Microfinance Success Stories

I've begun beating my drum to the tune of Savings Circles as a way to build a community that can and would wish to support me and Pete as we hitch VARDOFORTWO to a truck and begin Tiny Home life with friends. From the lack of comments so far, I wonder whether the concept of small and intimate financial support systems rings any bells for our readers? I hope in time, the readers who began sharing this Vardo building journey with us will see the possibilities of micro-finance in American/North American/Countries not (yet) defined as part of the identified poor.

While we are waiting for the spark to catch you, I have been out scanning the blosphere for people and stories that might be feeding on the same Stew of Solutions that I enjoy. Today Pete was doing his surf on the net and said, "Take a look at this ..." This turned out to be a story on Fire Dog Lake about a microfinance success story in Ghana. This is just what I was searching for. Beyond my usual travels on the blog trail, Pete led me to a place where I could beat my drum with like-thinkers. Here is the link to that story: http://www.oxdown.firedoglake.com/diary/3812 and the comments that are growing there.

What is a Savings Circle PART II

I was inspired to explore the intimate functions of a Saving Circle sometime late in 2008. The life Pete and I are creating seems to beckon to a method of humanizing our relationship with Value, and in the process reinvent our relationship with money. After more than 15 weeks of regular DREAM COMING TRUE Posts here on VardoForTwo, the shift from spending Dream Money to Saving Circle is to me, a natural progression. A tiny home lifestyle could be better served within a community that knows, trusts and values me, Pete, and all we touch.

Here's what I found in my mailbox a couple weeks ago. The following quotes are from the letter I received from Michelle Mungall of the Circle of Habondia Lending Society, in the West Kooteney Region of British Columbia, CA.

Dear friend,

We are writing you to introduce the Circle of Habondia Lending Soceity, to share our vision and to encourage you to invest in the women of your community. Through the sharing of resoures, we envision a society whee abundance is a way of life ...

From the Circle's Organizing Principles

Habondia, the real abundance, is the power
To say yes and to say no, to open
And to close, to take or to leave
And not to be taken by force or law
Or fear or poverty or hunger or need.

I have a long and varied history as an organizer and leader of future visions. As a young woman, I worked with a band of other young women and designed the first Early Childhood Education Programs where the teacher taught from the child's home. Those programs began Head Start's Home Base proto-type, still alive and well today, thirty some years later.

Something in me loves to spark new possibilities, or meld two existing separate pieces into something yet to be. That's how I feel about inciting the belief that Saving Circles are a hands on real solution to my community's sense of value, worth and resources. Pete and I are nearing our initial goal: Build and live in VARDOFORTWO. Each step of the way ... whether moving forward with a successful materials choice and completed wall or a step backward because my sensitive self could not be with a material, we have shared the journey. Blogging offers a level of transparency uncommon in past histories. Storytelling has reached new heights!

The next step: build a community we can support, and a community that will support us. In a few weeks we will hitch the VARDOFORTWO up to a rented flat bed trailer and make our maiden voyage to the foothills of the Olympics. Two friends with eight acres of Earth are willing to let us park VARDOFORTWO, and the four of us will begin growing a community. A whole chapter opens up to us with that next step.

Gathering and sharing the idea and practical steps involved in forming a Saving Circle is one of the things I will be nurturing this year.

"Informal savings clubs have a long history all around the world...But we have had to wait for the Village Savings and Loan Association movement to show how the same basic principles can be used by, and be useful to, poor and very poor people who, because of illiterarcy or isolation or discrimination, never before had a chance to test out the ideas..." -Stuart Rutherford, author of The Poor and Their Money

Definitions of "financial wealth" and "poverty" in countries like America are changing. Our personal story as a pair of old dears who live within a global society where environmental illness must be 'proven' rather than rectified at its source, has been enough to reinvent wealth and poverty for us. The poll we posted last week showed some interest in Saving Circles. I hope you will email us or leave a comment if your interest includes being part of forming a Saving Circle. We live in Washington state, and would welcome hearing from our neighbors interested in this form of Simplicity and Reconnection. We find ourselves at this stage of life more like the village "poor isolated or discriminated against" and yet, that does not turn us into victims of society. We are very conscious of the systems which challenge us. Equally though, we know what our strengths are and what resourceful souls we are. Our journeys (separately and together) define these strengths and our values. This blog is all about transformation. There is room for transformation in the way we support, save and value our resources.

