Unidas Somos Mas (cuenca) Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Unidas Somos Mas (cuenca) Group, consisting of MARIA ALEGRIA LOJANO SICHA , ROSA AMELIA LEON DOMINGUEZ , EVA BEATRIZ SUQUI CARPIO , CARMEN LEONOR SUQUI CARPIO, ROSA VICTORIA LEON DOMINGUEZ , MARIA APOLINARIA SIGCHA GUANUQUIZA by Fundación ESPOIR in Ecuador. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 5 months of this loan, Fundación ESPOIR will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

On Wednesday afternoon I visited the second repayment meeting of the Unidas Somos Más Village Bank. The group members live in Quingeo, a small town down a long, steep dirt road from the main highway. Since cars often can’t make it up the steep road, especially in the rainy season, the group members make the half-hour walk up the hill each two weeks, to meet their loan officer Karina there. They hold repayment meetings outside, sitting in a circle in the grass

Eva Beatriz Suqui brought along some of her weaving to show us how she makes panama hats. It’s a trade that she learned from her parents, who learned it from their own parents. Each hat takes her about 2 days to weave, and she sells them for about 12 dollars each, to her neighbors or to traders that come through her village. She also sells the hats from time to time in Cuenca or in the nearby town of Sig Sig. The hats she weaves are left unfinished, and the people who buy them then press the hats to mold them into their final shape.

Beatriz used her Kiva loan of $330 to buy fertilizer for her crops; she grows corn, broad beans and kidney beans. None of her crops are ready to harvest yet, she says, since there hasn’t been enough rain lately. This is her third loan from ESPOIR, and she says that loans have given her a lot more flexibility and have improved her life. Her goal for the future is to save up enough to build a house of her own.

I also chatted with Maria Alegria Lojano, a 38-year-old woman with 7 children who works as a field laborer in the El Valle area. She also raises her own crops and animals (chickens and guinea pigs) at home. She brings her children along to work with her, except for in the summertime, when her older children aren’t in school and can stay home to watch their younger siblings. Maria Alegria has been an ESPOIR client for the past 5 years. She used to be a member of another village bank in Santa Ana, then formed Unidas Somos Mas closer to home with some of her neighbors. She says that ESPOIR is the only institution that offers loans in rural areas like her own.

Maria Alegria used her Kiva loan to buy materials like cement and sand to finish construction on her home. She says she has lots of goals for the future, but needs more income to make them happen. For example, she would like to build cages and start raising guinea pigs.

Note; Due to the delay between when repayments are made from clients to ESPOIR and when ESPOIR reports and sends these payments to Kiva, the Unida Somos Mas Group appears to have made zero repayments, when in reality they have successfully made two of their 12 loan repayments. Payments may take up to six weeks to be deposited into lenders’ accounts—please be patient!

Dear Lender,

As you may know, all Kiva loans are actually administered by local field partners. For the past couple of months, I have been working as a Kiva Fellow with Fundación ESPOIR, a brand new Kiva field partner. Over the course of the summer, I’ve had the privilege of meeting Espoir’s first batch of Kiva borrowers and hearing their stories.

A couple of the most memorable stories I heard were from two young women who are using loans to help run their small businesses while also pursuing their education. The first, Verónica Acurio, worked for years in her parents’ restaurant before deciding to open a restaurant of her own. She now has her own restaurant and uses the profits to pay for medical school. She has one year of studies left before becoming a full-fledged doctor. Despite her impressive accomplishments, Verónica is very down to earth and not at all boastful. Before her Kiva interview, most of her fellow group members didn’t even realize that she is a medical student.

Another Kiva client, Ana Lucia Chapa, lives in the rural community of Turi with her husband and her four-year-old son. Monday through Friday, she makes the long commute to and from the city of Cuenca, where she works full-time as a housekeeper. She also raises guinea pigs, sheep, and cows at home for extra income. Ana Lucia dropped out of school when she was 14 to start working so that she could help support her family, and so she never finished high school. After she got married, though, she decided that she wanted to be a veterinarian, and started going to school on the weekends to earn her high school diploma. She still has eight or nine years of education ahead of her before she can officially become a veterinarian, but she has a great attitude and is determined. Her family has been supportive and her parents and in-laws help take care of her son while she works and studies.

Both Veronica and Ana Lucia are 23 years old, just like me. When I heard their stories, I was impressed that they could juggle so many responsibilities simultaneously and overcome such daunting obstacles in pursuit of higher education, which is more than I can say for myself. Both are cheerful and upbeat despite the difficulties they face and the long hours they put in, seven days a week. I hope to return to Cuenca ten years from now and find them both in white coats, running their own successful businesses of another sort.

Kiva clients aren’t the only people at ESPOIR with inspiring stories of upward mobility. I’ve also had the privilege of meeting staff at ESPOIR’s headquarters and four different branch offices. All received me warmly and touched me with their hospitality and generosity, but I was particularly impressed by a handful of female ESPOIR loan officers who were once village bank clients themselves. For these women, becoming loan officers is an important step forward in their lives. They find the work difficult but also quite gratifying, and are happy to be helping clients because they know how it feels to be a small-scale entrepreneur in need of business capital.

It has been exciting and inspirational to see success stories like these during my fellowship with Fundación ESPOIR. I hope you continue to support Ecuadorian entrepreneurs through ESPOIR!

To search for currently fundraising ESPOIR loans on Kiva, click here . No currently fundraising clients? Please check back soon! In the meantime, you can join ESPOIR’s Kiva Lending Team.

Best regards,

Cynthia McMurry

Kiva Fellow