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Brave Warriors - Haiti
The success of the mutuelle concept can be explained in part by konbit,[i] a tradition brought from West Africa that promotes collective agricultural work. People understand how important pooling labor is to individual survival. The mutuelle approach follows a kind of financial rigor that builds upon shared efforts to clear, till or plant fields. Shared responsibility and community resilience form the foundation of a good mutuelle; in addition, mutuelles have been trained to pursue financial self-help.
[i] Donald H. Hill, Caribbean Folklore: A Handbook, p. 65, Greenwood Press, 2007
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Brave Warriors - Haiti
Brave Warriors, a savings group of twenty members in Port-Au-Prince, survived the earthquake and continues to meet each Wednesday night.
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Brave Warriors - Haiti
Brave Warriors, a Savings Group in Port-Au-Prince, still meets despite the devastation of the January earthquake. The group formed in 2007 with the dream of owning and running a bus that transports children to school. The dream in 2011 is still alive but the timeline delayed.
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Brave Warriors - Haiti
This savings group, despite the earthquake of 2010, has managed to continue saving and lending. In November, they celebrated their annual cash-out.
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Brave Warriors - Haiti
This savings group used its Red Box and Green Box loans to help members after the earthquake. Members used loans to start small business (like selling mobile phone airtime), to repair their homes, or for medical expenses. Some lost relatives and used loans for funeral expenses. In December, they celebrated by having a party, and giving gifts to those born in that month.
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The Heart and Soul of MUSO
Haitian savings groups called Mutuelles or MUSOs (Mutuelle de Solidarite), function like savings groups around the world, with an added twist. The Red Box is designed as a social fund and used for emergency purposes; the blue box is for loans that may come from banks and MFIs to add to their pool of credit; and, the Green Box is what they call their savings and loan fund - the fund into which they make their weekly deposits and from which they lend.
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Group in Les Cayes, Haiti
Meeting at the local Church (Caritas DCCH), Active Women of La Borde, are strict with members about weekly fines. This group is disputing one member’s fine.
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Shining Star, Les Cayes, Haiti
Mutuelle participants capitalize on the structural flexibility of this instrument to use their funds in creative ways. One of the mutuelles now part of Shining Star near Les Cayes was able to finance the purchase of a cow for each of fifteen members by 2009, a feat which took years. The group agreed to prioritize its poorest members as the first to receive cows, with better off members waiting their turn until enough funds in the green box had accumulated. The mutuelle was able to approach a local supplier and lock in the prices for every member. This way, while some members waited to purchase livestock, every member knew exactly how much she would need to borrow when the time was right. Prices varied between $200 and $270 depending on the age of the animal. Cows were financed with a combination of green box loans, year-end cash distributions to members, and a sol, which operated in tandem with the mutuelle.
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A group merges
This mutuelle was actually three mutuelles and in 2009, merged into a single one.
In exercising their agency, mutuelle members can expand their financial possibilities. As of July 2009, participants of three small mutuelles decided to merge into a single mutuelle of thirty-seven members by January 2010 in order to accommodate bigger loans. Larger loans could finance members intending to open small shops and meat processing plants. There is often money left over in mutuelle’s green box that can be disbursed as a last minute loan for a household emergency or to take advantage of a sudden business opportunity.
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Haitian Mutuelle
No one knows how many mutuelles operate in Haiti. KOFIP reports it gives credit (blue box) and technical assistance to more than 1,500 mutuelles, but many more organizations support their formation or offer blue box loans.
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A RoSCA in Les Caye
This group of women saves in the traditional Haitian way - they save in their Sol. Each week one member puts in a small amount, say 10 groudes, and the whole group takes the money home. They do this each week until all members have received the full purse. This particular sol also wants to form a savings mutuelle.
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Savings Group Members Complain of Credit Unions in Southern Haiti
This groups in Chevallier calls their savings groups “Their husband,” a far more trust worthy husband than their credit union which in 2003 lost all their funds. They sold animals to find deposit funds to place into a local credit union which promised unusually high returns.
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Jude the Transparent
Jude Jacotin is a star of Haitian Mutuelles. Once an informal moneylender, he saw ‘the light’, and works closely with savings groups in Haiti. He founded Konbatan Vayant (Brave Warriors) from his church. He has also formed a professional savings group in the south of Haiti.