In 2008, Saving for Change (SfC) began training savings and lending groups in a handful of villages in Chalatenango, El Salvador. Today there are 2,183 “Ahorro Comunitario” (“Community Savings”) groups with 40,286 members in place in both El Salvador and in Guatemala. Most of the groups are located in villages at the center of the insurgency that ravaged these two countries from the 1980s through the early 1990s. The analysis and the interviews that follow are drawn from 38 interviews with the trainers (“promotoras”) and volunteers that trained these groups. This document is a testimony to the courage, dedication and hard work of these women and the Oxfam staff who trained and supported them.