Maria Magdalena Saenz

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Maria Magdalena Saenz by ADEPHCA in Nicaragua. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 12 months, ADEPHCA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Dear Kiva lenders,

Thank you for supporting a microentrepreneur in Nicaragua. I’m excited to be writing to you as the Kiva Fellow in the Caribbean coastal town of Bluefields, Nicaragua. For the last few months I have been working with Kiva’s Field Partner, the Association of the Atlantic Coast for Human Advancement and Development (known by its Spanish acronym, ADEPHCA). As you may know, all entrepreneur profiles on Kiva’s web site are posted by local Field Partners (microfinance institutions), which are organizations that lend to the working poor to help them lift themselves out of poverty. The role of the Field Partner is to screen each entrepreneur, upload his/her loan request onto the Kiva web site, disburse the loan, and collect repayments.

ADEPHCA is based out of Bluefields, an isolated town in the Caribbean coastal region. (To read one of my blog postings about Bluefields, click here: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/03/06/bluefields-nicaragua/). This part of the country constitutes a large percentage of the land mass of Nicaragua, but a very small percentage of the population and even smaller percentage of the nation’s wealth. As one of the only institutions offering credit to the poor in this part of the country, ADEPHCA faces many challenges inherent to the region. While the sources of the underlying challenges microfinance faces here are complex and debatable, what is clear is that delinquency and default rates in Bluefields are substantially higher than what is standard in microfinance. (To read more about the challenges to microfinance in Bluefields, click here: http://fellowsblog.kiva.org/2009/03/13/microfinance-challenges-in-bluefields-nicaragua/). Nevertheless, it is also clear that there are many people in the region that are responsibly investing their credit and using Kiva loans to expand their businesses and improve their lives.

In my role as a Kiva Fellow, I visit many of these entrepreneurs, most of whom have used their loans to purchase clothing for resale or to purchase inventory such as rice, beans, sugar, toilet paper, and soap for small daily consumption stores. These loans would not be possible without ADEPHCA’s hard-working loan officer, Guillermo. I have spent most of my time here working side by side with Guillermo, who is responsible for screening clients for loans, visiting their businesses, filling out paperwork, posting the loans on Kiva, tracking repayments, and following up with clients who fall behind on payments. While Guillermo and I have been able to provide many of you with updates on an entrepreneur who received a loan contribution from you, due to the logistical and administrative constraints, reaching every entrepreneur for an update is not possible. Whether or not we provide an update on an entrepreneur to whom you loaned, I hope that you will enjoy the story of one Kiva borrower in Bluefields that illustrates some of the challenges Bluefieldeños face, yet also demonstrates how a little loan and a lot of perseverance can lead to success.

Martha Lorena Balladares is a fifty-one year old businesswoman who for the last ten years has run a small store in the front of her home. Martha has raised 11 children, all of whom are now grown. Additionally, she and her husband are now raising a two-year-old little boy named Keydns. At less than one month old, Keydns was found abandoned in a field. He was severely malnourished and sick, but Martha heard of his need and agreed to take him in. She has since adopted him and proudly reports that he has fully recovered from his early challenges and is now a healthy, mischievous two year old.

Martha has received several loans from ADEPHCA over the years to invest in her business, now named Pulpería Keydns after her little boy. She says that the loans have been very useful in helping her maintain a steady inventory and also for investing in items such as display cases to help her sales in the long-run. Prior to receiving her most recent Kiva loan, Martha’s business suffered a robbery. She lost several hundred dollars’ worth of products and was in need of an influx of capital to not only replace the stolen inventory, but also to invest in better security to prevent future robberies. In the video below, you can see Martha showing the items she purchased with her Kiva loan, primarily new items to better protect her inventory from robbers and other unwanted guests such as mice.

Martha is very grateful to the Kiva lenders who provided her loan. She says that, without the help of organizations like ADEPHCA and Kiva, she would have had a very difficult time recovering from the robbery. Even though she has always been a responsible businesswoman, sometimes life presents challenges that necessitate a little extra help. With this loan, she was able to make long-term investments that she is confident will help her business for years to come.

From Kiva, ADEPHCA, and its family of borrowers, we thank you for your continued support of our work. To see all currently fundraising loans from ADEPHCA on kiva.org, please click here: http://partners.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&partner_id=76&status=fundRaising&sortBy=New+to+Old&_te=mj.

Sincerely,

Megan Tatman Montgomery

Kiva Fellow