Each morning in Sankuleh Kunda—a rural village in The Gambia’s Central River Region—29-year-old Ramatulay arranges vegetables, spices, and packets of spaghetti outside her home. By evening, she switches to selling candles and small essentials. She doesn’t call herself a businesswoman. But her neighbors do.
A few years ago, Ramatulay—a mother of five—had no steady income. It all started with a low-interest loan of 3,000 Dalasis (about $40 USD) from her village’s Community Management Committee (CMC), established as part of Tostan’s Community Empowerment Program and trained to support collective decision-making. Within four months, she had repaid half the loan. And her business was growing.
This loan changed my life. Now I can pay school fees, buy food, soap, clothes, and medicine for my children. I feel happy knowing there’s always food on the table. When my children are happy, I’m more than happy.
A Loan That Opened Doors
The CMCs are driving local progress from within. Composed of elected women, men, and youth, they are trained in the second year of the CEP to manage community development plans, promote accountability, and oversee microcredit systems. After acquiring new skills in literacy, human rights, and project management, many women and youth access their first loans through the Community Development Grants provided by Tostan as part of its program and managed by the CMCs.
In a context where formal bank loans are nearly impossible to access—especially for youth and women—this microcredit system is changing what’s possible.
Most program participants have started small businesses. From selling dried fish and ice cubes to running video clubs and selling gravel from the nearby hill—these women are excellent at repaying their loans, even with interest rates as low as 5%.
From Household Businesses to Village Growth
The ripple effect is visible everywhere. With the interest generated from loans, the CMCs build a Community Fund that not only supports not only business loans, but also collective priorities. Over the past year, this fund—now estimated at over 500,000 Dalasis (nearly $7,000 USD)— has helped Sankuleh Kunda drill two boreholes, cultivate rice fields, secure a rice milling machine, and finance the training of a nurse for the village’s health facility.
Sankuleh Kunda is now part of a growing network of communities advancing their own development. After completing Tostan’s empowering education program, the village joined a post-program initiative focused on Reinforcement of Parental Practices (RPP) and became an active member of the regional CMC Federation.
What’s happening in Sankuleh Kunda is what happens when knowledge meets capital. A structured education program—led by local facilitators—equips people with tools for literacy, governance, and financial planning. And when those tools are combined with access to credit, women, men, and youth like Ramatulay gain the capacity to aspire and to shape their future—one business, one decision, one day at a time.
We’re also repairing the health post and fixing the ambulance. Pregnant women shouldn’t have to walk 3.5 kilometers to give birth.
Sankuleh Kunda is now part of a growing network of communities advancing their own development. After completing Tostan’s empowering education program, the village joined a post-program initiative focused on Reinforcement of Parental Practices (RPP) and became an active member of the regional CMC Federation.
What’s happening in Sankuleh Kunda is what happens when knowledge meets capital. A structured education program—led by local facilitators—equips people with tools for literacy, governance, and financial planning. And when those tools are combined with access to credit, women, men, and youth like Ramatulay gain the capacity to aspire and to shape their future—one business, one decision, one day at a time.
