INCOME-GENERATING ACTIVITIES: AN EXPERIMENT IN SENEGAL

by Patricia Diam and Angèle Zo Angono

In Senegal when the first cases of AIDS appeared, the social and cultural context made it taboo to mention the disease. Infected women and men were singled out, judged and even rejected because it was immediately assumed they led promiscuous sex lives. Infected persons were seen as a burden for their families because they were frequently ill. Caring for them meant buying expensive drugs and feeding them, which meant providing a special diet. Faced with low wages and a high cost of living, it often became impossible for heads of household to cope. When compounded by ignorance, this meant the person living with HIV/AIDS was often rejected.

According to SIDA Service, an agency of the Catholic Church in Senegal, people living with HIV/AIDS are entitled, like all sick persons, to proper support from the community and to respect and understanding based on a sense of generosity. SIDA Service offers a permanent structure for consultation, training and action. It is the result of a common desire among officials of the Association of Private Catholic Health Posts in Senegal (APSPCS) and Catholic schools of the church to offer a response to the desires expressed by young people. The rapid spread of AIDS represents a dual challenge to all, and the church desires to shoulder its part of the burden: prevention of the disease and assistance to those affected by it.

When people announce that they are seropositive, many are rejected by their family, while others lose the will to live and may sink into alcoholism or drug use. Providing support and assistance for people living with HIV/AIDS means receiving and interviewing them, listening attentively, visiting them at home and in hospital, and providing medical care (for opportunistic infections) and food. 

SIDA Service has been involved in AIDS support and care activities since 1994. Living conditions for people with AIDS are often very poor, and their social and financial situation precarious. For this reason SIDA Service has developed a series of income-generating activities in Dakar to help people become financially independent for food and medicines, and to help support their families by paying for such things as their children’s education.

Activities for support are selected by a team made up of a physician, a social worker and a nun. They are chosen on the basis of clearly defined criteria. The applicant must be a person living with HIV, the project must be feasible, and the person’s clinical condition must be satisfactory. Certain social criteria also apply, including whether the person is destitute or able to reimburse. 

Successful applicants receive three days’ management training because most have no idea how to manage funds. The training is designed to enable beneficiaries to better manage income-generating activities. It also provides some management tools including registering and replacing stock, maintaining cash book and weekly sales records, understanding the concept of minimum stock level, and conducting inventory. It also introduces the notion of profit to help recipients calculate their potential earnings and handle accounts. After the training course activities begin, a social worker is assigned to supervise a project all the way from purchase activities to final sale.

After two months of operation, each recipient is required to reimburse half the funds he or she borrowed, with a 10% levy on profits, until the amount has been reimbursed in full.

The range of income-generating activities (IGAs) is broad and growing. Between 1996 and 2001, SIDA Service received about 50 requests to finance IGAs. A total of 24 applications covering 30 beneficiaries were funded including four drinks stalls, four textile businesses, one local food store, one fish product concern, three tailors, one cosmetics shop, one pearls and incense trader, and one handmade doll shop.

With the funds they earn from these activities, some people living with AIDS manage to support their family, while others can afford to pay for antiretroviral drugs. Some who had been cast out by their families have been able to return. We have even seen instances in which the family itself became involved in the IGA with a brother, sister or spouse running the shop or business if the beneficiary has a medical appointment. This is a positive spin-off.

All is not always simple, however, and while 16 activities may be meeting with success, another four are facing problems due to poor management and illness. Those running them are no longer reimbursing their loans, although the activity is still operating. They are able to renew their working capital, but are unable to save. The activity has to cover all their families’ expenditures, which is a heavy burden.

Funding remains inadequate for most IGAs, and as a result stock levels are too low and it takes a long time to begin operating at a profit. When the IGAs find themselves in dire straits, their operators come back to us. When SIDA Service carries out an evaluation, it may inject fresh capital into a project to give the activity new life.

There have been three deaths among the beneficiaries, and in one other case the activity was run by two drug addicts who took a free course of withdrawal treatment offered by SIDA Service. Their activity did not get off the ground because they lacked experience in the poultry business, and the death rate among their chicks was high. In addition, one of their drug-dealer acquaintances continued to provide them with drugs. 

A number of other challenges have been faced by the beneficiaries. For example, some have experienced problems with bookkeeping because many are illiterate. For others, health problems may affect the way they run their activities. They may also lack sales experience, such as knowledge of how to change the products on sale depending on the season. They may siphon off profits for day-to-day family expenditures. In addition, supervisors may face difficulties in obtaining documents to justify some of the purchases they make, as well as difficulties justifying items of expenditure, such as phone calls.

Because of the increased vulnerability of women, more funds have been provided to them (66.7%) than to men (33.3%). It is women who go to hospital to care for either their husband or child. If their husband dies, women are responsible for children; but they also have to look after themselves if they are shunned by society. In fact, many of them may have been infected by their husband. In Dakar, children infected with or affected by HIV/AIDS form another vulnerable group because they lack adequate schooling, nutrition or medical treatment.

Providing people with the means to earn a living has been a positive experience, evaluations show. People living with HIV or AIDS have found renewed hope and have been welcomed back into their families. They have started to become financially independent and to look after themselves. However, in order to achieve satisfactory results, the activities have to be carefully chosen and a sound programme of follow-up and evaluation established. Ensuring the sustainability of these IGAs is an important factor in improving autonomy.

Voices from Africa no. 10