Doriane Nikuze was sure she knew how her training would end. Once the course was over, she and her fellow trainees expected, each of them would receive money to start a business: a gift, with nothing to pay back.

“We never thought about taking loans,” says Doriane, a Burundian refugee is learning tailoring through ASHA (Action for Sustainable Health and Agriculture).

Three days in a training room in Mahama refugee camp changed that.

For more than seven months now, trainees, mainly young people living with disability, have been learning tailoring and hairdressing through ASHA. With graduation approaching, the organisation wanted them to leave with more than a trade. Last week, ASHA and Equity Foundation ran a three-day course on financial services skills for more than 50 participants from the camp and the surrounding host communities.

Sessions covered writing a business plan, accessing credit and managing debt, saving along and in groups, and marketing. Questions came thick and fast, and the room the room was lively throughout.

For Doriane, the biggest change was in how she thinks about money. “The training changed our mindset,” she says. “It gave us confidence and taught us that we need to earn and work for the money we use to build our businesses, rather than expect free money.” Group saving also stuck with her. She sees it as a way for trainees to grow financially together.

Olivier Habumugisha, who is training in hairdressing, left with three practical rules. First, a group can often achieve more than an individual. “The loan you can access as an individual may be far less than what you can access as a group,” he explains. Second, use a loan only for the purpose it was requested, however pressing other needs seem. Third, never start from nothing. “The loan should come as support to what I already have, rather than being the entire amount I depend on.” By his own example; if he needs Rwf 1 million, he should already have at least Rwf 100,000. “This way, the loan becomes an assistance that helps me achieve my goal.”

The session was marked by engaging interactions

Innocent Kwizera of Equity Foundation said the focus was practical: to help trainees understand banking and put financial services to work. “We taught them how banking works and how they can make use of financial services to support their businesses and livelihoods.” The support will not stop when the sessions end. Equity Foundation plans to link trainees to its nearest branch in Kirehe, so it can keep following up and help turn what they learned into real financial benefits. “We are happy to partner with ASHA on this initiative, and we are confident that it will bear fruit,” he says. “We hope it will contribute to many young people and women here in Mahama creating jobs for themselves and building sustainable livelihoods.”

Grace Mahoro, President and Legal Representative of ASHA, said the training fills a gap that skills alone cannot. “We don’t just want our trainees to leave with a skill, we want them to leave knowing how to turn that skill into an income,” she says. “This financial training is what closes that gap.” She adds that the partnership made this possible. “Partnering with Equity Foundation allows us to give trainees something we couldn’t offer alone, the financial literacy to run a business, not just practice a trade.”

For Doriane, the hope now is that others will follow. “We thank you very much for changing our mindset, and we hope you will extend this training to our colleagues.”

After months of training in tailoring and hairdressing, trainees learned the financial skills to run their craft as a business.