Access to financial capital helps the poor increase income levels, build viable businesses, and reduce financial vulnerability. In developing nations, financial capital is often accessed through micro-credit, coupled with a broader set of tailored financial products, including savings, insurance, and remittances. Microfinance and microenterprise development are recognized  as instruments of change, empowering individuals, especially women, to become economically self-sufficient, and enabling them to do things that we take for granted, like send their children to school, or support the preservation of their environment.

There are no financial services offered in the Amazonian communities where CEN works, so residents must journey five hours to the city of Santarém, just in order to use a bank. Even the receipt of government payments, such as retirement pensions, requires recipients to have a bank account and the trip to Santarém is a large burden for residents, costing both time and money. In addition, the bank deposits are not used to promote economic use within the communities and even when the savings are brought home, they are usually just stashed in a hiding place for an emergency and not circulated within the community.

Complicating this is the fact that there are very few (we know of only one small one) micro-credit operations serving the region where CEN works. Brazilian law severely restricts the number of micro-credit organizations in the country and how they are operated.  The few microfinance organizations that operate in the country focus their outreach efforts on the much larger city markets and coastal communities in the country's Northeastern region, over 1000 km away. Due to these governmental restrictions, and the focus on larger communities, CEN's short-term efforts will focus on the creation of viable rotating savings groups, an action that is allowed under Brazilian law.

In Phase 2 of the cCLEAR program, CEN plans to partner with Eunice Sena, one of the few individuals in the region that has had success in setting up rotating savings groups, to help residents in Suruacá, and Maguari establish similar groups. We will begin by helping potential members build soft skills, such as problem-solving, leadership, and organizing, before guiding them through the process of establishing the actual fund. The establishment of functioning rotating savings group funds will be a huge step forward for residents in these communities.  CEN will teach members how to use local savings to create economic opportunity by providing small loans for the development of new microenterprises and working capital. This will improve economic options within each community, and in turn, raise the income levels of local families, and help reduce the number of young people that leave to find work.

As the communities' capital needs increase beyond that which can be provided through local rotating savings funds, CEN and our local implementation partners will work with established private and public organizations to expand the availability of credit and financial services to the communities.

Microfinance provides the poor with access to basic financial services such as loans, savings, money transfer services, and micro-insurance. Microfinance institutions (MFIs) provide micro-entrepreneurs with access to credit and other financial services that they could not otherwise obtain, raising the quality of life for families and communities around the world.