Pictured above: Divya (on right) with other members of her savings group

Divya’s* son, Rakesh, had been sick for years. His coughing, fevers, and colds were nonstop and left him feeling weak. Eventually, he couldn’t walk even a short distance. She’d taken him to hospitals and doctors in their community in South Asia* but never received a clear diagnosis for his worsening symptoms.

Then she received startling news: “One day, the doctor said that my son had a hole in his heart, and he [needed] to undergo the operation,” Divya recalls. “I was shocked.”

But a second blow was soon to come: how to pay for the procedure without falling into a lifetime of debt.
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