In Zimbabwe, funerals require lavish and expensive farewells. But this is not something everyone can afford.
Therefore, some people turn to funeral homes to cope with these exorbitant funeral costs. Melisa Kasu lost her mother during a difficult financial period. Fortunately, the deceased was a member of a funeral home. Since then, Melisa has renewed her membership.
"The funeral association helped me last December when I received $100 from my savings. I bought two gas tanks and a scale, and started selling gas to my neighbors. My small business has grown, and I can now afford to buy groceries every month and meet my basic needs," she explains.
A group of women founded the association in Kuwadzana, a township in Harare, the capital of Zimbabwe, in 2021, in order to spare families what members describe as "embarrassing" funerals that expose poverty.
“We came up with the idea of burying our families and friends because we realized that most of us didn’t come from privileged backgrounds and that our funerals were neither dignified nor decent. We noticed that there wasn’t enough food for the mourners, no fire, nothing. That’s how the idea was born, but since then, we no longer focus solely on mourning and burying our loved ones; we’ve also set up a savings initiative and contributions for groceries,” says Nyadzisayi Mirisawu, secretary of the Kubatana funeral society.
In addition to funeral contributions, members now contribute $10 a month to a group savings club.
"Members can now borrow money from savings for healthcare or to pay school fees. Kuchemana is simply a name we came up with when we were just a club meant to bury each other, but now we are focusing on other things that empower us and help us live longer," explains Nyadzisayi Mirisawu.
Members and certain people in the community can borrow from this fund at an interest rate of 20%, with profits being distributed among the members each year.
