To and Within – Savings with Education

By Kellie McDaniel

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This is the second half of our Microfinance Workshop blog. The first blog by Episcopal Service Corps Intern Angela Kim describes the experience of being a participant in the workshop. In this blog, Program Officer Kellie McDaniel relays her experience of being the facilitator of the savings workshop.

Welcome. My name is Mama Narciza and I am a Facilitator with the Center for Diocesan Development Projects – Diocese of Guatemala. I am here to explain how my organization and I can help women in your community to form a savings group, save money, take and repay loans, and to give each other support and encouragement…

Ok, you got me, my name is Kellie McDaniel and I work for Episcopal Relief & Development. If I were one of our partners in a community meeting, promoting Saving with Education, this is how I would introduce the program before facilitating an interactive session that compares current community savings and loan practices with our program activities.

This year I took on the role of Mama Narciza, an actual facilitator in the Silvia-Guambia region of Colombia, twice, in an attempt to present our Micro-finance Strategy and demonstrate the education tools at our disposal.  Our strategy, which encourages an asset-based community-development model, is to leverage existing group networks, e.g. farmers, mothers, and malaria agents, and integrate community-based savings group activities into existing projects.

We target populations living in poverty who need to use financial services to meet a range of needs (such as education, household consumption, medical needs, and emergencies) just like you and me. The difference perhaps is that an unexpected event or financial shock will not push us further into poverty, nor will it affect when, and if, we and our children get to eat.

Most recently, I led meetings (role-playing sessions!) with the Episcopal Relief & Development Board and with my fellow NY and Ghanaian staff. Each person was given an index card with the description (name, age, number of children, literacy level, business, and dream) of a person who is in a savings group in one of the countries where we work.  Little did I know the extent to which our Board members and staff are gifted with creativity and the sensitivity to really engage with their identities.  I dare say the role-playing, and maybe not the powerpoint, led to interesting questions and rich discussions as well as a deeper understanding of our work and the people we serve!

I hoped, of course, knowing that we each bring our own talent and assets to our work.  I appreciated the group being able to identify strategies and lasting personal and group solutions amidst the skepticism and Matthew 25-inspired concerns around individual hunger, poverty, disaster, and illness. These conversations were not too different from the ones I’ve had while leading savings workshops in our program countries. In both contexts, the groups were able to look past the seeming scarcity of their situation, and look into the rich resources available to them and within them.

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Kellie McDaniel is a Program Officer for Episcopal Relief & Development.

 

 

Images: Top, Program Officer Kellie with youth from Silvia-Guambia, Colombia. Middle 1, Savings group in Guatemala. Middle 2, Savings group in Silvia-Guambia. Bottom, Savings Trainers in Silvia-Guambia.