Dolly Dermis Serruche Vega

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Dolly Dermis Serruche Vega by Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER in Peru. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, Manuela Ramos / CrediMUJER will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

As Kiva Fellows, we are happy to give you an update on the effect of your loan on a Manuela Ramos/CrediMujer client. The entrepreneur profiles on Kiva’s Website are posted by local field partners, which are microfinance institutions that lend to the working poor to help them lift themselves out of poverty. For the past three months, we have been working with Kiva’s field partner, Manuela Ramos. The role of the field partner is to screen each entrepreneur, post his/her loan request on the Kiva Website, disburse the loan, and collect repayments.

Manuela Ramos is an organization dedicated to the advancement of Peruvian women. Founded in 1978, its programs include educating women, primarily in the rural areas of Peru, about gender equality, domestic violence, women’s rights and environmental awareness. It now has programs in fifteen locations throughout Peru, with seven regions operating microfinance programs. The microfinance program on which we worked, CrediMujer, assists groups of 15-30 women to come together, form a community bank, and take out a loan to use in their individual businesses. This is where Kiva comes in, by providing interest-free capital for Manuela Ramos to lend.

By supporting an entrepreneur who works with Manuela Ramos/CrediMujer, you are also supporting the progress of women living in the poorest regions of Peru. Although the loan amounts offered by Manuela Ramos are small (between $100 and $1,000), they make an impact on these women’s lives by providing them with the necessary capital to start and, sometimes, to expand their businesses.

Entrepreneurs partake in different businesses depending on the regions in which they live. Our experiences as Kiva Fellows in the field have also been influenced by the diverse geography in Peru. In the San Martin region, which is located in the Amazon basin of Peru, Diana encountered not only some very hot days, but also the warmth and generosity of its women, who would often give her treats like coconut water, fresh oranges, and cold soft drinks to help her cool off after a long day walking under the sun. Because San Martin's primary economic activity is agriculture, Diana visited many entrepreneurs with businesses related to agriculture or food production and sales. Growing cocoa, selling plantains, preparing local dishes like juanes (a mixture of rice, chicken, eggs, olives, and spices, wrapped in "bijao" plant leaf) and anticuchos (grilled meat on a skewer), and selling basic foods, were the most common business activities in this area.

In the city of Puno, nestled in the Peruvian Andes, Emily experienced the bitter cold and intense sun that the region is known for and saw the economic benefits that the tourism industry has brought to the area. Puno is located on the shores of Lake Titicaca, the highest navigable lake in the world, and attracts many tourists who buy Peruvian tapestries, embroideries and alpaca sweaters, scarves and hats to keep warm. In addition to creating these artesian goods to sell to tourists, many Manuela Ramos entrepreneurs work in businesses that fatten livestock and operate small kiosks or general food stores.

Although we have been working separately in two different Manuela Ramos offices, we have focused on the same type of work, primarily writing journals for Manuela Ramos’s Kiva entrepreneurs. While the borrower profiles on Kiva’s site present information about how the entrepreneur plans to use the loan, journals provide follow-up information about how that loan was used and the effect it has had on the entrepreneur’s life. Although Manuela Ramos has employees and Kiva Fellows like us working hard to increase the number of journals written, financial and logistical constraints make it very difficult to produce a journal for each entrepreneur. Whether or not you have received a journal about the Manuela Ramos entrepreneur to whom you gave a loan, we hope that you will enjoy the story of Gloria, one of these entrepreneurs.

Gloria lives in the city of Tarapoto, the main commercial hub of the San Martin region. She makes “salchipapas,” a dish consisting of French fries and hot dog links, often accompanied by coleslaw or other variations, depending on the cook's particular style. Gloria's love for her business shows not only in the quality of her service and the food she serves, but also in her loyal customer base. Gloria has been a member of her community bank for quite a few years and her most recent loan of 1,000 soles (approximately $300 USD), was financed through Kiva by lenders like you. With this loan, Gloria bought tables, chairs and other supplies. This investment allowed her to better serve her customers and provide them with a more comfortable environment. However, Gloria's plans for her business don't end there. As an enterprising woman, she is thinking about the future of her business. To hear more about these plans from Gloria, see this short video interview (scroll all the way down):

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=64373&_tpos=1&_tpg=1&_te=mj

Thank you for supporting entrepreneurs like Gloria and helping Manuela Ramos work on behalf of Peruvian women!

Best Regards,

Emily Sweeney and Diana Rodriguez

Kiva Fellows 7th Class

I had a chance to visit Dolly twice in the past few weeks to see her business and to chat a little about her situation. Dolly runs a small stand in front of her home where she sells cakes, sandwiches, juices and soft drinks. The majority of her customers are students from the school across the street and people working at offices in the area. The first time I visited Dolly, she cheerfully served me an excellent breakfast of fried plantains and homemade chicken-noodle soup. Dolly told me that her business is doing well; she has many clients, particularly during the work week.

Dolly also has a degree in primary education. She started her own business selling food after she lost her job as a teacher. Dolly also works selling beauty products from Avon and Esika.

Dolly is currently paying back an internal loan (which comes from the savings of other members of her communal bank) of 500 soles (about $165). Dolly was not able to take out a regular loan from Manuela Ramos during the current cycle because she had difficulties making the payments for her last loan (of 1700 soles, about $565) on time. This last loan came from Manuela Ramos and Kiva. Although Dolly was late with her payments, she has now managed to pay this loan off completely. (Note: Because Manuela Ramos covers borrower default, losses are not transferred to the lender and late or incomplete payments are not reported on the Kiva site. Generally, Manuela Ramos continues to work with delinquent borrowers to recuperate the entire loan amount, even if payments arrive months late.)

Dolly is only recently recuperating from serious financial difficulties which resulted from her involvement in a wave of money-transfer pyramid schemes (or “pyramid games”, as they are called here) which hit Pucallpa over the past year. Many area residents lost a great deal in these games; the majority of Manuela Ramos’s borrowers in the Pucallpa area were affected. Dolly is now back on her feet and is working extra hard to pay off remaining debt. Dolly has been working with Manuela Ramos for four years and is using her current loan to purchase food for her business.

Dolly is a single mother of three children. Two of them are still dependent on her. Dolly’s daughter is studying agronomy at a local university and counts on her mother to pay for matriculation fees and transportation to school. Dolly’s youngest child is an 8-month-old son.

Dolly's goal is to eventually run a real restaurant out of her home. If you'd like to see a list of currently fundraising loans from Dolly's MFI, Manuela Ramos, click Here.