The effects of savings and internal lending communities' project on the sustainability of the socio-economic status of the intended beneficiaries of Bamba Division, Kilifi County

Abstract

The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of the Savings and Internal Lending Communities' (SILC) project on the sustainability of the socio-economic status of the intended beneficiaries of Bamba division, Kilifi County. Objectives of the study were to establish whether the savings and internal lending communities' project has had an effect on the household income of those practicing; to determine whether the project has had an effect in sustaining the educational standards of OVCs in the project; to determine whether the project's funds had sustained access to health facilities as well as payment of treatment fees and purchase of drugs; to determine whether the project has had an effect on investments through income generating activities on the intended beneficiaries; and also to determine the factors influencing the level of project's participation amongst the intended beneficiaries.

Guardians and caregivers of orphans and vulnerable children needed to sustain themselves after the PEPF AR project had ended which was majorly a HIV/AIDS five- year project. Catholic Relief Services (CRS) therefore developed its community-based savings-led initiatives known as Savings and Internal Lending Communities (SILC) to reach a large group of extremely vulnerable poor people with limited savings and borrowing capacity-especially women in rural communities. Reviews done by Miruka 2007 on the project in Kenya indicated that one of the interesting trends noted from the data collected on loans from the intervention was the portion of loans used for productive purposes.

The study population for this study comprised of four hundred guardians/caregivers of aves in the PEPFAR project. The sample to be studied was purposively selected to include those guardians of orphans and vulnerable children project to establish if the intervention was effective to them. Prior authority was obtained from the area district commissioner and the divisional officer. A mixed methodology approach was used in data collection and a cross sectional survey was the research design used:

A Pre-test questionnaire was administered to the target population as a tool for quantitative data collection. The qualitative data was collected using the focused group discussions. A basic distribution of data was done, categorical data was presented using frequencies and percentages while continuous data was presented using mean. Data was analyzed using descriptive techniques and STATA package was also utilized.

The findings were presented in tables which were followed by brief explanations of the same, findings were then interpreted and recommendations made as well as suggestions for further studies. Noted in this study was that almost all the intended beneficiaries had actually taken up the intervention unlike before where a larger majority had shunned away from participating simply because they lacked the cash to save. This study showed that 91.5% of those interviewed had taken up the intervention.

Results from this study indicated that the SILC intervention was actually effective in that it improved the household incomes of the beneficiaries as well as providing for the young ones in terms of education. Access to health centers was also found to be effected by the SILC intervention as savings were used for the purpose with 76.4% utilizing the funds on that. The study also found that the quality of knowledge on SILC by the beneficiaries contributed to their increased levels of participation indicating that those perceived to be poor needed to be educated on the importance of pulling together and not to necessarily rely on outside help. Drought and famine was found to be a limiting factor for the few non participants as they opted to look for finances elsewhere and consume the little they had.