AND JUST HOW DID MICROCREDIT GET INSIDE THAT PRISON?

In the first installment of this story we took an overall look at the project from the perspective of a prison visitor (namely yours truly, Bob Graham) to the women microcredit borrowers. For me, it was a revelatory and moving experience!

But how about what it has taken behind the scenes to make this first-in-Latin America program come to pass?

Yes, behind inspiration there must always be good old-fashioned hard work. Besides the on-the-cement-floor work of FAPE Executive Director Sergio Gonzalez and his staff, there have been other important players in key roles.

Gloria Elizabeth Cruz dispays her products:

First was the Guatemalan government department of Social Rehabilitation in the Penitentiary System. It took some foresight and courage for those people to step outside their internal bureaucracy and hold a belief that private institutions could bring support and inspiration to some of the 200 women housed in the Preventative Center of the Santa Teresa Women’s Penitentiary.

They worked alongside FAPE to develop a plan of credit with financial education. Early foundational aspects included a decision that the loan amounts were to be based on the business plan of each woman. It was determined that the loans would not be made in the form of cash, instead the women were to be provided with the corresponding amount of materials, equipment and tools needed to create the products. Standard, “real-world” microcredit procedures were to be followed … 2% monthly interest rate, monthly principal and interest payments, monthly meetings to evaluate business plan execution.

The Penitentiary System officials were also instrumental in obtaining a grant of about $5,600 from the European Union to finance educational services from the School of Business & Economics, Universidad Rafael Landivar.

Assisted by student volunteers, the university personnel created and taught skills training based in the following phases:

n 35 hours of coursework in “Entrepreneurial Spirit – How to Run a Business
n 15 hours of coursework in “Life Planning”
n 35 hours of coursework on “Creating a Business Plan”

By the way, the 15 FAPE and University personnel involved didn’t just waltz into the prison and start their “gigs”! No, first they had their own coursework – several meetings to understand the penitentiary system in order to develop how to best initiate the program.

Margalena Lopez & Irma Carina Martinez set up their storefront

Some 47 women indicated initial interest in the program and were evaluated for appropriateness. Most were accepted and 27 have graduated to date. Purposefully only 5 projects capped at 12 women participants were selected for the first six-month trial, following the theory of “work the plan, listen, learn, and adjust”. The next cycle will likely be 8 new businesses. In two years the expectation is that 50 women will have participated.

Yes, this is a program that is labor-intensive and it can be seen as costly. On the other hand, it also can be seen as a labor of love and an investment that will pay dividends to society in the form of avoided costs of criminal activities.

And anyway, whom among us can put a price tag on helping a sister get back on the path?

MICROCREDIT GOES INSIDE, HELPS WOMEN IN PRISON REBUILD THEIR LIVES IN GUATEMALA by Bob Graham

For the first time in history in Latin America, a microcredit provider has received permission to conduct a lending circle in a prison for women. An initiative of the dedicated staff of FAPE, a NamasteDirect partner located in Guatemala City, the Second Chance program began providing business loans last fall at the Santa Teresa prison located outside that city.

When Sophy and I were driven to the prison site by FAPE director Sergio and loan supervisor Marco we were stopped and checked out at the perimeter of a huge facility. The first complex we came to was the men’s prison and the women’s complex lay beyond.

We parked there and went through a frisking and metal detection after surrendering all of our valuables including cell phones and cameras. Clearing that, we then trooped way down hill along huge walls capped by guard towers which surrounded the facility.

The walls, razor wire, towers and guards patrolling on foot with wicked-looking automatic weapons soon let us know we were not entering a “country club prison.” We then had to undergo the same metal detector/search routine before being marched up to an iron door with a major league padlock.

The door opened and we followed the authorities, passing by a huge room filled with women and their families, for it was Visitor’s Day. We then were shown into a room set up with tables of the products of the loan borrowers and a circle of chairs.

We sat down and waited. Soon nine women entered and they looked like … well, your grandmother, your mother, your sister, your aunt or a kindly neighbor. Since they were going to show us what they had been producing and selling, old and young were “power dressed” to make a good impression.

They sure didn’t look like they fit the picture I had in mind when I had been told the prison population profile: mostly awaiting trial, average stay of two years there, credited to their final sentence, most frequent offences being “drug horses” (delivery women who are part of a narco-trafficking distribution system) and burglary. Yes, we were told, some were in for murder, but only a few.

The point is, they looked and acted like normal women. In fact, one of the women told our group “We want the outside world to know we are not just delinquents, but good women trying to make an honest living.” Later Sergio put it this way, “Look. We believe everyone is good in their hearts but sometimes there is a slip, a stumble, a wrong turn, a fall. It makes us at FAPE feel good to try to help these women get back on their feet.”

TO BE CONTINUED......