ProLiteracy and FINCA El Salvador

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San Salvador - Lynn Curtis and Alesha Anderson



We joined FINCA El Salvador leaders to launch a collaborative literacy and micro finance pilot project. This project will enable participants within FINCA's network of more than 700 village banks to expand small businesses and start working together to solve local community problems. Funded by Citi Foundation, this project builds on ProLiteracy's Literacy for Social Change methodology and includes a unique business component that strengthens local village banks and mobilizes community resources.



After conducting a two-day training with FINCA loan officers and village bank presidents within selected pilot communities, we accompanied selected teams to village sites to selected banks. The launch activities included a program orientation and kick-off literacy-for-social-change presentation facilitated by the newly-trained local team and FINCA loan officer. The village sessions generated enthusiastic participation and commitment by village bank members. Many of the loan officers plan to extend the program to multiple other banks that they supervise.



We are very excited to continue visiting selected village banks throughout El Salvador next week. As a model for future growth, we expect this project to reach beyond the pilot stage and impact communities nationwide and throughout Latin America.

Comments

  1. Liz Asbury-BrownJune 9, 2010 at 8:22 PM

    Literacy and Finance at its best. This collaboration will provide an opportunity village banks to expand small businesses in an effort to create social change.

    ReplyDelete

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