Maria Veronica Sanchez Perez

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to MARIA VERONICA SANCHEZ PEREZ by AlSol (Alternativa Solidaria Chiapas) in Mexico. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 11 - 17 months, AlSol (Alternativa Solidaria Chiapas) will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Maria is 23 years old, she is married and has no kids yet, but she is pregnant, due in the following days. She is having a baby girl and is not yet sure what name she will give her. I met with her during her groups’ biweekly meeting. Her current loan is of $12,000 pesos (about $1100 USD) and she uses it for her craftworks, basically she makes, weaves and embroiders tablecloths and napkins. She goes every 15 days to San Cristobal (closest city to her community) to sell her merchandise, and she has 2 or 3 traders at the city who she always sells too. She is planning to rent a spot at San Cristobal’s market, and is exploring this option with Alsol (Kiva’s local partner).

The use of her next loan will be to set up her own selling spot at the market. She has been Alsol’s client for a long time now, which is reflected in the loan amount she has. Alsol’s average loan is much lower but they have special schemes for old and good clients like Maria.

Maria’s husband works at his brother’s carpentry. That carpentry was set up by Josefa, who is Maria’s sister in law and group mate (both belong to the group named Fatima 5). Together with her husband, Josefa has been able to employ the rest of the family including Maria’s husband. Maria is really grateful with Alsol and all Kiva lenders who helped her raise her current loan, which helped her buy at retail prices all the required material for her craftworks. She is looking forward to finish paying this loan and to ask for a new one which will help her accomplish her dream of having her own spot to sell and to not be dependant on any intermediaries.