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* REPORT : 6
A letter on the progress of the savings Group. "Grupo de Ahorradores de Leticia" in Colombia.
Letter from Columbia:
Grupo de Ahorradores de Leticia, Amazonas. Colombia. Arturo Londono.
Dear Joel
First of all we want to say hi, and we hope that you, your family and the savers group are fine.
We want to tell you that we continue to save money every day in the way you and Celine taught us. Currently, we are ninety disciplined savers, grouped in nine small groups. So far we have saved $ 27.000.000 (US $ 13.500.aprox.) including Fundacion Gaia's aid (Fundacion Gaia matches one peso for each peso we save.
Since the beginning of this process we've been lending money to savers, using a credit system that allows to pay back in the way and time they can.
The decision to lend the money is taken by each "circle" the person belongs to, and it depends on the amount of money they've saved.
We continue with the purpose of developing a " Housing Program". For this reason we've trying to buy 20 Ha. of land property of the Colombian Navy in Leticia. We can pay in cash, more or less, half of the asking price, which is aprox. US $ 15.000 and we would need to find funding for the other 50 %.
Unfortunately here in Colombia, it has been impossible to find national institutions to support our housing project. We would like to find and/or contact international organizations that can lend us the money we need. In addition, we are trying to create a "Productive Projects Fund" to fund productive initiatives. Our savers are in urgent need to develop sustainable livelihoods, due to the rising unemployment and the economic crisis in Leticia and in Colombia.
We would like to know if the South Africansavers group can support us through a loan of US $ 15.000. If this is possible we would agree the terms of the loan. We would like to develop a strong relationship with the South African group.
Finally in name of all the women and savers of "Grupo de Ahorradores de Leticia" we want to invite you and members of your group to visit us to see by yourself the actual state of our process.
Sincerely
Grupo de Ahorradores de Leticia, Amazonas. Colombia
Arturo Londono.