Table of Contents

What is a “Chama”?

Chamas or VSLAs (Village Savings and Loans groups) began to spring up in the late 1980s in Kenya as a response to a lack of affordable and accessible credit .

• At inception, these informal savings groups consisted of women who were familiar with each other, either by relation, proximity or religious affiliation.
• These self governing groups have evolved to include various loaning mechanisms and staking and rewards systems. Although these groups are unregulated, they do require registration when high thresholds are reached. It is estimated that over 300,000 registered chamas exist today in Kenya, with members collaborating in more than 1 Chama in their lifetime.

Chamas have been used to provide social assistance in times of need, such as this Chama of elderly internally displaced women in Kenya.

<aside> 💡 The Chama DAO is working to bring Kenyan micro-savings systems (Chamas) together with the future of eco-feminist climate financing using blockchain technologies.

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Our collective mission

To cultivate Sovereign Bioregional Regenerative Economies by

• Accelerating the shift towards regenerative land stewardship
• Providing sovereign, verifiable records and creating sustainable economies.
• Leveraging Web3 DAO technologies to enable transparent governance practices.
• Bridging the gap in Global Climate Financing by De-Risking Investments

What we envision