“With this money I, as a mother and grandmother, have the choice to buy what my family really needs”: How Disaster READY’s Cash and Voucher Assistance is helping to empower and prepare communities

Cash and voucher assistance is fast becoming understood as the most effective and dignified way to help families immediately after a disaster. But did you know that this type of assistance is also key to the preparedness activities Disaster READY partners are running in the Pacific and Timor-Leste? When people who don’t normally have access to digital financial systems are given the opportunity to engage with banking institutions and have more say in decisions regarding household finances, their financial literacy increases, and they can readily accept cash and voucher assistance if required.  

Yalingsaguo is from a very small village tucked away in the mountains of Morobe province in Papua New Guinea. Ever since the start of her marriage, Yalingsaguo’s household finances have been managed by her husband, Gerry. The couple live with their two grown sons and their grandchildren. 

Yalingsaguo was able to withdraw cash from the bank and buy the things her family really needed. IMAGE: Lillian Keneqa/Save the Children

In 2016, Yalingsaguo’s family lost their house, gardens, and livestock when the Kumalu River flooded.  It has been a long, hard road to recovery. They have since moved to higher ground, and Gerry— who is a skilled carpenter— has built a beautiful home for them on top of a rocky mountain.

With the support of the Australian Government, Disaster READY partner Save the Children has been looking at the viability of Cash and Voucher assistance in disaster-prone communities in Papua New Guinea. When the agency came to the Yalingsaguo’s village to test their Cash and Voucher Assistance mechanism, she was thrilled to be selected to receive support from the project. Upon hearing that one of the requirements to participate in the trial included registering for an account with the Bank South Pacific, she quickly took the news home to her husband.

Gerry remembered his reaction. “I told my wife, you must open your own account. So, when you have extra money from your small market, you can go deposit and save up,” he said. “I may be the bread-winner now but there’ll come a time when we’ll need your help so we must prepare now.”

With her husband’s support, Yalingsaguo went through the registration process and opened an account. She was beaming with joy and excitement when she walked out with her new bank card.

“Never in my life did I think I would own an account,” she said. Shortly after opening her account, Yalingsaguo received her first cash transfer from Save the Children’s Disaster READY initiative. She was able to withdraw a small portion of the money at Easter and bought food for her family to celebrate the holiday. The next week she went to town and bought clothes and school stationery for her grandchildren, and still has some money in her account in case of an emergency.

Yalingsaguo thinks her community would benefit from cash in a crisis and wishes the same assistance had been available during the 2016 flooding. “Other NGOs came but they gave us buckets, and what good will that do us? Because at the time we needed food,” she remembers. “With this money I as a mother and grandmother have a choice to buy what my family really needs. Not only that but now I have the chance to have my own account. Now I don’t need to depend entirely on my husband’s money, I can have my own money too.”