Savings with Education Grew Papa Alfonso’s Photography Business in Angola
In 2013, the Mothers’ Union of the Diocese of Angola started a Savings with Education (SwE) program in partnership with Episcopal Relief & Development. Twelve savings and loan groups were started in communities across Angola, helping 250 people start businesses to increase their discretionary income. In one of these communities, Luanda, a family man and successful entrepreneur named Papa Alfonso helped found the Alegria e Amor (Joy and Love) savings group and was elected the group’s president.
In his role, he began leading group members through weekly savings activities and meticulous financial recordkeeping. Under his leadership, the SwE group built financial literacy skills and trust with one another.
Around the start of the savings group, Papa Alfonso had been in business for several years working as an event photographer. In addition to being the group’s President, Papa Alfonso also received financial literacy training and contributed monthly to a collective fund. With his first loan, he used the money to buy additional camera equipment, ink cartridges and a photo printer to expand his existing business.
“The camera I bought with the money I saved through the group allows me to take photos at events like weddings and earn a living.”
–Papa Alfonso, 2013
Before starting his photography business, Papa Alfonso explained, he worked as a carpenter to provide for his wife and nine children. One day a man approached him in a community market and told him he was selling a camera to cover the expenses of his daughter’s medical treatment. The man was persuasive, explaining that Papa Alfonso could learn to use the camera and earn additional income. Intrigued, he bought the camera from the man in the market. At first, he didn’t know how the camera worked, but he was determined to see a return on his investment. As Papa Alfonso grew in his confidence as a photographer, he began taking pictures at small community events like baptisms.
For the next ten years, his business grew and his income increased. He once had the opportunity to take photographs in the parliament of the National Assembly of the Republic of Angola. With his increased income from photography and participation in the SwE program, Papa Alfonso took additional loans to repair his car’s engine to support work travel and to build a new house where he lives with extended family.
Today, in 2024, the Alegria e Amor savings group has continued to sustain itself—expanding from 16 to 44 members. Papa Alfonso is still the president and the group is planning to keep investing in entrepreneurial endeavors that are helping people in the community support themselves and their families while building their economic resilience.
“The best part of being part of the SwE Program is knowing that I have had the trust of the 44 members of my group, to the point of allowing me to be their president since 2013.”
–Papa Alfonso, 2023
As for his photography business, Papa Alfonso explained that the landscape is always changing as technology evolves. His biggest competitor has been the smartphone, he said, which has given more people the ability to capture their own moments. Despite this, he noted that the financial literacy skills he learned through the program will help him if he needs to pivot. In fact, with some of the money he earned as a photographer and borrowed through the savings and loan group, Papa Alfonso has dreams for other businesses that he can run with his family.
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