This week we are facilitating training sessions with our MUSO micro-finance groups in Pichon! MUSO stands for “Mutual Solidarity” and is a micro-finance initiative that operates in several communities across Haiti. MUSO brings together members of a community and helps them establish a system where they can pool local money to provide small loans to locals, loans that would typically be too small and insignificant to obtain through a bank or lender.
These groups have pooled and loaned out tens of thousands of dollars in their OWN money over the last 5 years; we simply pay for the training sessions! This system works so well because it truly ends up being a community providing for itself and gives more autonomy to the community in the process. Our MUSO groups have given loans to families to help build roofs, pay for kids’ school fees, and even act as a financial safety net during droughts when income is lower than usual.
The groups are always excited to participate in more training sessions to help them run their MUSO more efficiently, so we hired the MUSO training team this week to do just that! The training this week is focused on accountability principles and conflict resolution.
Pictured here is the MUSO training team meeting with MUSO Group Chanje Lavi (Life Changers) in Pichon