Prey Chou village is located in the Pol Pel commune, Trakak district, Takeo province. There are 237 families in this village. There are 3 different collective savings groups within the village, which are a VFA, a women’s group and a youth group. All three of these groups were formed through facilitating support from the project.
The VFA was set up in 2005. Now, the association has 25 members with a total capital of 5,133,000 riels. The women’s group was formed in November 2008 and it currently has 15 members and a capital of 1,698,300 riels. Additionally, the youth group was formed in February 2009. There are 15 members within the youth group with a capital of 668,100 riels.
Therefore, 55 out of 237 total families in the village are members of savings groups, which is equal to 23% of the total families. The total capital in those saving group is 7,499,400 riels (approximately 1800 USD). Based on interviews with the representatives of those saving groups, the saving groups are very important for the group members and other villagers because the groups enable them to access saving and credit services that are provided from within their own village.
According to the group representatives and the group members, they are happy with the groups because they improve solidarity and mutual help among the group members and members learn about new agricultural knowledge and practical experiences from other members during the monthly meetings. This knowledge enables them to improve their own agricultural practices and increase their family income as a result.
The interviews revealed the following positive aspects of these savings groups:
- The management committee members demonstrate good commitment because they volunteer to work for the group members without being paid for services.
- The process of operating saving and credit services is good. The group members save money and repay the loans to the groups regularly.
- The monthly meeting is organized and occurs consistently, so that the group members can follow up with the progress of their groups and can also learn new ideas at the meeting as well.
- The village chiefs willingly participate and cooperate. The village chief is also a member of the savings group. The chief adds support and cooperation and his presence is really important because the village chief will give his signature on the group’s loan contracts.
However, the group representatives mentioned the following weak points of the groups:
- A few members do not save regularly. Normally, the members need to deposit their savings at regular meetings, but a few of the poorest families do not have money to deposit during the meeting, so they pay in monthly savings after the meeting day.
- The amount of capital saved is low so that the saving capital of the group only slightly increases from month to month.
- The collective savings of the youth groups is as good as the other groups. Some adult members would like to withdraw from the group.
- Some members of the management committees of the groups are not fully involved in group management because they are busy tending to their personal work and duties.
Group representatives and group members said during these interviews that they want to form a network of all the savings groups in the villages, to increase the number of group members to reach 50% of all families in the village and to increase the amount of capital available to provide credit services to group members and other villagers. Once the saving groups have sufficient capital, the groups’ can help reduce the cash outflow to outsiders. Finally, they want to improve group management.
In general, the farmers have a good understanding of the advantages of collective saving. Additionally, by setting up savings groups, farmers can access credit for investing in agricultural practices. Also important, the savings groups are helpful in preventing huge amounts of money from flowing out of the villages to outsiders.
