There are now 3,000 Women’s Self Help Groups (WSHGs) in the villages that SCAD works in involving over 50,000 women. These groups are the main agents of change in the villages and we help fund the comprehensive training and support that SCAD provides to the groups.

Each group has up to twenty members who agree to save on a regular monthly basis.This money is banked and after a satisfactory probationery period of up to a year, the group can qualify for bank loans. The money that accumulates is the first time that the women have had access to capital at a reasonable rate of interest and it has proved highly beneficial to them and their families.The group decides on which member should get a loan, for how much and for what purpose and takes responsibility for the repayment of any bank loan. Typically loans are made for income generating purposes such as goat rearing or starting a small business.

The SCAD training and support includes ongoing encouragement and empowerment of women group members to improve conditions in the village. One of the outcomes of this has been that scores of women have been elected to their local governing authority and some of them have been made President. SCAD organised groups are among the best performing in the whole State and several have received performance awards from the State Governemt.