Tanaporn from SED shares her experiences working with Village Banks in Surin province.

Chiang Mai - Nearly 30 women met this past weekend to network and share their experiences with Village Banking in Thailand. Common Interest Foundation hosted its annual conference in Chiang Mai this week in an effort to promote and encourage village banking in Northern Thailand. During the past year, 12 new village banks were started in Chiang Mai province with a combined membership of nearly 600 rural women.

Village Banking is a common methodology in microfinance. Women in rural villages form groups and save money. The group then lends it savings back to individual members as income generating loans. While relatively new in Northern Thailand, it is very common in other regions such as India (where it is referred to as Self-Help Groups). In Surin province, an organization called SED has been operating a similar methodology for over 12 years.

Four members from Surin province attended the women’s conference and shared their experience with Village Banking to their Northern cousins. This included sharing of problems, success and tips on how to make the system more efficient.

Khun Ruun from Surin is the President of her local Village Bank. Her group of 26 started saving together 8 years ago. They now are a group of 500 and have a total fund of 3 million baht. Not only do they have savings and loans but their group provides their own hospital and life insurance to its members. For 10 baht a month, all members receive 10 000 baht life/funeral insurance, 3000 baht for delivery of a baby and 100 baht per day in the hospital.

Chiang Mai leaders were very impressed by the Surin groups and hope to do the same here. For more information on the village banking system, contact SED (Surin) or Common Interest Foundation (Chiang Mai).