ANÁLISIS E INTERPRETACIÓN DE RESULTADOS

The community Bank project emerged from the coincident interests between the Baan Rienru community and Mitrapahp Bank. The community had indicated to their allies (the ‘Allies’) that they needed more funding to initiate new investments in the village and to learn about finance and management. At the same time, Mitrapahp Bank had also started to pioneer new credit market by extending a loan service to small-scale investment projects in the rural areas of Thailand, but had, until this time, been unable to reach individual micro lenders because of the anticipated high operating cost. The community’s Allies, who had been working with the Villagers to encourage them to learn to solve their community problems, were the main coordinators who matched these two coinciding interests.

The Villagers and their Allies had invited Mitrapahp Bank to the Baan Rienru community to discuss the possibility of cooperation and mutual benefits. After several meetings, the Community Bank pilot program was initiated with an agreement that Mitrapahp Bank would provide three million baht loan charging minimum interest rate with three-year term, customised Bank operating system for the Community Bank, as well as necessary training and support for the Villagers, who would operate and manage the Community Bank. Given the community’s successful background in designing and managing their own financial group, which they called the

‘Savings Group’, Mitrapahp Bank and the Villagers would learn cooperatively from each other to construct the appropriate banking model for the Community Bank, which was going to be the first villager-managed Community Bank in Thailand. Mitrapahp Bank would be able to lend small loans to individual villagers through this self-managed Community Bank with an inexpensive operating cost. The Villagers would acquire the funding they needed and were able to practically learn about banking and financial management by setting up and managing a real bank.

I was invited to attend the first meeting held at the village and was introduced to the key people of the program by a friend who worked as a consultant for Mitrapahp Bank. After listening to the presentation and discussion, I had become so enthusiastic that afterward I had successfully negotiated myself to become the researcher for Mitrapahp Bank on this Community Bank pilot program. As a researcher, I began to visit the community by travelling with Mitrapahp Bank team on the first several trips. Because of the team’s limited opportunity for regular, extended visits and an invitation from Krue Wai – a prominent woman and the elementary teacher in the village with whom I had become acquainted – for me to stay at her house, I later on decided to travel there, regularly and alone. This was the start of my two-year-long fieldwork involvement with the community.

I visited the village almost every month, each stay lasting about ten days, for two years: I virtually become a permanent resident at Krue Wai’s house. I was very fortunate to stay with Krue Wai, for I became acquainted also with her husband, Jah Choke, who was the one of the most respected community leaders; and with as her daughter, Nat, who was the leader of many projects managed by the Youngsters (whose impact on the project will be discussed later). Through Krue Wai and Nat, I was able to become acquainted with the Youngsters and their parents. In addition, I also had the chance to meet and get to know well the many Villagers who regularly visited Krue Wai and Jah Choke for consultation on various community projects. In the early stages, most of the Villagers did not talk much with me

until we were acquainted: I chose to build trust through friendship. I was invited by the Villagers to join various community activities such as growing and harvesting rice; attending monthly meetings, sports days, yearly rituals and ceremonies, and funerals; community projects such as the Savings Group’s monthly transaction day, English Camp, and building flood- prevention dams. From these activities, I was easily able to become acquainted with other Villagers who otherwise I would have had no chance to meet; through them I learnt details of important community norms and beliefs.

For the Community Bank pilot program, there were four main groups of people including me, who had roles in the development. The first two groups were the Villagers, which I had distinguished them clearly as adult Villagers or the elected committee members and the Youngsters or the Bank clerks. The third group was the Bankers from Mitrapahp Bank. There were two teams: the Bangkok team, whom I worked with and had interviewed and the Lana team. Bangkok team was assigned by the headquarter to provide the necessary Banking infrastructure and knowledge for the Villagers mainly during the development with necessary supports after the establishment of the Community Bank. The local team, on the other hand, was assigned mainly to provide timely supports after the establishment because they were located nearer in the same province. The fourth group was whom the Villagers called ‘Allies’ or ‘Fa’ for facilitators. After the negotiation completed, they had changed their roles to consulting, monitoring the progress of development, and auditing the year-end Community Bank performance. For me, my roles after the program had started were constantly changing. I had attended the meetings and the discussions quite regularly, until the Villagers and the Bankers treated me as if I were one of the participants and asked me for my opinions. I also attended the Banking system trainings with the youngster and helped them at the Bank on Sunday. At the end of the first six months, I helped the Allies audit the performance

activities of the Community Bank, but afterward I had actually participated in everything.

I had obtained data for the case studies mainly from my participation in the program and from the interviews. I had a focus group discussion with the three Bankers from the Bangkok team and four youngsters, but the separate interviews with thirteen committee members and three Allies because they could hardly find corresponding time. The information I had obtained from the four groups portrayed the live images in four different perspectives of Community Bank development.

In the following sections, I will portray each of the four groups in a series of narratives: the Villagers, the Bankers, the Allies, and the Youngsters. These narratives form the first part of a case study of the establishment and development of the Mitrapahp Community Bank in Baan Rienru, Thailand. The material presented in this case study will constitute the data to be used in the interactive evaluation of the implementation of the program.

The idea of using metaphors originated during the reflection between me and my supervisor and from my attempt to describe the situations that each group was facing during the development. The difficulties of explanation coincidently brought up the use of metaphor that surprisingly represented the whole story. In the same way, the metaphor could provide the readers with the preview of the characteristics and story about each group forthcoming. I found the use of metaphor a subtle and creative way to convey a picture of my intricate experience that shaped my understanding about each group.