gatherings go far beyond the balance sheet. Research has shown that participation in village savings and loan groups is inversely correlated with depression symptoms among low income women. These groups not only increase financial resources; they build trust, facilitate help-seeking behaviours and promote social capital, all of which contribute to improved mental health. In other words, when women gather around a wooden box to count their weekly contributions, they are also building a safety net for their spirits. They are taking a break from the invisible, unpaid care work that has historically fallen on their shoulders, the cooking, cleaning, child-rearing and elder care that rarely appears in economic reports but quietly sustains entire communities. In that space, women find not only financial literacy but also therapy, belonging, and a momentary reprieve from the weight of their daily responsibilities. As Mhembere explained in an interview, the meeting benefited the women in terms of understanding financial independence and she said they will not stop supporting and empowering each other until they succeed in achieving their individual goals.
The Women’s Coalition of Zimbabwe, through its network of dedicated members, coordinates collective action for women and girls via lobbying, advocacy, capacity building, information dissemination, resource mobilisation and strategic partnerships. Their mission is steadily becoming a reality, one small savings group at a time. What the women of Hopely are doing — learning massage techniques, planning to make detergents and baked goods, saving together through mukando is a blueprint for sustainable empowerment that women everywhere would do well to copy and practise often.
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In the past weeks, I have written about the structural mistreatment of women and the many ways the world remains fundamentally unfair to them. Those critiques remain valid. The patriarchal architecture that locks women out of formal banking, denies them collateral and stable incomes, and burdens them with unpaid labour has not crumbled. But this week, I chose to recognise something else. I chose to recognise the women who are breaking out of their comfort zones despite these obstacles. Women like Martha Mhembere and her sisters in Hopely are not waiting for permission. They are pooling their coins, sharing their burdens and building a future on their own terms. When women come together, truly come together, they do not just build savings. They build nations. They are great people. And as they rise, they ensure no one is left behind. That is the power of women’s collective minds and it is a hope worth celebrating.