Saving Together to Build Better Lives
The brown, dusty villages in the Dolores Hidalgo area of central Mexico are inhabited mostly by women and children. “We have no husbands or sons,” says one woman, an adult learner, in la Cantera, one of 21 communities served by Proyectos Laubach de la Alfabetización, América Central (PLAMAC) , ProLiteracy’s partner in Guanajuato, Mexico. The woman is explaining the community’s loss of men and boys, most of whom travel north to the United States in search of jobs. Some men are able to find work and send money home to support their families in La Cantera; others are not so fortunate, leaving their families suffer without them. The economic hardship already felt by families in this area is intensified by this out-migration of men, forcing women to explore alternatives to support their families.
The women in la Cantera have found this unity and sustenance in the midst of crisis by forming a savings club. The savings clubs, which are coordinated in conjunction with PLAMAC, are the fir