
Consumer Awareness and Financial Empowerment (CAFE) Initiative
Methodology
The CAFE F2F curriculum has two courses, ‘Financial Foundations’ and ‘Applied’, each delivered over 10 weeks in 1–2-hour weekly sessions. Financial Foundations is designed to feed into Applied for a total of 20 weeks of training. Financial Foundations targets the most vulnerable clients and focuses on building basic financial knowledge and awareness. Applied encourages learners to apply the knowledge they gained in Financial Foundations and experiment with newly-learned money management behaviors to adopt positive financial habits and gain the confidence to communicate with financial service providers.
Achievements
The CAFÉ initiative in Siddhi has proven to be a successful project for both SVSI and its beneficiaries. The program has brought about positive changes in daily spending habits, money tracking, public speaking, and the ability to fight for their rights. It has also resulted in increased savings, decreased extravagance, alcoholism, and gambling, and a willingness to send children to good schools while embracing modern technology.
The most significant outcome is the willingness of beneficiaries to start their own businesses and become financially independent using their skills and entrepreneurial ideas. The impact of the program extends beyond the women who took CAFÉ training to their families, who now understand the importance of money, their rights, and the necessity of becoming socially aware of financial sectors and technology. The community is now fully aware of the need to become one of the advanced and socially cultured communities.
One learner of the CAFÉ program, Mrs. Sanju Tamang, has even entered the political sector, recognized the importance of women's empowerment and aiming to promote her community on the path of advancement. SVSI has also given a loan of Rs. 20 lakhs to two groups, Shree Sapana Mother Group, and Shree Sapana Bee-keeping Farmer Group, each of Rs. 10 lakhs with the rate of 6% and decreasing interest amount to support their startups.
Moreover, many beneficiaries have engaged in animal husbandry, such as goat rearing, pig farming, chicken farming, and fruit farming, to increase their sources of income. Mother groups are doing regular savings and utilizing the capital as a loan, which is not only beneficial in terms of finance but also encourages mutual cooperation and develops brotherhood in the community.