Las Misiones Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the LAS MISIONES group, consisting of Raquel Perez Guzman, Delia PeÑa Corimayo, Alicia Pinaya Roman, Nancy Huanca De Fernandez, Gloria Ortiz Carrasco, Donata Garcia, Ilaria Salazar Gusman, Carmen Bosorique Barrientos, Felix Roca Ortiz, Anabel Huanca Mercado, Jose Maria Salvador Vargas, Pilar Terceros by Fundación Agrocapital, a partner of ACDI/VOCA in Bolivia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 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 the Las Misiones group for one of their bi-weekly meetings on a sunny Thursday morning. The group meets at group president Doña Raquel’s house in the Las Misiones neighborhood of the tropical city of Santa Cruz in Eastern Bolivia. The women (and two men) all know each other well, and sit in the shade drinking cold juice, chatting and joking while they wait for the other group members to arrive. Many have brought their babies and small children along, and the kids scamper around Doña Raquel’s patio playing and showing off for the crowd. The women used to belong to another group bank together at another Bolivian microfinance institution, but switched to AgroCapital because the group meetings are shorter, which was more convenient for them since they are all working women with busy schedules. Don Jose jokes that he used to lose his wife for half a day every other week while she was in reuniones at the other bank.

This is the group’s first loan cycle, and things have gone very well so far. Today, they paid off their seventh installment (of ten total), so they will start another loan cycle in about 6 weeks. The group is very disciplined: almost everyone showed up at 11:30am sharp, and members who arive late are required to pay a fine (today, the last group member arrived 10 minutes late, and was fined 15 bolivianos, about $2). The money goes into the group’s caja chica, which is evenly divided between all of the members who paid punctually once the group finishes the loan cycle.

All of the group members agree that they like the short meetings, though Don Jose thinks that the institution should incorporate business training into its communal banking program to ensure that group members invest their money intelligently. He says that group members shouldn’t be using their loans to repay outstanding debts, or to buy more merchandise indiscriminately, without careful planning.

Most of the group did use their loan to buy more merchandise to sell, and those I talk to say their sales have improved since taking out the loan. Gloria, the group’s treasurer, used the money to buy more shoes to sell. Her husband, Jose Maria, drives a taxi, and used his loan to repair his old taxi, which he then sold to buy a Toyota Corolla. Alicia used the money to repay an outstanding debt, but she hasn’t had any trouble making her repayments even though she didn’t invest the money in her business.

Most of the group is planning to continue for a second loan cycle. On a personal note, I’d like to add that in the several months I’ve spent visiting communal banks, I’ve found that it’s rare for groups to share the kind of positive group dynamic that Las Misiones does. When one member didn’t show up to make her repayment, everyone was quick to chip in a little extra to cover for their compañera, even without their loan officer asking them to do so. The group demonstrated a lot of generosity and solidarity. I really enjoyed the morning I spent with Las Misiones.