El Salvador
I was excited to bring Saving for Change to Latin America. I had spent my Peace Corps service working with small farmers in Ecuador as they advocated for land rights, and I had later worked with Accion International to develop microfinance in the region.
Bringing savings groups to Latin America also gave me a chance to see how the model would thrive in El Salvador, where I had first learned about microfinance twenty-five years earlier. We began with a feasibility study in Chalatenango at the invitation of the Oxfam America regional office in El Salvador.We were drawn to El Salvador for several reasons. One was the high rate of both poverty and income inequality. In terms of income, El Salvador is one of the most unequal countries in Latin America and the Caribbean.1 The wealthiest 20 percent of the population controls almost half of the country’s wealth, while the poorest 20 percent controls just 6 percent of wealth. Within El Salvador, Chalatenango is one of the poorest regions. Half of the population lives below the poverty line, and while one in five children nationwide suffers from malnutrition, in the poorest provinces, like Cha- latenango, the rate doubles to 40 percent.2 Chalatenango was heavily affected by El Salvador’s civil war and its border with Honduras became a main site of refugee movement. We branded Saving for Change as Ahorro Comunitario (Community Savings) and selected Chalatenango as the place we would start.