Paulina Baptista Osco

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Paulina Baptista Osco by Emprender in Bolivia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, Emprender will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

As a Kiva Fellow working with Kiva’s local partner MFI in Bolivia, Emprender, I recently had the opportunity to visit with Paulina a Kiva funded entrepreneur.

Paulina sells unusual cow parts in a busy outdoor market in the high altitude city of El Alto, Bolivia. Proudly displayed on her table are cows heads with blank looking eyes, tongues, pancreas, tripe, heart, hoofs and livers. She buys these items from butchers who have set up a large city block for butchering cows. When one of the meat providers wants just the meat, Paulina accepts these parts. She has had her business since 1992 when a cousin showed her the ropes of the business and how to price her products.

She used her Kiva funded loan to restock her products and also to purchase some building material for her house. She is hoping to finish building its walls against the cold wind of the altiplano in Bolivia, and needed more plaster to do it.

There was an error in the original posting of this loan. Paulina is not single, rather she is married and her husband contributes to the family income by driving a taxi.

Though Paulina is very grateful to Kiva lenders she did not feel comfortable having her photo taken at the time of my visit. Here you can find a picture of the market she works in. Thank you for supporting her, Emprender and Kiva.

To read more about the adventures of Kiva Fellows in Bolivia check out our blog: link text