I'll close this week's post with this excerpt from the book Village Savings & Loan Associations Chapter 1 "How the methodology works".

" The basic principle of the VSL system is that members of a self-selected group voluntarily form a VSLA and save money, in the form of shares...
The primary purpose of a VSLA is to provide simple savings and loan facilities in a community that does not have access to formal financial services. Loans can also provide a form of self-insurance to members, supplemented by a social fund that provides small but important grants and interest-free loans to membes in distress...
All transactions should be carried out at meetings in front of all the members of the association, to ensure transparency and accountability. To ensurce that transactions do not take place outside the regular meetings, a lockable cash-box is used, both to prevent unauthorized cash movement and to avoid the risk that records might be tampered with."

Here a link to another view of GROUPS in collaboration, 'Giving Circles.' There are ideas for forming a 'Giving Circle that might incite you to start one of your own, or transform these basic steps into a Savings and Giving Circle in your community.

Timing is divine and the time is now. Cheers, Mokihana

DREAM COMING TRUE WEEK 15 HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY

These weekly Dream Coming True posts have been a good exercise in consistency. This week I've decided to expand the Dream Coming True with a series of articles called "What is a Saving Circle?" The first one is already posted ... check it out. So, rather than growing my DREAM MONEY, I'm choosing to grow the dream of acting as if there are people interested and willing to learn about REAL Resource Building.

So, I begin DREAM COMING TRUE WEEK 15 with: Part I of "What is a Saving Circle?" posted on VARDOFORTWO. Rather than dream money, I start with an investment of education ... something of value to me. This is the only part of the process that changes.

The 10 things I appreciate this week are:

1. I appreciate chocolate bars without soy lecithin.

2. I appreciate DQ chocolate dipped cones. (the secret is out!)

3. I appreciate knowing "I don't know is a good answer."

4. I appreciate delightful surprises.

5. I appreciate shore birds flying.

6. I appreciate goofy friends.

7. I appreciate sweet hearts.

8. I appreciate the taste of black cherry jam.

9. I appreciate new solutions.

10. I appreciate Pete.


Happy Valentine's Day tomorrow dear readers, tomorrow is Valentine's Day and the first of the three days of `Ole Days. We will rest from posts until Tuesday of next week, the 17th of February.

Have some fun today.
Cheers! Mokihana

What is a Savings Circle PART I ? Expanding The Dream Come True

There's a new poll here on VARDOFORTWO, the first one of the year. The question we're asking is: 'WOULD YOU JOIN A SAVINGS CIRCLE?" As I begin writing this post, two of us ... that is me and one other person have voted. There is an interest, I'm glad to know that. What I'd like to do over the next few weeks, as part of my DREAM COMING TRUE projects and weekly posts, is to answer the question, "What is a Savings Circle?"

Pete and I have personal interests and curiosity about the practical application of Savings Circles, Lending Groups and Community Based Alternatives to the large banking and financial structures. We have owned a home together, lived briefly with a small mortgage, and when the challenges of living in a home that could not be safe from chemical intrusion led to selling that home we have been on the move in a parallel universe to the 'large banking and financial structures.'

As my friend Akemi Gaines would probably say, "in plain English" we have experienced living by our wits, managing the challenges of finding safe housing and resources to raise the level of our well-being without regular 'employment' or monetary in-flow. The sale of the homestead on O`ahu has financed our journey to building VARDOFORTWO. 99% of the expenses for traveling, eating, paying rent, well-ness expenses and materials to build VARDOFORTWO comes from the sale of that homestead. We are a cash and carry couple, with minimal debt, no mortgage and a soon to be tiny home that will be simple to maintain and become part of the solution for re-building the definitions for COMMUNITY.

