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Swan Yi Newsletter 1
Women Leading the WaySwan Yi: Strengthening Abilities for Womens
Economic Empowerment
Swan Yi NewsletterJune 2013 | Issue 3
The Swan Yi project with funding from the Coca-Cola Foundation
aims to empower nearly 25,000 Myanmar women through village-based
banking and microenterprise development. Since the project began, a
total of 10,935 women from six townships are now participating in
WORTH groups. Almost all of them have started saving, making the
average rate of savings per woman 650 kyats ($0.65 USD) per week.
To date, the total amount of savings of all groups is $73,022
USD.
A total of 4,079 loans have been taken out, reaching a value of
$105,151 USD. The average loan amount is 23,000 kyats ($23 USD).
For most of the women it is their first WORTH loan and 70% of them
are using the loans for start-
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Swan Yi Newsletter 2
Loans Disbursed
ing microenterprises (small food or service shops) and
agriculture and farming activities. For the other 30% of the women,
they are using loans to address personal or family emergencies.
WORTH loans are an easily accessible financial service, which
enable women to fulfill their family needs, such as education,
health and living standards. While some women have had access to
outside credit pre-viously, it has been through money leaders which
charge high interest rates, making it extremely difficult to repay
loans, much less earn a profit. In contrast, WORTH loans offer an
interest rate on average nearly seven times less than these money
lenders, allowing women to be able to save more money, use more on
their daily family expense, or invest more back into their
businesses.
Achievements to date: 10,935 women participating in 503 WORTH
groups 9,118 women saving weekly and established their
WORTH groups village banking system 4,079 loans taken out for
microenterprise development
or for emergency purposes 386 Management Committees formed
including
1,544 committee members 8,918 sets of Selling Made Simple:
Modules 1-3
Pacts self- learning materials distributed to 344 WORTH
groups.
emer
genc
y
29% 21%
50%
microenterprise - non-agriculture
microenterprise
- agriculture
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Swan Yi Newsletter 3
In Yin Nwae village, Mahlaing Township, many villagers earn
their living by weaving mats. Daw Myint Kyi, 45 years old, is one
of them. She has weaved mats for many years but has struggled
because the bamboo needed for weaving can be quite expensive. She
has often had to borrow high interest loans from other villagers in
order to be able to af-ford the bamboo and other supplies needed.
Sometimes she faced difficult times with little income, unable to
run her business. Daw Myint Kyi could survive, but had no money to
use for health purposes or save in case of an emergency.She joined
the WORTH group in her village on February 9th, 2013. Her life
changed quickly for the better as she was
able to easily access the financial resources needed for her
business by borrowing funds from the group. First, she bor-rowed
20,000 kyats ($20 USD) with a three percent interest rate from the
group fund. The low interest rate enabled her to make more profit
from her business because the burden to pay back the loan was
minimal. Eight weeks after she took out the loan, she began to make
weekly payments and soon paid it off. Then, she took out a second
loan to expand her business even more. Now, if she invests 10,000
kyats ($10 USD) to weave a mat, she makes 2,500 ($2.50 USD) in
profit. Her income continues to grow enabling her to save money for
her future.
her storyDaw Myint Kyi
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Swan Yi Newsletter 4
On June 4th, Pact Myanmar joined its donor The Coca- Cola
Foundation in celebrating the opening of the first Co-ca-Cola
factory in Myanmar, in Hmaw Bi industrial zone on the outskirts of
Yangon. The Coca-Cola Company says it aims to provide growth and
development opportunities for the people of Myanmar. As part of
this commitment, last year The Coca-Cola Foundation provided Pact
with a 3 million dollar grant to implement Swan Yi a womens
empowerment project targeting eight townships in the country. Swan
Yi aims to empower nearly 25,000 Myanmar wom-en through
village-based banking and microenterprise development. The project
trains women on financial literacy, entrepreneurship and business
management. Since
it commenced in July 2012, it has already provided train-ing to
10,000 women, some of whom have gone on to start
microenterprises.
In attendance at the event were VIPs such as Coca-Co-las CEO
Muhtar Kent, US Ambassador to Burma Derek Mitchell, former US
Secretary of State Madeline Albright, Myanmar singer Sai Sai, Pacts
CEO Mark Viso, and Pacts Regional Vice President Kurt Macleod. Also
in attendance were two female Swan Yi beneficiaries from the Yangon
urban region, Daw Nyo and Daw Hla Hla Htwe, who were selected based
on their leadership qualities and successes expanding their
businesses after taking out loans from their group banks.
Swan Yi featured at Coca-Cola Myanmar launch event
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Swan Yi Newsletter 5
From June 5-11th, Swan Yi provided a Training of Train-er (TOT)
session on how to run effective trainings for WORTH group
Management Committees. It was provided to 19 WORTH Trainers and six
Township Managers in Yangon. Each WORTH group is run by a
democratically elected Management Committee that takes
responsibility for the groups accounting system and ensures the
growth
of the village bank. Swan Yi staff play an important role in
providing a five-day training to Management Committee members in
order to ensure standards and rules are in place to maintain
transparency and accountability of the group. Trainings topics
covered include how to open and close each banking cycle, keeping a
bank ledger, managing funds and relations with group members.
staff capacity developmentTraining of Trainer (TOT) on WORTH
Management Committees
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Swan Yi Newsletter 6
For More Information
Ei Thinzar Min Min Oo Program Coordinator, Pact
[email protected]
Andrew MeauxSenior Program SpecialistWashigton, D.C.
[email protected]
WOMEN IN 503 GROUPS
100%
50%
0%
step 1. community orientation workshops.
step 2. WORTH groups formed (mobilized).
step 3. training, roles and responsibilities of members and how
to select group leaders.
step 4. management committees formed.
step 5. training, conduct vilage bank meeting and safe money
handling.
step 6. introductory workshop, selling made simple books (SMS
workshop).
step 7. training, saving.
step 8. training, loaning.
step 9. training, appreciative planning and action (APA) and
building a strong group.
step 10. training, basic MC record keeping training.
step 11. management committee training (MCT).
step 12. road to wealth (RTW) introductory workshop.
10,935TOTAL SAVINGS (USD), 9 ,118 WOMEN SAVING WEEKLY
$73,022
SETS OF SELLING MADE SIMPLE MODULES DISTRIBUTED, TO 344 WORTH
GROUPS
8,918MANAGEMENT COMMITTEES FORMED, WITH 1 ,544 MEMBERS
386
TOTAL LOANS (USD), 4 ,079 LOANS
$105,151
key Percentage increase over previous report.
Swan Yi Progress Toward Goals