Women Leading the Way

Swan Yi: Strengthening Abilities for

Womens Economic Empowerment

Swan Yi Newsletter
October 2013 / Issue 4
Empowerment Workers (EWs) are volunteers who are
provided with a stipend from Swan Yi to serve as peer
volunteers for the project. Tey mobilize women, pro-
vide trainings, collect data and mentor the group for
success in their WORTH banking activities. EWs not
only provide technical support to the womens groups
during project implementation, but also serve as an
important support mechanism afer implementation
has been completed and phased out in that area. As
EWs are from the project areas, they are very interested
and eager to help the women in their community to
improve their quality of life through increased access
to economic opportunities and services. Swan Yi has
trained 80 women from the project area to serve as
EWs, and later as peer mentors for their assigned vil-
lages. EWs are generally responsible for 12 to 16 groups
in fve to eight villages to help the WORTH groups suc-
cessfully implement the project activities.

From August 8
th
-10
th
, all of the Swan Yi EWs met in
Bagan, Nyaung U in Mandalay division to participate
in an Empowerment Worker Exchange, sharing
knowledge and networking activities with each other.
Te EWs shared their experiences, addressed challeng-
es they had encountered over the past nine months and
learned from EWs from another Pact project, Shae
Tot, funded by USAID. A total of 111 EWs from both
Swan Yi and Shae Tot met and learned from each oth-
ers experiences during the Empowerment Worker Ex-
change and Capacity Building Workshop.
Swan Yi Newsletter 2
Empowerment Worker Exchange
Capacity Development Training
Daw Wah Wah Myint and her family of eight live in
North Okkalapa Township in Yangon. Her husband is a
trishaw driver and while she used to sell fsh paste liquid
and vegetables in her ward, even with both of their in-
comes they struggled to earn enough money to support
their daily needs. To make ends meet, Daw Wah Wah
Myint would turn to local money lenders, borrowing
money at a 15% interest rate and further cutting into
their daily profts. Although she had heard about local
savings groups from a friend, it wasnt until Pact came
to her ward to share the success of WORTH that her
interest was really peaked. Tat day, through experience
sharing, Daw Wah Wah Myint was able to hear from
other groups about the WORTH methodology and the
opportunities it presented. Interested to experience this
for herself, in May she joined Khwar Nyo group.
Saving 1,000 kyats weekly, Daw Wah Wah Myint was
able to generate a savings of 11,000 kyats in just 11
weeks! She was then able to borrow money from her
group, twice taking out a 3 month loan of 50,000 kyats
at a 3% interest rate. With the extra money she was not
only able to expand her current business, but also start a
new business selling seasonable vegetables. Her daily
income has now increased from 2500 to 3500 kyats, and
with the low interest WORTH loans, she is able to keep
more of her profts. She is very happy she joined Khwar
Nyo group, enabling her to expand her businesses and
now earn more money than shed ever anticipated!
Daw Wah Wah Myints Story
From September 25
th
-27
th
, a flm crew for Swan Yis do-
nor, Te Coca-Cola Foundation, accompanied by the
WORTH Program Coordinator and key Township
Managers, visited Pathein Gyi and Tada U Townships in
the Mandalay Region to capture the stories of some of
Swan Yis most successful women. Te women each
recounted their journeys, their lives before joining
WORTH, their experiences learning and participating in
the savings groups, starting and expanding their busi-
nesses, and the impact these have had on their daily
lives.
From 58 year-old Daw Mya Sein of Kyuu Win village,
who spent ten physically taxing years carrying heavy
rocks in the local mine before opening her food shop
seven months ago, to Ma Ei Hlaing, mother of three
from Myin Te village, who has been able to expand her
small shop, now beautifully displaying a large range of
fruits, vegetables and non-food items, these women have
compelling stories to tell. One cant help but become
excited watching them beam as they share the success
that theyve had and what it has meant for themselves
and the lives of their family members. For each of the
women who shared their stories, it was clear they have
become not only successful business women, but are
leaders in their communities and serve as a source of
encouragement for the other women in their villages.
While over the course of three days the flm crew walked
through the lives of a few inspirational women, spend-
ing just a couple of minutes observing a weekly local
WORTH banking meeting revealed that these are just a
few of the over 13,000 women that Swan Yi has reached,
each with an engaging, transformative story to tell.
Swan Yi Newsletter 3
Capturing their Stories
The Coca-Cola Foundations Swan Yi Video
Thirtyyearold Ma Lin Lin from Kyuu Win village shares her story of starng a mobile fried food cart in her village. Her son ea
gerly looks on from behind the camera with the lm crew.
Progress Towards Goals
For More Information
Ei Tinzar Min Min Oo
Program Coordinator
Pact Myanmar
eioo@pactworld.org


Richard Harrison
Country Director
Pact Myanmar
rharrison@pactworld.org
8,812 women have successfully completed the WORTH training series (A to F)
473 groups have formed Management Committees with a total of 1,892 committee members
13,474 loans taken out by 6,080 members to set up or expand microenterprises or for emergency purposes
276 women have established or expanded their current business
9,302 women have learned basic business concepts through the self-learning series Selling Made Simple
1,685 women have read the Road to Wealth self-learning materials for achieving successful savings groups
100%

50%

0%

13,642
WOMEN IN 520
GROUPS
$195, 225
TOTAL SAVI NGS
$67
AVERAGE LOAN (6, 080 BORROWERS)
$205, 601
TOTAL GROUP FUND
$37, 089
TOTAL I NTEREST EARNED
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 village 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 work-
shop
Swan Yi Program Results to Date