Help for self-help: a solution to many problems

In a self-help group project, women gain one thing: knowledge. And with knowledge, they free themselves independently from the deepest poverty, enable their children to live a better life and drive the development of their entire region forward. This reduces hunger, disease and violence, while making education, health, peace and much more possible.

For more than ten years, we have been working consistently in accordance with the principle of helping people to help themselves. Because we are convinced that even the supposedly weakest person has the potential to build a life of dignity for themself and their children on their own - and that this is the only way to achieve sustainable development. Kindernothilfe originally started in Ethiopia, Rwanda and Sri Lanka with a handful of self-help groups, and there are now more than 30,000 in 16 countries, which even strengthen entire civil societies.

A whole movement has arisen out of our self-help group work, and you too can become part of it with a donation.

Its success has been based on a special approach: through partners, we train the groups comprehensively - economically, socially and politically. The groups independently secure microcredits and work out solutions for their problems. And this is how Kindernothilfe’s self-help groups work:

Step 1: Creating groups

The poorest families in a village or neighbourhood are identified. Who they are is decided by the residents themselves. The women of these families are invited to form a self-help group.

What we do: Our local partners perform a poverty analysis with the residents, so that they themselves can identify who the poorest people among them are: who has what work, how much property they have and who is caring for how many children. It is important that the women should be in the same economic situation so that the group is not dominated by individual members.
How it works: The poorest people – until then often excluded – have the opportunity to build a community for the first time.

Step 2: Creating community

The women in the self-help group build a community of solidarity: they share their fears as well as economic and social problems and learn to trust each other. Together they look for ways to solve their problems.

What we do: Our partners train women on topics such as team spirit, conflict resolution and democratic decision-making processes.
How it works: The women’s self-confidence increases: they realize that they have potential and can shape their own future by means of united efforts. They no longer feel that

Step 3: Saving together and engaging in business

Women save together: small amounts slowly accumulate into a capital. From this, the women take out loans, which they use to build small businesses. The loans are repaid; the capital and investment opportunities continue to grow.

What we do: Our partners give women advice on how to save up money themselves despite having very little income. In addition, they train women in accounting and developing sustainable business ideas.
How it works: The women gradually escape from poverty through their own efforts. The living conditions of their families are lastingly improved: the children go to school and receive health care and much more besides. The economic basis for solving further, greater problems is also laid.

Step 4: Solving economic and social problems

The women also convert their growing economic strength into social strength. They analyse a variety of problems in their immediate environment and solve them. After six months, self-help groups join forces to form umbrella organisations. There, they plan joint action to improve living conditions throughout the village or neighbourhood.

What we do: We train the women to analyse problems and their causes and to develop their own solutions. The umbrella associations are also trained to gradually take on our tasks: solving conflicts in the self-help groups, forming new groups and empowering them, etc. – we can slowly withdraw.
How it works: The spectrum of effects is wide. Here are a few examples: the reactivation of wells, vaccination campaigns to reduce preventable cases of disease, electrification of districts, reduction of genital mutilation, measures to prevent domestic violence and much, much more.

Step 5: Taking political action to solve major problems

After four to five years, the umbrella organizations join together to form a federation. It represents up to 2,000 self-help women, their families and their region. The federation interacts with political actors on an equal footing, complains about injustice, calls for improvements in living conditions and strengthens civil society.

• What we do: Our partners train women for political activities. They bring the federations together with human rights organisations, so that they can jointly tackle violations of rights. The federations increasingly plan and operate independently – we can finally withdraw completely from our advisory role.

• How it works: Here, too, the range of possibilities is huge. The concerns of women gain a hearing among politicians; the federations are so powerful that they can, for example, organise the water supply of an entire region or compel state authorities to fulfil their duty to finance the construction of schools.