Cruz Del Sur Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Cruz del Sur group, consisting of Cristina, Salome, Juan Carlos, Feliza, Vicenta, Eugenia, Santiago, Santuza, Valentina, Valeria, Viviana, Oswaldo Wilfredo 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.

Cruz del Sur is a quiet, hard working group of women with a sense of humor. After entering the outdoor courtyard to one of the women’s homes, I found all of the women sitting in a row on a plank, busily knitting colorful shawls and gloves. One woman was actually in process of creating alpaca (animal in llama family) yarn from raw wool while spinning a spool at lightning speed.

Nora knits warm ponchos made of high caliber alpaca and vicuña wool (animals in llama family) and sells them in the outdoor market. With her loan, she was able to buy more wool and make more products to sell. The loan has allowed her to attract more clients. She has four sons in public school, and she hopes to grow her business more in the future.

Salome has knit alpaca ponchos of every color since she was a little girl and used to help her mother with her knitting business. Now, her own daughter Isar wants to learn how to knit so she can have her own business when grows up. Salome also used the loan to buy wool.

Feliza makes similar products as the other women, and has five children in school. She notes that in the past, they used to sell a lot, but now there is a lot of competition, and it is much harder to make a living by knitting. Without the loan, it would have been somewhat more difficult to compete. Feliza passionately hopes that her children finish their studies and become professionals so that they do not have to deal with the fluctuations in income that she does.

Reymunda has two businesses: she sells acrylic jackets in the market and salchipapas, a Bolivian snack made of sausage, potatoes, and onions, in her stand. She has two children; one is a taxi driver and the other is a student. Reymunda used her loan to buy capital for both businesses, which have grown incrementally.

Virgen braids and weaves the tassels that go on the edge of the alpaca wool ponchos, and then takes her work to a local weaver who attaches her work to ponchos. She says that “one must keep moving forward while one has time,” as she diligently keeps braiding. She used the loan to buy more wool, paid back on time, and is looking forward to her next loan. She fervently hopes that her six children will finish with their studies and “do something.”

Feliza makes her own yarn out of alpaca wool. Later, she will use the wool to make the shawls and jackets that the other women are knitting. These women are always busy, even during their meetings! As Virgen comments, "One must keep moving forward [with work] while one has time."