<p>CREDIT: USAID/ Cote d'Ivoire, Andrea Halverson
</p><p>As women gathered for their savings group meeting, group members met us with a traditional welcome.
</p>
In the mountainous, western city of Man, near Cote d’Ivoire’s border with Liberia, we met women gathering for their regular community savings group meeting. This region was one of the hardest hit during Cote d’Ivoire’s civil unrest, and poverty rates have increased over the past decade. Savings groups combat a common problem in developing countries: lack of access to credit. Through these self-selected groups, members (usually all-women) will share a small portion of their money at each bi-monthly meeting, and are eligible to take loans, with interest, from this shared pool. At the end of the group sharing cycle, the amount that is saved is paid out to the group members. The additional money is making a difference in their lives and in the lives of their children. Almost every woman described using her savings for school fees and school uniforms for her children.
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/people/57424551@N06">USAID in Africa</a>
2013-07-10 15:21
<a rel="nofollow" class="external text" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/usaidafrica/9916697575/">Cote d'Ivoire Women's Savings Group</a>