Personal Savings Bank

Most of the villagers who live in the villages in which we work are either tenant farmers who do not own their own rice-producing land, or they own only a very small parcel of land. Without owning the rice-producing land, it is extremely challenging to grow enough rice to make it all the way through the dry season.

Our Personal Savings Bank program is based on a very successful model used by other development groups, such as the Tabitha Foundation. It simply allows the villagers to put aside a bit of money on a weekly basis during the wet growing season, when they are earning money, and save that money at a very modest interest rate. The interest rate is the same rate the bank would pay if these villagers had the money to establish a bank account (which they do not). So, functionally, it is a community-based savings bank which each villager can draw upon on the basis of their personal pass-book.

The villagers create their "dream" for their savings. Their dream might be to buy a pig, or buy books, or send a child to post-secondary education. Whatever the dream, they can save through the Personal Saving Bank program.