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In the UK, Didlum clubs used to be common among working class communities.
During the Windrush period (1948-1971), half a million people were brought to the UK to work from the Caribbean, but many racist banks and businesses refused to serve them. Pardna became a lifeline for families to afford homes, cars and businesses. Many of the millions of slaves that were trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean and Americas by the British and others had already used pardna to buy their freedom.
Sharing is a good idea. It enables common projects, brings individuals out of hardship and ties communities together. That’s why savings clubs appear again and again - even under the most difficult circumstances.
The Banker Ladies
Studies show that women are more likely to run and use savings clubs than men. Caroline Shenaz Hossein has researched these ‘Banker Ladies’ and produced a short documentary.
Why doesn’t everyone do it?
The first banks were groups of wealthy men who shared the gains of their lending business. Today, we’d call that a credit union. But as more people moved into cities, and money became more important, ordinary people wanted to put their wages somewhere safe. The wealthy bankers didn’t want to share the profits of the business with everyone so they distinguished between shareholders and customers.
In many societies, profiting too much at the expense of others or hiding away your private gain is seen as stealing from the community. In fact, many religions used to prohibit charging interest and some still do because of the effect it has on people, driving inequality and separation.
But in other places, it became common to think of all property as private, and to accept that in 2020 it would take an Amazon warehouse worker 8 weeks to earn as much money as CEO Jeff Bezos makes in a single second.
It has never been more important to change how we do things.
The culture of searching for the largest profit on personal investments instead of investing in community is driving inequality and harming our planet and climate.
This everyone-for-themselves mindset works best for the giant corporations that give the largest rewards to their shareholders. Today, these are oil companies, weapons manufacturers, technology corporations and other big businesses.
While a wealthy few get even richer, the potential of so many human beings is diminished by unequal opportunities, and our ability to withstand crises together is reduced. By saving with your community, you create equal opportunities through access to interest free money.
We have the power to change the situation when we work together.
Ethical. Traditional. Radical.
Kin was founded to change our financial culture by enabling simple, safe, social saving clubs.
Our mission is to connect people and communities; to enable community groups to build towards shared initiatives including home retrofits, community solar, or the direct takeover of community assets and to create a community-led financial system.
Kin is a cooperative, which means that everyone that uses and works for Kin is an equal member and shareholder. Each member has a democratic vote in the general assembly, the body that makes all the important decisions about the organisation. And Kin is not-for-profit, which means money stays in the community.
Kin is not a bank or credit union for two reasons. First, banks and credit unions are in the lending business - Kin doesn’t lend money, Kin enables mutual aid between autonomous groups. Second, we want to help build relationships between people, not between individuals and Kin.
When you contribute to your group, the money belongs to your group, not to Kin and not to you. That’s how we build trust.
Invest in the people who will pick you up.