Posted in Microfinance, Village institutions, VSLA, tagged ASCA, diversification, India, micro-audit, savings association, village bank on October 16, 2011| Leave a Comment »
No 'village bank' for us!
NGO projects often discourage villagers from joining more than VSLA or other savings association. Why?
While consulting with MicroSave in 2008 I visited Mazarpara village in Lower Assam with Abhijit Sharma of the Indian Institute of Bank Management (Guwahati). In this economically active but poor village near Guwahati ‘accumulating savings and credit associations’ (ASCAs) started over 3 decades ago. The average household (among 72) held investments (more…)
Posted in The village, tagged Cambodia, global village, justice, poverty, rural poverty, village bank on April 17, 2011| Leave a Comment »
Imagine if, each morning as you pulled out of your driveway, you were touched by the gaze of the same child, watching you from the sidewalk. Her gaze is as open and undemanding as the earth, and as curious and deeply conscious as any you’ve received from your own children. She is also visibly poverty-stricken.
I took this photo while visiting a small village bank in Cambodia. Whenever foreigners enter a village there, curious children gather to watch. These two stood quietly on the fringe of my meetings with the village adults for over an hour. (more…)
villagefinance 