El Arroyo Unidad Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the El Arroyo Unidad group, consisting of Martina Espino Hidargo, Rosa Rubio, Rosa Jiminez, Rosa Fermin, Ambrosia Polanco, Yeimy Hidalgo, Ysebel Andujar, Elpidio Gagino, Victor Leon, Yosimary Medina by Esperanza International, a partner of HOPE International in Dominican Republic. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, Esperanza International, a partner of HOPE International will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Greetings from Samana! Today I visited a meeting of El Arroyo Unidad Bank of Hope, complete with the 6 groups that are part of this bank. I spoke to several group members, including Ysabel, who was part of this Kiva loan.

One of the bank members is Maria. She is on her 4th loan cycle and is expecting her 2nd child. She is group coordinator for group number 5. She started selling home products on her first loan. Today, her sales are expanded to jewelry (like Ysebel) and clothing. She recognizes the economy is not very good in her area, but she also remarks it is an asset of a good business person to recognize her customers´s needs and adapt to it. This is why she expresses thankfulness for being able to still produce profits from her sales. She feels happy with the inminent arrival of her new baby. She says her husband has been very supportive and has helped her a lot with sales and collections during this time.

Ysebel is still going strong with her jewelry business and is two payments away from completing her latest loan with Esperanza International. She does expect to take a new loan but not for a larger amount. She thinks it´s better to be cautious in the current economical situation.

Altagracia Medina is one of the newest members of this Bank. She took a loan for the first time and this is her first loan in her whole life as well. She sells carbon and fuel at her house. She is also two payments away from completing her loan, and already has plans for a second: she wants to purchase some undergarments as side sale.

One noticeable thing I noticed during the meeting was that although there were some people absent, everyone there knew why they weren´t able to make it to the meeting. They explained to me that they´ve always lived on the same area and know each other well, but belonging to this Bank of Hope has made their friendships stronger. They also support each other´s businesses by purchasing from each other.

As we can see, from the time you funded this Kiva loan, these entrepreneurs have grown in their own businesses and have welcomed new members to their Bank of Hope. Thank you for supporting this microfinance initiative!

Best regards,

Analin J. Saturria - Kiva Coordinator for Esperanza International.