villagefinance

Bridging the gap between tallies and modern counting.

Daniel Kish has been blind since he was two. He taught himself physical navigation using ‘echolocation’. When he clicks his tongue the departing and returning sound waves tell him what objects and surfaces are nearby. He now teaches blind people echolocation at his non-profit, World Access for the Blind.

Kish’s mother taught him to expect a normal life, and not to take his limitations as fate. His method works by tapping the strengths of blind people instead of reminding them of their limitations.

We could expect villagers to live normal lives too, but in microfinance we don’t. I recently conducted numeracy tests with village women in Cambodia and India. I gave them $20 or $30 in their currency and asked them to write the number, or recognize it from a list. A majority couldn’t do either. To buy chickens and borrow rice they don’t need to know either positional notation, or the role of zero in digit strings. But in many developing societies a $250 loan can require a 6- or 7-digit number (e.g., $1 million Cambodian riels).

In this situation, managing a formal saving or loan account can be frightening and profoundly limiting. A tally-based guide to positional notation like the one at the right links a villager’s accustomed method of counting with our modern code, creating a bridge between the two worlds. Why not include one in microfinance passbooks?

If we expect the best from villagers, we may surprise ourselves. Ask Daniel Kish.