Azucenas Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Catarina Pantzay
Vicenta Perez
María Coche
Francisca Criado
Paula Tuch
Angela Cholotio
Natalia Mendoza
María Mendoza
Rosario Ramos
Marcela Hernandez
Rosario Garcia
Ana Pacay
Eugenia Mendoza
Dominga Perez
Pascuala Mendoza
Encarnación Coche
Micaela Sicay
María Hernandez
Marilú Cortez
Maria Socorro
Catarina Mendez
Carmen Hernandez
Concepción Mendoza by Friendship Bridge in Guatemala. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 9 months, Friendship Bridge will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

The women of the Azucenas Group met recently for their regular group meeting and to make payments on their loan. As the women arrive, each enters the room with a smile and gradually goes around the room greeting everyone there with a gentle handshake and a quiet ‘buenas tardes’ (good afternoon). As more arrive, the jokes start, and pretty soon the whole room is alive with laughter. These women are clearly good friends and have an amazing sense of community within their trust bank.

Everyone in this group has children, and all of them of school age are currently in school. The women report that they force their children to go to school and make them study hard because they are very serious about their children having a better life.

With the majority of these women working in weaving and embroidery, most of them used their loans to purchase thread. There are a few women who have little stores and used the credit to increase their inventories of daily consumption items such as beans, noodles, chips, and cookies. One woman makes tortillas and purchased a lot of supplies for that, while another is a painter and used her loan to buy paint. While loan repayment has been going fine, the women working in weaving report that sales have been really low recently. They say that they number tourists visiting the beautiful lakeside village of San Juan la Laguna has steadily decreased in recent years, along with their sales of beautiful traditional blouses, tablecloths, napkins, etc.

A few of the women have had more success; one has three employees working for her, another has four, and yet another has five employees working for her. These are big accomplishments for these women, who are proud to have expanded their businesses so much and are grateful for the additional income these larger businesses provide. They certainly attribute part of their success to their loans, as having access to more resources helps them increase production and therefore sales. They use their extra income first and foremost to pay for their children’s education and school supplies, and the rest they use to reinvest in their businesses.

The Azucenas Group women are also very appreciative of the informal education programs that Friendship Bridge offers. This group has been with Friendship Bridge for nearly seven years, and they say that they have learned a lot that they didn’t know before. Not only have they benefitted from the basic business administration and money management lessons, but they also all really enjoy other trainings, such as those on medicinal plants and, especially, on women’s rights. The Azucenas Group is a remarkable group of women who work hard and utilize their credit well to expand their businesses and improve the lives of themselves and their families.

Azucenas- San Juan La Laguna

Due to the rain i am stuck in San Juan la Lagun and decide to go and interview some members of the Azucenas group.

I hope you lenders are not annoid by this extra Journal

I am taken to the house of Encarnacion Coche Mendoza bij her loan officer called Maria. We wonder through the small back streets of San Juan La Laguna, A beautifull village at the Atitlan lake. San Juan is a very well organised and clean village thanks to the town mayor. At this moment all the cobblestone streets are taken out to be replaced by a better street. He is a very active man and takes good care of his people. You can see a lot of women weaving coorporations and ecological dying. Natural dying and also natural colours are often used in the San Juan weavings.

Encarnacion is a true artist with a brush sticking out of her hair and hands covered in many colours of paint. As soon as I enter her house I can see this by all the paintings, tubes of paint, brushes and drops of paint everywhere. Her favorite colour must be pink because she has painted her whole house this way. When i arrive she is just putting the base for a new painting on.

She tells me how the weaving was just a market with to much competition and she decided to start making paintings. She learned the skill of her father and it is a bit a brave choice because women usually dont work in this profession. Her four brothers are also painters an through one of them she finds the stores where she brings her paintings to sell. She goes as far as Santiago Atitlan, Panajachel, Chichicatenango and Guatemala City.

Being a painter isnt easy because the investments are big. One tube of paint costs her around Q38 and she has 75 different colours! She orders the canvasses in the size she wants and she likes to make very big paintings too.

Because she needs diffenet and bigger markets she asks me to write down her number in case someone wants to buy one of her paintings in the US or Europe. The number is: +502-51133224.

502 is for Guatemala.

We often read the stories about these women wanting their children to do well, study and have better chances in life. Friendship Bridge has education firmly stated in their mission statement and therefore sometimes offers intern ships to school girls as also to Gloria Trinidad. She is in school to become a secretary and is the daughter and sister of two members of a Kiva group called Costureras. I decided to take her with me into the field and let her interview both her mum and sister. The nice result, in Spanish, is what you can read here!

Esto es un poco de lo que nos dice doña Catarina de su vida personal y como también la de su familia. Un día visitamos a San Juan La Laguna para entrevistar a una de las señoras del grupo Azucena. Y encontramos a la señora Catarina Mendoza Cholotío. Cuando la fuimos a entrevistar estaba torteando junto con su hija.

Catarina tiene 43 años de edad. Nacida en San Juan La Laguna. Ella esta casada. También, nos cuenta que tiene una familia muy unida y muy trabajadora. Y tiene cuatro hijos. Los hijos de ella están estudiando. Su primer hijo es Perito Contador. Y los hermanos de su primer hijo están estudiando el segundo básico. Y su única hija le ayuda a su mamá para negociar porque no quiere estudiar.

Ella nos cuenta un poco de su pueblo. Sus paisanos son amables, y son muy trabajadores. Tiene un mercado grande. Tiene un parque pequeño y tiene una cancha de baloncesto, donde los jóvenes pueden jugar tranquilamente.

Un día habló a una de sus amigas para que le hablara del proyecto. Y como su amiga ya le había hablado acerca del proyecto. Entonces, su amiga le aconsejo que fuera a preguntar los requisitos necesarios para que la puedan ayudar. Ella tomo la decisión para que fuera con los encargados y a preguntar los requisitos necesarios. Una semana después ella recibió su crédito. Y con el crédito que recibió lo invirtió en su negocio para comprar los materiales para que pueda elaborar sus tejidos. Su trabajo de Catarina es tejer diferentes clases de manteles. Y en su negocio le va muy bien gracias a Dios. Ella vende sus tejidos a las mujeres de San Juan por mayor cantidad. Que sus clientas también son artesanas y son revendedoras.

Catarina nos cuenta que ya lleva 2 años en estar participando en el grupo Las Azucenas y le va muy bien en el grupo. Porque su grupo son puntuales en pagar sus créditos mensualmente.

Gloria Trinidad