From savings to solidarity: How women are building peace and prosperity in Adamawa

By Faruk Ahmed

On July 28, 2026, something remarkable happened in Adamawa State.

Hajiya Salamatu Mohammed, the Executive Director of Asabsah Success Initiative and Coordinator of the Asabsah Peace Cluster, invited the Women's Wing of the Christian Association of Nigeria (WOWICAN) to her office. They did not come for a sermon. They did not come with a petition.

They came to receive a box.

Not an ordinary box. A VSLA kit—a Village Savings and Loan Association box. Inside were 24 passbooks, tags, and the seeds of a powerful idea: that Muslim women and Christian women can build peace together, not through words, but through shared economic empowerment.

 

Salamatu (middle) giving out the VSLA box to WOWICAN Adamawa

The VSLA model

The VSLA model is deceptively simple. A group of women—typically 24 or more—come together and make monthly contributions into a communal box. Each month, they meet to decide who should receive a loan from the savings. The recipient invests the money in a small business, repays it after an agreed period, and the cycle continues.

At the end of the agreed timeframe, the savings are returned to the contributors. Everyone saves. Everyone benefits.

It is a grassroots banking system that requires no formal financial infrastructure, no collateral, no complicated paperwork. Just trust. Just community. Just women supporting women.

Hajiya Salamatu's donation to WOWICAN is not an isolated act. It is part of a larger movement. Already, more than 17 associations have received VSLA kits, including FOMWAN, Arrayah, JIBWIS Women, and numerous Islamiyya schools. The ripple effects are tangible: women are moving from financial vulnerability to collective security, from individual struggle to shared prosperity.

 

Interfaith collaboration

What makes this initiative extraordinary is not the box itself, but what it represents.

In a country where religious divisions are often exploited for political gain, Hajiya Salamatu has chosen a different path. She has taken a practical step to foster trust, cooperation and shared prosperity between women of different faiths. This is interfaith collaboration in its most authentic form—not a conference or a declaration, but a lived, economic partnership.

This approach is not new. Across Nigeria, interfaith VSLA groups have been shown to build trust between Muslim and Christian communities. They enable people of different faiths to save, reduce poverty, and build sustainable peace. In Plateau State, for example, women from different faiths have sat side by side in capacity-building sessions and financial literacy modules, emerging not only with skills but with solidarity.

But Hajiya Salamatu's work in Adamawa adds a crucial layer: she is not just bringing women together—she is empowering them to become economic agents of change. The VSLA model creates resilient community economic structures. It provides a foundation for women's empowerment, even in crisis contexts.

 

The bigger picture

Hajiya Salamatu's work is part of a broader peacebuilding strategy that connects multiple dots:

  • Interfaith collaboration – Building bridges between Muslim and Christian women.
  • Women's rights – Protecting and empowering women through economic agency.
  • Livelihood and empowerment – Creating sustainable income opportunities.
  • Climate action – Promoting renewable energy solutions and sustainable practices.
  • Disability inclusion – Ensuring no one is left behind.

This is not peacebuilding as a slogan. It is peacebuilding as a practice. It is the recognition that peace is not the absence of violence—it is the presence of opportunity. It is the understanding that a woman who can save, invest, and grow her own business is less likely to be a victim of violence and more likely to be a pillar of her community.

 

Asabsah and WOWICAN

A lesson for all

Hajiya Salamatu's work offers a powerful lesson for Nigeria—and for organisations like TNBI.

Peace is not built by politicians in Abuja. It is built by women in villages and cities who sit together, pool their resources, and decide to trust one another. It is built by Muslim women who donate savings kits to their Christian sisters. It is built by communities that refuse to be divided by the very forces that seek to exploit division.

The VSLA box donated to WOWICAN is a symbol. It is a symbol of economic empowerment, interfaith solidarity, and the quiet, persistent work of women who refuse to accept the status quo. It is a reminder that peace is not a distant ideal—it is a daily practice.

 

A call to action

Hajiya Salamatu's work is replicable. It is scalable. It is proof that ordinary people can do extraordinary things when they are empowered to act.

If you are a community leader, consider starting a VSLA group in your own community. If you are a philanthropist, consider supporting organisations like Asabsah Success Initiative that are already doing this work. If you are a citizen, share this story—because stories of hope are just as important as stories of despair.

The box is open. The bridge is built. The question is: will we cross it?

 

Faruk Ahmed is the Coordinator of The Nation Builders Initiative (TNBI).

Join the Nation Builders Magazine channel for more stories that expose what is broken—and build what comes next: https://whatsapp.com/channel/0029Va8mM4oDZ4LceH21sd1v

 

Sources: ASABSAH PEACE CLUSTER, Adamawa State; VSLA methodology; interviews with Hajiya Salamatu Mohammed.

 

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