Villa Fatima Ii Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the VILLA FATIMA II group, consisting of Hugo Henry, Marlene, CarmiÑa, Graciela, Lidia, Florinda, Wilma, Maida, Fanny, Maria Roxana, Zacarias, Mary Luz, Yaneth, Emiliana by Fundación Agrocapital, a partner of ACDI/VOCA in Bolivia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 5 months, Fundación Agrocapital, a partner of ACDI/VOCA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I visited three members of the Villa Fatima group on Friday morning in their neighborhood of the same name. Fanny has been with the group for four loan cycles, and says things have been going pretty well. Her most recent loan was for 4,500 bolivianos (US$642), and she used the money to buy more soda and beer to sell. Her business has done pretty well, she tells me, but she’s not sure if she wants to continue taking out loans with the group or not. Villa Fatima has had some problems lately, partly due to the political instability and protests that racked Bolivia last month. Some members who traveled to other parts of the country were unable to return for bi-weekly group meetings because of road blockades. This meant that other group members, like Fanny, were obliged to cover their repayments out of pocket.

Another member of Villa Fatima, Graciela, is in the same business as Fanny and sells soda and beer from her home. She used her loan of 2,000 bolivianos (US$286) to buy a refrigerator (pictured below). Her sales are very variable depending on the weather, she tells me, but she generally does fairly well.

Villa Fatima’s president, Roxana, also sells cold drinks from her home. She used her loan of 2,250 bolivianos (US$321) to buy more soda. She’s temporarily out of business, since her refrigerator recently broke, but she hasn’t had any trouble repaying the loan since her husband is a salaried worker at the local sugar cane refinery. She, like Fanny, says she gets frustrated when group members don’t live up to their word. Still, she thinks Villa Fatima can overcome its problems after this loan cycle, and is hoping to eliminate one group member who has been irresponsible about making repayments on time. With her next loan, Roxana plans to buy a new refrigerator so she can get back to work.