Micro Banking Success Story
The following is a copy of an e-mail message from Juan Forster in Guatemala City to Zen Moisey in Edmonton. Juan is the Rotarian in Guatemala who administers the Microbanking project. Four years ago, we provided the seed money to start up some Microbanking in a small village near Guatemala City and Antigua named Parrojas. The results have been fantastic!
Zen,
As I mentioned the other day, I did go up to Parrojas again on Tuesday to "recycle" the ladies for the 8th time! At the beginning I extended the loans for six months but now we are up to ten months. We had also started the ladies with one thousand quetzales (Q1,000) but these recent loans are up to Q1,500 or nearly $200. With that amount they are able to purchase all the seeds they need for the planting season, and they continue to produce superior vegetable crops.
Since our first round of loans in September, 2003 we have loaned the ladies a total of Q11,200 or the equivalent of US$1,500 EACH - OR AN EQUIVALENT OF US$22,500 - all on your initial loan of US$2000! Who said a little bit goes a long way? This is a classic example of the benefits of micro-credits among a group of women who use their loans well and pay back to the last cent even under negative circumstances (a crop loss due to Hurricane Stan last year).
Congratulate yourselves and the people of your Rotary clubs! I will be at a Micro-Bank Action Group Committee Meeting in Evanston next week under Steve Rickard´s leadership, and I will make the group aware of this unique example of micro-lending among these Indian ladies high in the mountains of Guatemala.
Frosting on the cake! Last week I received a donation of some 600 computers from our MESA project in Ohio. They are all used PC´s of late vintage and we are installing programs and making sure they are all in working shape. I offered the ladies five computers at about US$33.00 each (I have to cover importation charges and programming costs) and the ladies snapped them up before I could even sit down. Some of these ladies cannot read or write, but they are well aware of the need of their children for computers. The teachers make assignments in which the information is available only on computer and the kids have to go down to Parramos to an Internet Cafe to download their assignments. Even though there is no telephone service in Parrojas, we can at least have Windows or Linus programs which cover nearly everything the kids need for their own work, and I mentioned to the mothers that their kids should teach the mothers how to use the computers even if is for nothing other than Solitare or Hearts!
The world is changing fast and the ladies of Parrojas are very well aware of this and want to catch up with their kids!!
I hope you people are as proud of your ladies of Parrojas as I am.
Many saludos,
Juan
Zen and International Service Director Chris Gowers will be attending the 15th Uniendo America Projects Fair & Micro Bank session in Costa Rica this coming January.