Pardner Rewards Club - Hines Designs

Exclusive Windrush Pardner Rewards

PARDNER - BACK THEN

In 1948, the British Government invited skilled workers from the Caribbean to emigrate to the UK to help rebuild the nation after the Second World War. In response to that invitation, the ship MV Empire Windrush, sailed across the seas from the island of Jamaica to the island of Britain, carrying over 800 Caribbeans from various Islands, to start a new life. However, many of our Windrush Pioneers were met with prejudice and hostility, instead of the warm welcome that they had been promised. When looking for accommodation to rent, it was usual during those times to see signs in windows of houses where rooms were available to rent, stating “No dogs, no Blacks and no Irish”.

Despite being a valuable contribution to society by securing paid and regular work, our Windrush Pioneers were denied basic banking services, such as being able to open a bank account. This made it impossible to obtain a bank loan or mortgage to buy a home; a car; appliances; save for an emergency or make other major financial steps to progression. In direct response to this discrimination, our Windrush Pioneers collaborated with each other in mutual support, through a community-based savings method. This partnering method was informally known as the Pardner Hand, based on the Rotating Savings and Credit Association (ROSCA). Pardner, became an integral part of Caribbean heritage in an effort to survive and thrive financially.

PARDNER – HOW IT WORKED

Individuals joined together to save as a group with each person putting in a set amount of money at a regular interval eg. £10 per week. Each partner or Pardner, would take turns to receive the pot of funds, known as the “hand” of money. One person would be entrusted as “banker” to hold the pot until it was ready to be handed in rotation to the next Pardner. These sums of money helped Windrush Pioneers to save up for house deposits; to send money “back home” to support those still living in the Caribbean; and “to send” for other family members (often children left behind) by buying them a travel ticket to reunite them with their family in the UK.

In the absence of support from banks, the unregulated Pardner system based on verbal trust, turned out to be an effective financial management system to accumulate funds for the Caribbean community in Britain. Rigid criteria to access banking services created impenetrable barriers, such as:

A specific length of residency in Britain – however, our Windrush

Pioneers had only recently arrived!

Matching capital for business loans for vehicles and equipment or deposits for

mortgages – however, our Windrush Pioneers had been invited to Britain to

earn money, so didn’t have available funds for match funding or a deposit.

A financial track record – however our Windrush Pioneers had been using informal financial systems, such as the Pardner Hand before arriving in Britain.

Also discrimination occurred through biased customer profiling, where banks incorrectly assumed that regular large pots of money deposited into an account were not legal, when in fact, the funds had been legally collected by the “banker” in the Pardner Hand!

PARDNER – ORIGINS

Pardner Hand was born out of sheer necessity, by Black people for Black people, to progress financially. This informal system based on mutual trust and support originated from a time when enslaved people trafficked from Africa to the Caribbean, used the Pardner Hand system to save money to buy their freedom. After official slavery ended in 1838, it was impossible for people who has bought their freedom from slavery, to access banking services which had been set up often by former slave owners and traders! The Pardner Hand has been a vital lifeline and a key part of Windrush cultural legacy. By pooling experience, expertise and money, our Windrush Pioneers were able to achieve financial independence to achieve their ambitions and dreams of a comfortable life, despite barriers to mainstream financial systems.

WINDRUSH LEGACY – TODAY & INTO THE FUTURE

Today millions of people may be facing economic hardship and an uncertain financial future and continue to look for other ways to save money. Exclusive Diamond Rewards is an effective and easy way to make real savings, without costing you extra and with zero membership fees.