Microsavings up close
After a day of program background and talking to local partners yesterday, I was pumped to see Oxfam’s Saving for Change groups in action. These groups of 15-25 women meet each week to put their savings in the cash box (each woman saved 50 cents each in the groups we saw today) and make loans to group members using the group savings.
Things I really like about the model:
-It’s designed for women who are illiterate and this clearly works in practice. All if the record keeping is done orally and all trainings are done with picture-based manuals so that an illiterate woman can even train a new group
-The women cite group solidarity as a primary benefit of the group. Over and over today, they talked about how beneficial the group dynamic is.
-Women can get loans for health or other emergencies quickly and easily. Even better, the women talk about how great this is and how it relieves stress to know they can take care of there children if something comes up.
More soon…
