Comité de Mujeres, so cool

So I am still in Asunción because in Latin America things never really happen when they are supposed to or when people tell you they will. But it looks like I will finally be moving out to Villa Ygatimy next week but who knows. As of now I have been in the office creating a lesson plan and visiting Comité de Mujeres meetings. I am going to tell you all a little about them because I think it is one of the coolest things that this organization does.
These comittees are groups of 15 to 25 women who are receiving a loan from the Fundación as a group rather than as individuals. They receive the loan as a group and they need to make all of the payments as a group. Therefore if one woman gets sick for a week the other women have to/ get to support her by helping her make her payment. They receive three or four month micro-loans and have to pay a their dues every 8 days. This a way to make sure that all the women are going to be able to pay the loans and also helps the women in that they will start to learn about investment and credit. Along with receiving loans the women go through a training about fiscal responsibility, the details of running a business and setting goals for the future. In the past week I have been able to visit a couple of these training sessions and they were amazing. There is also a savings element. Each time they make a payment they have to put a percentage into a savings account.
Both the meetings where held in front of one of the women´s house underneath a tree and we were all drinking Terere (this is a cold version of Mate that people drink here constantly. We are talking on the bus, on the street and even in the gym it is another element of Paraguay that is a mystery to me). I was sitting there immersed in these women´s lives and talking about how to maintain a budget (something I need to learn more about than they do probably). The women were very interested in the trainning and joking around and giving each other crap about going to the hair styler too much. It was great to get out of the office and experience real people. A lot of my time thus far in Paraguay has been spent in a office and you forget about how that really does effect real people and their lives. These Comités are amazing because they bring together many different elements of development and allows for the better of quality of life, my ultimate goal. It empowers these women to have their own business, work directly with loans and other financial institutions but it also creates a support network. They instantly have 14 women who are going to support them through the good times and the bad. The Fundación is currently working on using this Comité as the base for youth projects. One is teaching the children of the Mujeres how to play musical instruments and the other is teaching them how to start saving now at a very young age. It is a way to further establish the sense of community that goes hand in hand with the loans they are receiving. Overall these comités are very interesting and uses a combination of the different elements of development.
One of my new plans for the future is try and spread this idea through the United States. There are some big changes that would have to be made but I think that the basic idea can go work in both places. So if you know of any micro-finance organizations in the Portland area you should let me know.