El Quetzal Savings Group

There are a lot of things I love about FH.

Our team. Our leadership. Our fields. Our programs. Our philosophy of sustainability and innovation in all things.

But one of my very favorite things at FH is learning about and from our Savings Groups.  {You might remember in January when I met the Rose Savings Group in Bangladesh.} Today we met El Quetzal Savings Group in Guatemala.

Y’all these women were such an inspiration.

Leadership of El Quecal

For the last five months, they have met every two weeks and it is serious business…

So serious that you are fined if you are late.

So serious that they have a secretary that keeps a record of the minute by minute.

Juana

 

So serious that they log in every donation, every loan, and every repayment.

Register

So serious that at the close of the meeting the treasurer safely guards the moneybox and to eliminate any risk of impropriety the box is adorned with THREE locks all with different keys held by different members.

Money Box

They’ve already saved the equivalent of four hundred US dollars. They’ve already loaned money to help grow a wood-making business, to expand the inventory of a small local retailer, and to buy yarns and threads for an innovative entrepreneur who hires seamstresses to make fabric and weave tops to sell at a profit. And they’ve already made their husbands proud {what guy wouldn’t beam at the thought of his wife turning her pocket change into investments}.

The best part, these women are not only learning how to save and invest money. They are learning how to trust, how to lead and how to be disciplined. And they are learning how to live in community with one another.

I love that savings groups are part of the work that FH does in communities around the world that are supported by child sponsorship. It gives mothers to the opportunity to invest in their children’s futures in a new way.

Sponsor a child from FH today. 

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Lindsey has a sincere love for her precious dogs Molly and Maisy, a good red wine and the Delta Sky Club.

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