Magdalena Rodriguez Nava

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Magdalena Rodriguez Nava by Fundación para la Vivienda Progresiva in Mexico. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 12 months, Fundación para la Vivienda Progresiva will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Update by Brendan McBride, Kiva Fellow with FVP in Nuevo Laredo, Mexico:

I visited Ms. Rodriguez last week at one of her businesses, and got the chance to talk to her about the impact of the Kiva loan.

It is immediately apparent that Ms. Rodriguez is a real entrepreneur – I was really taken by the go-getter spirit of this woman. She requested the Kiva loan for her taco business, but she has started several businesses over the years. As a single mother, she says, she needs to be able to independently support her family. (She has five children, three still living at home.) Having a number of small businesses provides her with income in a way that diversifies the risk of having just one type of business.

The Kiva loan is the first loan that Ms. Rodriguez has ever taken for her business. A friend told her about FVP, Kiva’s field partner in Nuevo Laredo, and she applied for a small business loan payable over one year. She used the loan to contribute to the purchase of a used trailer for her taco business. Previous to this, she rented a trailer at a cost of 27 dollars per week. This amounts to about $1400 a year, more than the principal of her Kiva loan. Since she will now be the owner of the trailer, she will be more inclined to invest in the trailer to improve her business. (Not to mention not having to pay rent!)

Ms. Rodriguez started small, selling tamales from door to door. Then she started the taco stand, which her sister now manages (Ms. Rodriguez still prepares the meat for the tacos, though.) She then started a paper goods store, which one of her daughters manages. I met her at her newest business, an Internet café. I asked her how she knew about setting up computers and other skills necessary for an Internet café. She said she didn’t know anything about it –her 14 year old son helped her set up the entire shop! Her next plan: starting a beauty salon.

Ms. Rodriguez sends her thanks to Kiva lenders for supporting her business.

Please click here to read blog entries about FVP.