The Viviedodo agricultural cooperative is made up of 14 members – 11 women and 3 men who range in age from 33 to 66 years old. They all have children living with them and some members also have other family members or elderly relatives living with them.

Viviedodo live in rural Togo just 77km north of the capital, Lomé.

The Viviedodo farming cooperative came together in December 2020 – they were all struggling to access the formal financial services, and then they found IADES.

The majority of the group farm yams, peanuts and the root vegetable cassava, which is a little like a sweet potato, and spend anything upwards of 40 – 60 hours per week in the fields.

For most members of the group, this is their first Deki loan and they will use it to invest in seeds and fertilizer. A couple of the famers would like to use it to employ someone to help them work the land, which will help the cooperative expand the area they are able to farm. Also in the cooperative is a pig farmer and his loan will go towards improving the enclosure for the animals, buying food and making sure they are healthy in their environment.

When they were asked about their hopes for the future, the cooperative answered that they hoped to live well and to create a better life “une vie meilleure”

They have already started their training workshops and have begun to learn about how a cooperative works – the advantages of being a member of a cooperative, the rights, and obligations of members and how to work together as a group.

Over the next three months the Vividodo cooperative will have training in cooperative management and they will start their workshops on health issues, learning about malaria and waterborne diseases, family planning, access to health care through the mutual health insurance, energy poverty and the benefits of using renewable energy.

Collectively, they are asking to borrow £1,204.