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Guatemala > Friendship Bridge

Status update on Friendship Bridge from Kiva Staff on November 3, 2009: Friendship Bridge‘s partnership with Kiva was closed in November 2009 without prejudice after one year of inactivity. Friendship Bridge determined that it was better served providing loans to its entrepreneurs through funding sources other than Kiva

Friendship Bridge provides microcredit and education so women and their families can create their own solutions to poverty. Since 1998, it has offered an integrated microcredit and education program to the poorest and most vulnerable population in Guatemala: rural, indigenous women and their families. In rural Guatemala, poverty is not just about a lack of income but also about the lack of access to financial services, public education, and basic health services. Poverty there can also be attributed to discrimination, civil war and natural disaster. Lack of access to basic services in their native language has been a tremendous disadvantage for rural Mayans with little or no formal education; making it nearly impossible to break the cycle of poverty.

Friendship Bridge targets those extremely poor communities of rural women and their families with access to financial services (credit and savings programs) and with non-formal, participatory education programs for women in healthcare, business development and leadership, as well as a children’s education program. Friendship Bridge retains clients by providing these credit and educational services in their native Mayan language, or in Spanish where appropriate.

Since many Friendship Bridge clients have very little or no formal education, part of the education for clients focuses on the importance of formal education not only for themselves but for their children. Friendship Bridge supports children’s education through targeted scholarships, school supplies and study centers. Education for children, including the study of Spanish, the national language, ensures that future generations have greater opportunities for themselves and their families.

Friendship Bridge clients are empowered by their own success in expanding their businesses, having more money to educate their children, and the information they learn in the educational meetings. They share this information with their families and communities and are proud of their accomplishments.

Friendship Bridge loans only to women; believing that women are agents of change for their families and communities. It currently operates in over 50 communities across 8 departments in rural Western Guatemala and maintains a 99% repayment rate. Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for more information.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org