Earlier this year Lyndon Swarey and Darin Hershberger conducted a feasibility study for a savings group program in El Salvador. There was a good response from the church leaders and church members in El Salvador for a savings group program there.
We have received board approval and will be moving ahead with hiring a national staff person and training them to start the program. We anticipate that the program will begin forming groups in September of this year.
The goal is to establish five savings groups with 50 participants in the first year of operation. In the second year we would like to assist with the formation of an additional 10 groups and see the number of participants rise to about 300. This program will be operated in partnership with Asociación Servicio Voluntario Menonita de El Salvador. We are eagerly looking forward to what God will do through Open Hands in El Salvador.
