Community currency thriving in Kenya’s slums

In the slums of Kenya, money is especially scarce. Still, the residents are productive and have plenty of goods and services to offer one another. American social entrepreneur Will Ruddick, together with hundreds of local enterprisers, has found a way to create supplemental exchange media that enable them to trade with one another despite the lack of Kenyan shillings.

Here’s a new video about their Bangla-Pesa currency that they have created in Bangladesh, a slum area of Mombasa.

http://youtu.be/qNOjVyz7e_4?list=PLPUExzwZAUpZgrTqH55aAV2tjlohT_qlD

And, here’s a recent TV news report, which is described as follows:

Published on Apr 10, 2014. When news of the complementary currency branded Bangla-pesa first broke out, claims arose that it was linked to the proscribed Mombasa Republican Council, MRC, and its secessionist agenda, almost spelling doom for the project. A year later, we returned to Bangladesh slum in Mombasa county where the vouchers were first launched, and discovered that not only has the program grown in leaps and bounds, but plans were afoot to roll it out in different slum in the region.

http://youtu.be/CFlolsjwdWY?list=PLPUExzwZAUpZgrTqH55aAV2tjlohT_qlD

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