One Coin for Million Dreams

Everyone knows that saving is useful for the future, but in practice, not everyone is used to saving. The habit of saving is quite difficult to do, especially for people who live in villages. The habit of saving has become a struggle that is difficult to realize because there is no education and encouragement to the public about the benefits of saving.

Generally, people in the village are only interested in borrowing money from those who have capital because it has been patterned that saving takes a long time, while daily needs are increasing. Nobi-nobi village in Timor Tengah Selatan Regency is one of the villages where the people live in this pattern. This makes the economic life of the community not well developed and bound by debt to meet existing needs.

Seeing the condition, Wahana Visi Indonesia (WVI) built a collaboration with the Nobi-nobi Village government and began to empower the community by forming and supporting livestock groups. Slowly, with education also motivation, and encouragement to existing livestock groups, WVI assisted the group to form the ASCA (Accumulating Saving & Credit Association) group with the aim people could save.

Uniquely, at the ASCA group meeting, group members only saved one coin. Likewise in the second, third, and several subsequent meetings. However, after experiencing the benefits of existing group savings, members become more and more diligent in saving and increasing the number of coins.

Yuliana Sulaiman, Treasurer of ASCA 4 Patu said ASKA helps families to meet urgent needs such as children's education needs.

“We are happy that our children can achieve their dreams. ASCA loans also have low-interest rates so we are not burdened. With ASCA, we can slowly achieve our dreams that were once delayed. Thank you for the assistance from WVI and we hope that you will continue to accompany and motivate us in carrying out ASCA," explained Yuliana.

Starting from a single coin, ASCA helps people dare to dream. Later that dream can be felt by the children in Nobi-nobi Village.

Written by: Christi Sirituka, Staff of Kupang TTS Area Program Wahana Visi Indonesia