The attraction of SAVINGS CIRCLES started when I first learned about KIVA. A friend gifted me with a small amount of money that I could invest in supporting a village entrepreneur in a developing nation ... a nation outside the North American Continent. I explored KIVA and was fascinated by the intent and application of one-to-one micro finance. Soon after that initial experience with KIVA, the effects of Multiple Chemical Sensitivities spun us like wooden tops off a length of string ... there was no homebase. We became one of the tribe of the streets ... the tale of Sam and Sally is a storyteller's version of our truth. Like thousands of others who live with and cope with the challenges of loss (in any and all forms) we have struggled, survived and then there is something else. There is hope and that hope grows. Why? Because when I realized that this life is about transformation answers come from every where.

The success and model of small, personal groups and circles of people throughout the world -- mainly women to begin with, led me to reaching out to grassroots models closer to me. As we have gained physical, emotional and spiritual strength over the months, here in Seattle, I sense the need to attract a resource and financial process that would be in sync with our growing awareness of 'enoughness.' Like the village of Bangladesh where The Grameen (Village) Bank
created micro-credit programs giving women access to credit, I recognize how important it is to see that we ... more and more of us ... need to create a system of resource-growth and loaning that is REAL...responsible to all, equally available to the group, anthropomorphic (answerable to all that is) and loving to its member. Sound too simple; or maybe too idealistic? Can you get your head around the idea? What ever you think or feel about it ... I hope something tingles in you as you read this. Let us know in the comments.

Like I said in the beginning of this post, this is a start to answering "What is a Savings Circle?" It will take time to educate and that time is an important investment. I have gathered information to educate myself and Pete. Those resources are included with this post. Check them out yourself, if you're interested in learning more, the examples of savings circles and loaning societies exist. I am not sure exactly what will come of my exploration, however I know it is a path worth pursuing. VARDOFORTWO is an alternative reality for most, and yet it is a reality for a few. That is a good omen. We have set a soft target of Spring Equinox as the time when VARDFORTWO hitches to the perfect truck and moves us to our first encampment. That's just a little over a month from today.

A few willing and hard-working souls with a clear vision for starting small and building strong is a good foundation for community. Those of us who have or are living with the challenging yet incredibly empowering daily experiences of transformation could use a circle of support ... why not have one of those circles be a SAVINGS CIRCLE? Here are the resources I am using to envision a savings circle. The following excerpt comes from the preface of the the book Village Savings & Loan Associations A Practical Guide by Hugh Allen and Mark Staehle. We are the village it seems to me, and that is a good thing to know.

"...Village Savings and Loan Associations (VSLAs), based in the community, are complemantary to MFIs(microfinance instituions), tending to serve the very poor whose income is less reliable and who may not be full time business people. Their principal need is for services that help to (i) manage their household cash flow and (ii) that provide useful lump sums for life-cycle events--which may or may not include income generation. These people tend to be economically vulnerable and to live in rural areas that are served only intermittently by local markets, at the periphery of the national economy..."

SAVINGS CIRCLE RESOURCES:

Circle of Habondia Lending Society "Investing in Women & Community" is based in the Kootenay Region of British Columbia, Canada
http://www.habondia.kics.bc.ca/

Village Savings & Loan Associations A Practical Guide a book available through Amazon.com and www.practicalactionpublishing.org

Asian American Women Giving Circle is a New York City based group with a mission of pooling and giving resources to Asian women who are serving the community, and would other wise be unsupported in their efforts.
http://www.asianwomengivingcircle.org/news.htm

KIVA
www.kiva.org

GRAMEEN Bank in Bangledesh
http://www.grameen-info.org/