Monday afternoon, 11 January 2010, a month after the disbursement of the loans, we had our first reimbursement meetings with both groups, Sagrado Corazón de Jesús and Unidos Para el Desarrollo. Both meetings were very successful, we had only one person missing from each group and everyone (including the two missing - by giving the payment to a co-member) paid back the full installment.
We started off by reading out loud the bylaws they have come up with the previous meetings, regarding the consequences of not attending or coming late to a meeting and of not paying the installment. They have decided these consequences to be fines, i.e. they would pay a few Nuevos Soles into a money safe (to be used for all their savings and fines) we have provided them with, which forms a communal money pot - money to be spent on anything agreed upon mutually at the end of the cycle.
We asked the treasurer, secretary and president of each group to sit behind a table. Each participant was called up one by one to hand over the money to the treasurer, who would count it, sign the persons payment booklet, and who at the end separated the savings from the capital and put the former in the money safe, which is kept by the treasurer (the key stays with the president, to ensure one person cannot misuse the available funds). In addition to taking attendance, the secretary checked the money handed over to the treasurer and filled in a savings table to keep track of the amount going into the money safe. Normally, (s)he would also takes note of any decisions made at the meeting or of any situation which may be out of the ordinary, but there was nothing to note in either of these two meetings.
After having finished the more “formal” part of the meeting, we were able to spend some more time talking to the participants, asking them how they were doing and how things were developing regarding their economic activity.
.JPG)
