Janneth Del Socorro Romero Santana

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Janneth Del Socorro Romero Santana by Fundación Leon 2000 in Nicaragua. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 14 months, Fundación Leon 2000 will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Thank you for supporting a micro-entrepreneur in Nicaragua. I’m excited to be writing you as the Kiva Fellow in Leon, Nicaragua. For the past few months, I have been working with Fundación Leon 2000, a Kiva field partner. All entrepreneur profiles on Kiva’s Web site are posted by local field partners, which are microfinance institutions that lend to the working poor to help the poor lift themselves out of poverty. The field partners screen each entrepreneur, upload his/her loan request to the Kiva website, disburse the loan, and collect repayments.

Let’s get to know Fundación León 2000 a little better. The organization is based in Leon, Nicaragua, which is about 60 miles northwest of Managua, the capital city. In a country where 50% of its citizens live below the poverty line with an average GDP of $3,600 per person, Fundación Leon’s loans represent a life-changing opportunity to embrace financial self-sufficiency and escape the oppressive grips of poverty. For most, there is no other opportunity in the community for business growth such as that provided by Fundación León 2000.

During my three months of service at Fundación León 2000, I visited over forty small business entrepreneurs. In brief loan updates to Kiva lenders, I tried to capture and portray candidly their attitudes towards microfinance. These micro-loans would not be possible without the diligence and dedication of Fundación León’s Kiva Coordinator, Sandra, and the group of hard-working loan officers.

I spent the majority of my time at Fundación León working alongside Sandra as she screened clients for loans, posted loans on the Kiva Web site, tracked monthly repayments, and arranged loan update visits. Although Sandra and I have been able to provide many of you with updates about entrepreneurs who received a loan contribution from you, reaching every entrepreneur for an update is not logistically possible.

Even if you did not contribute to this particular entrepreneur, I hope that you will enjoy the following story of a Kiva borrower in León whose story exemplifies the challenges and fortunes experienced by many in the León community.

Maria Guadalupe Blanco is quite the small business entrepreneur, and she’s become pretty good at requesting loans and repaying them in stride—seventeen loans to be precise. Her primary business is a general store on the edge of town, which is filled with everything from candy, cookies, and canned vegetables to soups, soaps, and shampoos. Once the general store was operating at a sustainable level, Maria decided to expand her financial approach and purchase two taxis for local operation. Through the course of her partnership with Fundación León, and now Kiva, Maria Guadalupe has created a closed-loop business cycle by successfully forging two independent businesses, where one can sustain her livelihood if another falls victim to hardship. The success of the micro finance model for Maria Guadalupe is a complete testament to her respectful yet determined attitude towards its process and lenders. Towards the end of our visit, she frankly stated, “I seek loans to work; there is no other way.”

From Kiva, Fundación León 2000, and its family of borrowers, we thank you for your continued support of our work.

To see all current fundraising loans from the Fundación León 2000, click here: http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&partner_id=96&status=fundRaising&sortBy=New+to+Old&_te=mj

And finally, I compiled this short video to provide you with a nice glance into the world of Fundación León 2000 and its variety of Kiva borrowers. Please enjoy.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yjVNPTxB2Os&_te=mj

Sincerely,

Sean P. Calhoun

Kiva Fellow, Fundación León 2000

Cuando visitamos a Janeth del Socorro estaba muy entusiasmada, por lo que su negocio estaba de muy bien, además no tenía problemas muy difíciles como actualmente se presentan, por lo que cada día ella siempre se esfuerza por mejorar en su negocio y proporcionarles a sus clientes lo que ellos necesiten.

Por lo que ella siempre agradece a todas las personas que hicieron necesario, que ella continuara con su negocio, además con el financiamiento logro proporcionarle mejoras a su negocio, ya que además obtuvo más clientes debido a que decidió realizar nuevos peinados y esto capturo la atención de sus clientes.

Pero no todo ha sido tan fácil por lo que todo lo que realiza en su salón lo hace ella sola, ya que no tiene el suficiente capital para contratar a un trabajador ya que la situación está muy difícil y ella sola realiza todo. Siempre agradece a Kiva y las personas que colaboraron para mejorar su condición con su trabajo.

Janneth has nearly completed her loan repayments to Fundación León 2000.

Janneth lives in the neighborhood of Guadalupe in the southern part of the city of Leon. Houses here range from humble to well established, cinderblock homes are the most common, the nicest houses have a finished, painted exterior. Older houses are made from wood, and although still standing, are not in good repair. Many homes have dirt floors or roofs that are a mix of thatch, corrugated tin and tejada tile. The latter being the ideal roofing material. It is a united neighborhood, people are friendly and have long known each other. There is a lot of support for the businesses in the area.

Janneth worked in Costa Rica for several years where she earned her aestheticians license. Janneth is proud to be from Leon and wants to be able to live and work in the city of her birth. She is determined to use her business to contribute to the growth and development of the city. However, since receiving her loan, her plans to open a beauty school with adjoining salon have been put on hold. She told me of all the work that she has done to prepare: writing her own business plan, receiving funding (via Fundación León 2000 and Kiva), and constructing the first part of her dream, the ground floor for her salon/school. Because of the time it takes to become an accredited licensing institution, Janneth missed a deadline for the pilot program Fundación León 2000 was offering for start-up educational businesses.

Unable to continue with her dream, for the moment, Janneth opened a pulpería in the space. A pulpería is a small general store that offers a variety of daily use items, the Nicaraguan version of a convenient store. They are generally located in the owner’s house and are found in every neighborhood, sometimes several to a street. Janneth has an impressive store, the shelves lined with a vast number of well stocked products. When we arrived she was receiving a shipment of soft-drinks, surely one of the most popular items.

Janneth is not deterred by the delays in her plans, she intends to participate in Fundación León 2000’s upcoming program (January 2010) that will again support educational start-up businesses. She speaks with an astute professional awareness of how she can contribute to the development of services in León. She informed me that there aren’t any programs in the city that offer an academic program for students to gain a solid foundation in beauty studies. She critiques the technical schools that do exist for teaching poor practices and for not providing an explanation of the proper processes, techniques or products.

I was impressed by her ingenuity in opening the pulpería (And a beautiful one!) in place of her salon. She seemed to find a great silver lining when she was unable to proceed as planned. Janneth spoke with intelligence and enthusiasm for her future plans. It was truly a pleasure to speak with her. She is an impressive woman and will surely do well whether she is running a pulpería or a salon.

Thank you for supporting her and Fundación León 2000.

To support other entrepreneurs with Fundación León 2000 follow this link http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&partner_id=96&status=All&sortBy=New+to+Old"

You can also follow the work of Fundación León 2000 on Twitter: @FundacionLeon