My Oral Village is pleased to share the findings from our first round of usability testing for an OIM version of GNU Taler, in Freetown, Sierra Leone, in May 2025. Our goal, in collaboration with Luxembourg-based Taler Systems, Inc, is to design a mobile payments interface that enables a safe and pleasant experience for users…
After following several months of planning and field work in eight locations around Sierra Leone, My Oral Village is delighted to announce the completion of the first full version of the Salone OIM Library. This free, open source resource will be available to all stakeholders of financial inclusion in the country, under the stewardship of…
We are delighted to welcome Jennifer Denomy to the Board of Directors of My Oral Village | Lighting the path out of poverty! Jennifer has more than 15 years of experience designing and delivering programs focusing on gender equality and social inclusion around the world. She specializes in youth and women’s empowerment, sustainable and inclusive…
Today we are very excited to announce the execution of a contract with the Fund for Innovation and Transformation, funded by Global Affairs Canada, to create the free, open source ‘Salone OIM Library’ (SOL). The first project of its kind, SOL features a collaboration between MOVE, the New Salone Woman Organization, the central bank and…
My Oral Village completes a collaboration with Global Communityin South Omo, Ethiopia. ‘WE Record!’ designed a full OIM solution for ‘Women Empowered’ Savings Groups. Ability to correctly identify a 3-digit written number rose from 7% to 46% at endline, and 23 group members learned to keep records, including 18 who had never attended school. A…
My Oral Village signs a supplementary agreement with Global Communities to develop a full OIM solution for savings group ‘share-out’. Share-outs are cyclical distribution of savings groups’ accumulated savings and profit, sometimes referred to as ‘audits’ adapted to the needs of oral communities, since they prove to group members that the funds in the group…
The ‘Calendars and Cash’ project in Himalayan Pakistan is now complete. The use of an OIM solution combining savings group records and a mother-and-child health calendar supported a large increase in the ability to read and write 4-5 digit ordinal numbers and – unexpectedly – an increase in personal mobility for many participating women. The…
My Oral Village launches a project (‘Oral Financial Diaries in Bangladesh’) funded by The Gojo Foundation, with implementing partners the Hrishipara Daily Diaries Project and Microsave Consulting. Can poor adults learn how to keep personal and confidential financial diaries, even without literacy? Such skills can be critical to escaping povety. We will strive to design…
Financial inclusion in the Anthropocene by Brett Matthews was published in the Fletcher Forum of Global Affairs. The opinion piece considers the potentially critical role that oral cultures can play in helping the human species adapt to and alleviate human-induced climate change, and the ways in which the practice of financial inclusion can support this…
Today the My Oral Village community warmly welcomes Xavier DeBane to the board of directors. Xavier is well-suited for the new role. Currently Vice-President of Enterprise Strategy and Transformation at ManuLife Financial, his previous experience includes stints as a foreign aid officer in Vietnam and a project leader at the Boston Consulting Group in Mumbai….
Today My Oral Village signed a contract with the University of Alberta to develop an OIM solution for savings groups in the Himalayan villages of Skardu and Kharmang districts, in northern Pakistan. With financing from Global Affairs Canada’s Fund for Innovation and Transformation, Dr. Salima Meherali of U of A’s Nursing Faculty is investigating the…
Today the founder and executive director of My Oral Village presented the OIM solution designed for Sierra Leone’s credit unions at the AGM of the Irish League of Credit Unions in Belfast, on invitation from the ILCU Foundation.