Lidia Cledy Sandoval De La Torre

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Lidia Cledy Sandoval De La Torre by Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER in Peru. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 months, Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Last week I visited Lidia at her home to talk about her business ventures and loan use. Lidia lives in a large, quiet house in one of the many dusty communities that surround Pucallpa's city center. Lidia sells Avon beauty products. She has been quite successful with this business and recently made enough sales to earn an Avon-sponsored trip to Lima.

With the help of a few other women, Lidia sells some of her beauty products locally. The rest of her products she sends to her sister to sell in a small town called Bolognesi, which is located several days' boat ride up the Ucayali, a wide river that flows past Pucallpa and eventually joins the Amazon to the north. Lidia also sends sodas, beer and sometimes chicken up the river to Bolognesi to sell. Additionally, Lidia works with a niece who lives in Lima to purchase and bring other goods to sell in Pucallpa.

Lidia has been working with Kiva partner Manuela Ramos for more than five years. She has sold Avon products for more than ten. Lidia is currently paying back a loan of 2000 soles (about $665) from Manuela Ramos through her communal bank, "Las Brisas" (The Breezes). She used her loan to purchase goods in Lima with her niece and also to replenish her inventory of beauty products.

Although her business has generally been doing well lately, Lidia encountered some difficulties in December when the boat carrying a box of her Avon products to Bolognesi was hijacked. All the goods on board were stolen and Lidia lost 750 soles (about $250) worth of merchandise.

Lidia's husband is a retired teacher and now serves as education coordinator for the town of Bolognesi, where he travels regularly. Lidia and her husband have one son, age 20, who is studying education at a local university.

Although Lidia feels that her credit has helped her, she is considering leaving Manuela Ramos due to a lot of payment problems in her communal bank. Some of the borrowers have not been making their payments recently, a situation which impacts all the bank's members. Due to the communal bank guarantee, Manuela Ramos will eventually take unmet loan payments from other members' savings. Because this situation has occurred in the past, Lidia is considering withdrawing from her communal bank if the delinquent borrowers do not pay.

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