@THAILAND
LAMPANG : The village bank at Ban Sam Kha is the most basic facility, running on sheer common sense and relying on feedback from villagers who are in debt.
Though lacking technological sophistication and management, the simple, rural bank has proved to be a success story and a model for other villages.
The village bank is the brainchild of Tan Wansuwong, a member of the Sam Kha tambon administration organisation. Today the cash flow of the Ban Sam Kha village bank has reached a high of 10 million baht.
Housed in a shack, the bank offers very little in the way of seating and has no modern gadgets.
But that is no problem for Mr Tan and the other villagers, who hold regular brainstorming meetings on how to run the bank which was set up three years ago.
The bank was established in response to two fundamentally important questions - what drove villagers into debt to predatory lenders and what could be done to break this vicious cycle.
Still in its infancy, the bank's start-up fund came from varying agricultural groups specialising in anything from cow breeding to wood-crafting.
Mr Tan, who the villagers have faith in, was chosen to chair the bank.
"In the past, everything from savings to management was not systemised at all, so we came up with an idea to re-organise it.
"Today, many villagers deposit their money with the village bank instead of the downtown commercial banks," Mr Tan said.
The village bank tries hard to take the strain off every villager by tackling the debts they owe to loan sharks and providing them with cheap loans.
"Every family does book keeping to identify unnecessary household expenses," he said.
He said the bank encouraged people to save.
As the bank expands its work, technology is being progressively introduced by the younger, educated generation of villagers to streamline its database system, replacing the manual filing system.
He said up to 70,000-80,000 baht in monthly revenue is collected from the sale of souvenirs to people on field trips to the model village bank.
Mr Tan said internet technology was a great help to the management of the 10 million baht the bank manages as households with online access can keep a check of the bank's cash flow for transpa-rency.
One of the bank's clients, Nuan Wongpongla, 67, said the village bank had changed his life, from being debt-ridden to debt-free. Now his debts from predatory lenders are all cleared, while his savings in the village bank had grown to 50,000 baht.
Every month 50 baht is deducted from his savings account as medical insurance. Asked what makes him happy, Mr Nuan said it is a life without debt.
"That's for sure," he said, beaming. - Somsak Suksai
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