Monday, October 13, 2008

A formal ceremony has started…











Yeah! Finally women have gathered to get the loans that they wanted since we started talking about loans and education business in San Mateo. 

The pre-credit phase for the first group is done. Now 10 women in San Mateo have received their loans. The loa
n average is $20
0. All these women were very happ
y to get their loans and the president of the group gave a nice speech. The executive director of FAPE gave another speech and made an oath with each client -the oath promised to use  the loan for a business and to be responsible and practice solid
arity with the group.  The new group 
borrower is called "Sembradora de San Mateos" (San Mateo Seed Planters). 

You probably want to know what happe
ned with the 50 that I have talked to back in July. We met with around 50 women, but 10 women wer
e prepared to get the loan and business education. We advised some women that the loan was not going to help them, especially because they were going to lose money on their business or because they already h
ad a loan.  Other women had a viable business plan, but they did not want to participate in the business edu
cation courses. Other women did take out a loan but from other organization that is not our partner. These women just wanted a loan because this was more suitable for them.

FAPE, our partner, is forming a new group of borrower so we will have 100 borrowers who are
 ready to be in the program of credit and business education in San Mateo. At the same time, these new 10 borrowers are going to have the first individual meeting as part of the follow up process. Business Advisors (BAs) will have a semiformal conversatio
n
 with each client to give business advice and
 to monitor the client's business progress. 

Namaste now is moving to the second region, Quiche. You can even see the main town of our second region, here is a link of the municipality: http://www.inforpre
ssca.com/chiche/#
 and here is the map, now we are in zone 18:
 http://inforpressca.com/municipal/mapas_w
eb/guatemala.php

Keep reading we will tell you about first "encu
entro" (meeting) with indegenous women in Quiche in 
next blog. 





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