With our partners, Koru works with small community businesses of Bangladesh, Kenya, in order to implement a complementary currency system.

Bangladesh, Kenya is an informal settlement of approximatly 20 000 inhabitants and 200 businesses located outside Mombasa Kenya - map here. Our first community meetings were mobilized through a local clinic, the local church as well as a youth group. Local business owners were asked to come participate in a 2 hour workshop described briefly as Business Networking.

The purpose of these sessions was to:

1. Gauge business community interest in Complementary Currencies (mutual credit).
2. Identify benefits and challenges of a Complementary Currency
3. Talk about barter and how it is already being used in the community.
4. Talk about how money is used for barter and in general in the community
5. Speak about benefits and challenges of both barter and money.
6. Identify and visualize the existing business networks in the community.
7. Plan next steps.

For a full report on the first two meetings visit:

These meetings will continue in January and help lead the way for base line data collection, community ownership and implementation.