Formal services reach a fraction of the women who need them. Markets reach almost everybody.
A market association knows who has stopped coming, whose husband collects her takings, who arrived with a swollen face and said she fell. It knows before any clinic, police station or charity does, and it is trusted in a way that none of us are.
This is written for the leaders of associations, cooperatives and trade groups, and it is deliberately practical.
What you already see
- A woman whose husband arrives on payment day and leaves with the money.
- Somebody who has stopped attending meetings, or who leaves the moment they end.
- Capital that never builds because something takes it every few months.
- A stall that closes for days without explanation, repeatedly.
- Injuries explained lightly, or clothing that does not suit the weather.
- A woman who cannot join the contribution scheme because she is not allowed to.
- Someone whose husband appears whenever a man speaks to her.
- A trader who will not give her home address to anybody.
Any one of these means nothing. Several together mean something, and you are usually the first to see them.
The four things that matter most
1. Protect the money. This is the one only you can do.
Contribution schemes, cooperatives and rotating savings are where a trader’s money actually sits, and a great many women lose theirs because a husband collects it. Some rules cost nothing and change outcomes: pay out only to the member herself, never to a relative; do not disclose a member’s balance or payout date to anybody, including a spouse; allow a member to nominate the day she collects; and pay by transfer to her own account where possible.
If a man arrives to collect on behalf of a member, the answer is that payments are made to members only. That single rule protects more women than anything else on this page.
2. Do not confirm anything about a member. Not whether she trades here, not where her stall is, not when she comes, not where she lives. Brief whoever sits at the front, because that is where it fails.
3. Keep home addresses out of shared lists. Membership registers get passed around. A phone number is enough for most purposes.
4. Have one number. One person’s contact, for when a member needs somewhere to go. It does not have to be a service — it has to be somebody who will answer.
Things that cost nothing
- A room with a door. Twenty minutes where a woman can make a call unobserved is a genuine intervention, and most associations have somewhere.
- Holding documents. Certificates, identity papers, a small envelope. Nothing opened, no questions. This removes the largest single obstacle to leaving quickly.
- Letting a member use the association’s address for post.
- Standing as guarantor, or vouching for a member’s trading history for a tenancy. Housing is where leaving most often fails, and an association’s word carries real weight locally.
- Noticing absence. A rule that somebody checks on a member who has not appeared for a week is simple and it saves lives.
- Not laughing. When a man boasts about controlling his wife’s money, the response in that room matters.
What to avoid
Do not mediate between a member and her husband. It is the natural instinct and it goes wrong. She cannot say what is true in front of him, he performs remorse convincingly, and she goes home with somebody who now knows what she said.
Do not discuss it in the association. Not with the executives, not as a general matter. Market information travels faster than anywhere else, and it reaches him.
Do not decide for her. Most women in this position are not leaving. Help with money, documents and a room regardless.
Do not exclude her because her husband is difficult, or because his behaviour has caused problems. Removing her membership removes her income, which is the one thing keeping her options open.
Do not require proof. Asking for evidence before offering flexibility on a contribution is a polite refusal.
Asking, once
If you are going to ask, do it in private, briefly, and in a way that is easy to decline.
“You have seemed under pressure. Is everything alright at home? You can tell me if it is not.”
Then stop and let the silence sit. If she says everything is fine, accept it and add the sentence that keeps the door open: “If that ever changes, you can tell me, and I will not repeat it.”
That is the whole intervention and it will be remembered for years. The sentences that close it down are worth reading first.
Working with us
Three things we would ask, and one we can give.
Refer. Keep one number and pass it on. A woman who hears about a service from her association trusts it in a way she does not trust a poster.
Take placements and contracts. Women rebuilding a trade need stall space, market access and somebody to vouch for them. That is worth more to us than money and it is something only you have. What a woman restarting a trade needs sets out the rest.
Let us come and talk to your members, about money in their own name, about what the law actually says, and about what is available. An hour at a meeting reaches more women than a month of anything we do alone.
In return we will train whoever you nominate, take referrals quickly, and tell you honestly when we cannot help so that nobody is left waiting. We will not ask you for money. Work, space and trust are what we need from a market, and they are things a market has.
Questions people ask
Her husband comes to collect her contribution. Can we refuse?
Yes, and a plain rule is easiest: payments are made to members only, never to a relative. That single rule protects more women than anything else an association can do.
Someone asked where a member lives. What do we say?
That you do not discuss members. Do not confirm that she trades there, where her stall is or when she attends, and brief whoever sits at the front, because that is where it fails.
Should we call the couple in and settle it?
No. She cannot say what is true in front of him, he performs remorse convincingly, and she goes home with a man who now knows what she said.
What is the most useful thing we can offer?
Protecting the money, then holding documents, then a room where a member can make a call unobserved for twenty minutes. All three cost nothing.
Her husband causes trouble at the market. Should we remove her?
No. Removing her membership removes her income, which is the one thing keeping her options open. Deal with his conduct rather than her place.
If you need help now
If you are in immediate danger, call 112. To talk to HealBridge, email us at hello@healbridge.org, or use the form on our contact page. Every page on this site has a Quick Exit button at the top right, and pressing the letter E three times does the same thing.
Before you rely on anything on this page
We publish these articles so that you can understand a subject and work out what to ask for. They are written carefully and in good faith. They are still general information about how things usually work, and not advice about your situation, which we do not know.
- This is not legal advice.
- We are not a law firm. Criminal law in Nigeria is largely a state matter, the VAPP Act applies in a state only if that state adopted it, and statutory, customary and Islamic marriages are governed by different law and different courts. Two people with the same facts can have genuinely different options. Get advice from a lawyer who practises where you live — and if cost is the obstacle, ask us, because arranging that is part of what we do.
- This is not medical advice.
- Nothing here is a diagnosis and nothing here replaces being examined. Do not delay seeing a doctor, nurse or pharmacist because of something you read here, and do not start, stop or change any treatment on the strength of it. If something is time critical, go and be seen.
- This is not counselling, and it is not financial advice.
- Articles about trauma, sleep, money, debt, renting or starting a business describe what commonly helps. They are not therapy and they are not a recommendation about your own money. Speak to a counsellor, a qualified adviser or your own bank about your circumstances.
- It may be out of date, or wrong for where you are.
- Law changes, services close, numbers stop answering and practice varies by state. We correct what we find, and we cannot promise that every page is current on the day you read it. Where we do not have something confirmed, we say so rather than fill the gap.
- Reading this does not make us your lawyer or your doctor.
- No professional relationship is created by reading an article, and we cannot accept liability for decisions taken on the strength of one. What we can do is help you reach somebody who is qualified to advise you, which is what the legal and health parts of our work exist for.
- We cannot promise an outcome, and we cannot make anybody safe.
- A protection order is a piece of paper backed by an enforcement system that is inconsistent. A plan works until the day it does not. Anybody in this field promising safety is selling something, and the promise itself is dangerous because it stops people planning.
Do not let this notice stop you acting. If you are in immediate danger, call 112. If something is medically urgent, go to a hospital — you do not need a police report to be treated. And if you do not know where to start, that is a normal way to begin: use the contact page and we will take it from there.
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