Claudine’s Story
In July 2024, at the beginning of the current Fellowship cycle, a group of 18 Fellows in Kayonza, Rwanda formed the Abatiganda Village Savings and Loans Association – building a foundation for shared savings, purposeful relationship, and collective growth.
The group elected Claudine Niyonsaba, a mother, coffee farmer, and new Kula Fellow, as president of the VSLA. Initially resistant to this position of leadership, Claudine told us that she “was afraid of speaking in front of people” and “didn’t believe she could be a leader”, but soon after her first training with her Business Coach on building self-esteem and confidence, that doubt started to turn into belief. Since then, Claudine has used her influence and leadership to inspire that same self-belief in her peers, telling us that the women in the group “now know their value” and believe “they can create their own opportunities”.
Before joining the Fellowship, Claudine noted that she and the other farmers in her VSLA didn’t know how to save for a purpose. Instead, they would use any money they earned day by day without any intention or vision, unable to see the potential benefit of building up savings for future opportunities or unexpected setbacks. By the midpoint of the program, that mindset has completely changed. Each member has already built small, but growing, businesses outside of coffee farming through the savings and loans accessed through their VSLA. These businesses help increase and diversify their household income, improving their standard of living and financial resilience. They are now ready to receive their no-interest loan from Kula, which will exponentially grow the pool of capital available to them, and have big plans for how they’ll use this money to expand their businesses.
