A Bank in the Process

The original idea was to start a savings program within our group of 5 ladies. At one of the meetings, we talked about the importance of saving. We asked that they try to save 3 soles a week (roughly $1). Through our conversations, we found out that 3 of our ladies are apart of another group of ladies (there are 7 in this group) whom are saving 5 soles a day, per person. They group members are free to take out loan, interest free, one at a time, and then have a few months to pay it back. The idea is amazing, and it got us thinking…

We went into town to see if we could assist the ladies, of our group, in opening up their own accounts at some of the banks (this is something they have never dreamed of). Each bank we went to seemed to give worse information. For savings, each had a maintenance fee for amounts under $1,000 USD, and some charged as much as 10% a month (however they happily informed us they offer .10% of interest, monthly…). Opening a checking was equally as bad. We quickly decided this was not going to work.

Word got around quickly that we were allowing people in the community to save their money with us. As of today, we have 12 members (some of our girls at POPPYS House are also starting to save with us), and most are saving fairly regularly. We offer no interest as of yet, but a save haven to store money. From our experience, the people want to save, but if they see the money, there is ALWAYS something to spend it on. With that in mind, we started collecting money at their doorstep, Sunday –Thursday, in order to assist in this dilemma; this has been beautiful, but also challenging meshing it with our schedule at POPPYS House (now that the other missionary from WWU has gone home, I am doing this by myself). This is an incredible idea, and one that could really help this community. Keep this program in your prayers as it continues to grow!