Five Talents UK

Five Talents UK Championing sustainability & literacy to empower women in Burundi, Kenya, DRC, Uganda, Rwanda, Bolivia, South Sudan, Malawi & Tanzania.

Follow for member stories, country insight & updates from Five Talents UK. Visit website for info on getting involved.

In Rwanda, women are coming together in savings groups that meet each week to save, to lend to one another, and to build...
02/09/2026

In Rwanda, women are coming together in savings groups that meet each week to save, to lend to one another, and to build something lasting. For many, it is the first time they have had a safe place to put money aside and a group of people ready to invest in their plans alongside them.

This is the heart of what we do across Rwanda and the wider region: local, trusted, and led by the people living it.

Millions of people worldwide still lack access to basic financial services — and grants alone will never close that gap....
12/08/2026

Millions of people worldwide still lack access to basic financial services — and grants alone will never close that gap. Grant-funded programmes reach the people they're funded to reach, then stop.

Savings groups work differently. Because every loan comes from the members' own pooled savings, the model carries no ongoing funding requirement — a group, once established, finances itself. That's how Five Talents has reached 241,452 members across nine countries over twenty years: not by scaling budgets, but by building something communities can run themselves.

The most scalable financing model is the one that doesn't need us.

South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Only around 27% of adults can read and write, and for wom...
11/08/2026

South Sudan has one of the lowest literacy rates in the world. Only around 27% of adults can read and write, and for women, that figure is even lower.

But literacy isn't just about reading. It's about dignity. It's about being able to manage your finances, help your children with schoolwork, and walk into a room with confidence.

Five Talents savings groups are helping women in South Sudan access education and change the future:for themselves, their families, and their communities.

Two years ago, just 4% of women in Wandi, South Sudan could read. Today it's 76%: and with literacy has come the confide...
10/08/2026

Two years ago, just 4% of women in Wandi, South Sudan could read. Today it's 76%: and with literacy has come the confidence to start businesses, manage savings, and send children to school.

When USAID funding was pulled, Five Talents felt it too - budgets tightened and plans changed. But the savings groups ke...
07/08/2026

When USAID funding was pulled, Five Talents felt it too - budgets tightened and plans changed. But the savings groups kept meeting.

That's the model, not luck. Every loan comes from the members' own pooled savings, so nothing depends on external capital. The literacy skills, the training, the trust between neighbours — none of it sits on a grant cycle.

When you build capacity into people rather than programmes, it outlasts the funding.

We teach literacy alongside saving, because a bank account means little if you can't read the ledger. For many members -...
06/08/2026

We teach literacy alongside saving, because a bank account means little if you can't read the ledger. For many members - especially women - learning to read and write is where everything else begins.

A Five Talents savings group is a simple thing: a circle of neighbours meeting regularly to save together and lend to on...
05/08/2026

A Five Talents savings group is a simple thing: a circle of neighbours meeting regularly to save together and lend to one another from their own pooled money. From that simple thing come businesses, school fees, and a kind of confidence that's hard to measure but easy to see.

Over twenty years, Five Talents has reached 241,452 savings group members across nine countries - the majority of them w...
04/08/2026

Over twenty years, Five Talents has reached 241,452 savings group members across nine countries - the majority of them women, many of whom began with little more than determination. What they've built, they built themselves.

The best measure of our work is what happens after we leave. Savings groups carry on meeting, saving and lending for yea...
03/08/2026

The best measure of our work is what happens after we leave. Savings groups carry on meeting, saving and lending for years after our direct involvement ends, because they were never ours to begin with, they belong to their members.

To find out more about the evolution of grousp, visit fivetalents.org.uk

Two years ago, just 4% of women in Wandi, South Sudan could read. Today it's 76% - and with literacy has come the confi...
31/07/2026

Two years ago, just 4% of women in Wandi, South Sudan could read. Today it's 76% - and with literacy has come the confidence to start businesses, manage savings, and send children to school.

To find out more about the incredible progress of women in South Sudan, visit fivetalents.org.uk

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Wednesday 9am - 5pm
Thursday 9am - 5pm
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