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......