The Kugsabla Community Savings and Loans Association is a self-help group of persons with disabilities that was formed and trained by the CBR programme in the year 2020. The group has a total membership of 25(8male, 17 female). The age range of members of the group is 25 to 50 and they made up of people with disabilities with varying religious, economic and social backgrounds.

First of all, the group was facilitated to develop a constitution to govern members. They also were trained in leadership and team building skills, group dynamics, advocacy/lobbying skills and resource mobilization strategies (savings culture, fundraising campaigns ,investment to multiply etc.) They have elected leaders including a Chairman, Secretary and Treasurer who steers the affairs of the group.

A significant aspect of the CBR programme has to do with facilitating access to financial services to enable clientele have start-up capital to engage in economic production. There is a functional relationship between skills acquisition and start-up capital as start-up capital influences the utilization of skills acquired. The programme has been training disability groups into savings and loans associations; enabling them to mobilize their own resources through weekly savings and issue loans to members for business development. This concept under the programme has been christened “ Community Savings and Loans Associations (CSLAs) and has proven to be extremely beneficial as members can receive loans with no or little interest  and can benefit from their own accumulated savings during  share-outs for investment in economic production. A share out for typical CSLAs is usually done at the end of a cycle which is 12 months from the month of commencement.  The Kugsabla CSLAs is one of the many groups that have stood out as very successful in terms of ability to address poverty among members through resilience building and mobilization of resources to equip its members with start-up capital for income generation activities viz. farming, livestock rearing, soap and pomade production, shea butter processing among others. For example, in 2025, the group mobilized a total of GHS26, 800(CHF1875.29) from their own weekly savings and this was disbursed to some the members to enable them run their economic activities, thereby addressing unemployment and poverty.

Also, the group undertakes advocacy against negative social attitudes thereby promoting the rights of people with disabilities. Aside, their own savings, they mobilize resources by contacting other organizations (like the District Assemblies, Civil Society Organizations , private sector players and individuals.) to support their members for economic production. They also work collaboratively with financial institutions to provide financial literacy skills and provide access to loans for enterprise development.  Again, in the year 2025, the group received donations of 60 bags of fertilizer valued at GHS12600 (CHF881.67) and assistive devices valued GHS40, 000 (CHF2798.94) from the District Assemblies to improve the economic and functional empowerment of their members. Issah Bawa, the Chairman of the group had this say: “This group has become a game changer in our fight against poverty and discrimination towards persons with disabilities in the community. We have access to financial services and start-up kits to become productive. We also have a voice through this group and our rights are respected. We are grateful to the CBR and their partners for helping us initiate and sustain this group”.