What Oxfam is Doing
Through our Saving for Change program, Oxfam helps poor people in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Cambodia improve their livelihoods and build a better future by increasing their access to financial services. We accomplish this by:
- Supporting village groups that act as their own community banks. Savings group members save, lend, and pay each other interest. In this way, they don’t need to take on debt from a credit provider, moneylender, or intermediary.
- Providing villagers with a safe place to save and easy access to loans. Villagers can use these loans to start small businesses or buy much-needed supplies for their families.
Joining Saving for Change groups also benefits members in other ways. As more women participate in the program, they gradually change how they think about themselves and their place in their family and village. In Mali, group meetings provide a forum for villagers to learn how to prevent and treat malaria. In Cambodia, Saving for Change participants learn about the System of Rice Intensification (SRI), a new way of growing rice that increases productivity while decreasing the use of pesticides and harmful chemicals.
Learn more about how Saving for Change works.
Read stories about people participating in Saving for Change.
Success in Africa and Asia
Since Saving for Change was launched in April 2005, more than 100,000 poor women and men in Mali, Senegal, Burkina Faso, and Cambodia have joined savings and lending groups. Members have saved a total of nearly $1.3 million so far—and the program continues to grow.
| Country | Savings Groups | Members | Cumulative Savings (US$) |
|---|---|---|---|
| Mali | 2,764 | 61,325 | 777,955 |
| Senegal | 241 | 5,673 | 41,066 |
| Burkina Faso | 63 | 1,537 | 2,005 |
| Cambodia | 2,253 | 35,465 | 443,311 |
| Totals | 5,321 | 103,910 | 1,264,338 |