Today was our third day to visit communities in Bangladesh. We had amazing day in another sweeper community outside of Dhaka. We visited with some families that are affected by FH’s work. Here’s a post I wrote for the Catalyst blog on the savings groups that we’ve seen impacting each community. PS – I just got my ticket for Catalyst West. I sure hope to see you in Orange County in April.
One of the things that I’ve been so impressed by during our time in Bangladesh is our savings group model. It is obvious that these savings groups are the bedrock of our work in Bangladesh. They allow us to impact a community wholistically. Not only do the groups allow women to save for a future together, also they give the women the rare opportunity to learn to read and write, develop small businesses, raise healthy families, strengthen their communities, learn leadership skills, discover their rights, and prevent childhood marriages.
Currently FH has over 900 groups across 7 areas of Bangladesh. We have chosen to run learning and savings groups in these areas as they are particularly needy and vulnerable places, where women can be deprived or mistreated. In many of these places FH originally carried out emergency relief work in response to natural disasters. Eventually our groups help disaster torn communities to develop and recover in a sustainable way. Click here to read more.
Have you heard of savings groups before? If so, I’d love to hear about when and how?
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