Teodolinda Mantilla Vilca

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Teodolinda Mantilla Vilca by Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER in Peru. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 months, Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Teolinda Mantilla Vilca is a fruitseller in the La Esperanza neighborhood in Trujillo, Perú. Teolinda was recently widowed one month ago and now she and her twelve year old daughter live alone in their home. Teolina has two adult children who have moved out of her house and have their own families and homes. She says that since her husband’s heart attack and death things have been difficult, but her children try to help her when they can.

Teolinda’s most recent Kiva loan was paid off last summer and she has not been able to take out a new loan since because one of the members of her communal bank is behind in making payments. Until the one defaulting member satisfies her debt, the other members are not allowed to take out new loans.

This has taken a toll on Teolinda’s business and she says she has difficulty supplying her fruitstand now that she doesn’t have access to capital like she used to. When Teolinda first began taking out loans she started with smaller amounts; but after two years of successful growth her last loan was for S./ 1,700 – almost eight times what her first loan was. With this money Teolinda used to buy enough fruit to make trips up to the Andes to sell in the town of San Ignacio. When times were good earlier this year, she and her husband were considering buying a small truck so that she could transport her goods to the sierras.

Things now remain uncertain for Teolinda until she can take out a new loan with her communal bank. She hopes that the woman in default will pay off her debts soon so that the rest of the bank members can start to rebuild their businesses. Teolinda now says she is working with about as much capital as she had before she started working with Manuela Ramos and Kiva. When her husband died, she was able to take out a grace loan of S./500 but that money is now nearly exhausted.

Teolinda says no matter how little she has to work with, she will continue to work hard and work with what she has. Even if she never takes out another loan from the bank, she says that she will make sure she is able to educate and feed her family.