Ofelia Marina Baquiax Rosales

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Ofelia Marina Baquiax Rosales by Asociación ASDIR in Guatemala. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 11 months, Asociación ASDIR will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

We went to visit Ofelia in her home/workshop one afternoon. As you can hear in the video interview (assuming you know Spanish), Ofelia believes that having access to microcredit and, specifically, this loan from ASDIR/Kiva have enabled her to be her own boss. She is in charge of her own destiny, not having to depend on someone else to find work for her or to pay her.

She has a thriving business custom making women's traditional clothing. Many of the women bring her their fabric and then have her custom make "cortes" (skirts) or "lantares" (aprons).

Unlike many other women in this area who sew for a living, Ofelia does not go through a distributor or a retailer to sell her products. Instead, the customers come to her.

If you are interested in learning more about traditional women's clothing in this region, this link is very helpful.

traditional mayan clothing

I have had the privilege of spending the last 9 weeks as a Kiva Fellow with ASDIR, Kiva’s field partner in the western highlands of Guatemala, in the district of Totonicapán. As you may know, all entrepreneur profiles on Kiva’s web site are posted by local Field Partners (microfinance institutions), which are organizations that lend to the working poor to help them lift themselves out of poverty. The role of the Field Partner is to screen each entrepreneur, upload his/her loan request on the Kiva web site, disburse the loan, and collect repayments.

You are receiving this email because you have made Kiva loans through ASDIR and we thought you might be interested in learning a little more about this Kiva partner.

ASDIR (Asociacion de Desarrollo Integral Rural---Association for the Development of Rural Communities) was founded by a handful of Mayan men and women in 1988. ASDIR started as a community-based organization working to develop villages and communities in the department (state) of Totonicapán Guatemala.

Today, ASDIR specializes in providing financial services and educational programs to more than 2500 clients in mostly rural communities throughout Totonicapán. ASDIR has five offices serving over 100 communities and has been a Kiva partner since 2008.

Totonicapán is one of 22 departments in Guatemala and is located in the western highlands of Guatemala. Totonicapán is also one of the poorest departments in Guatemala, with the country’s highest infant mortality rate, and almost half (49.7%) of its children are estimated to be suffering from malnutrition.

I’ve worked closely with some of the loan officers at ASDIR. (Loan officers are the heavy lifters in micro credit. See my blog Loan Officers-Unsung Heroes—featuring interviews with two of ASDIR’s loan officers.) What sticks with me is how difficult and important the job of a loan officer really is.

Because ASDIR serves primarily the rural poor, loan officers must all speak K’iche as well as Spanish. All the loan officers grew up in this community, so they know the people that ASDIR is lending money to.

When I hopped on the back of a motorcycle to accompany a loan officer on a recent borrower visit, I was surprised by how welcoming the borrowers were. We visited a family of Kiva borrowers - the Mom and her three grown daughters all had taken out Kiva loans. Rene, the loan officer, was greeted as if he were an old friend. Chairs were brought out and juice was served (see photo). It was clear that a trusting and warm connection existed. (I’ve witnessed the same warm welcome on visits to collect on delinquent loans!)

I have listened as loan officers patiently and compassionately explain to a family why they must continue to pay on their loan, even in the face of great personal hardship. I’ve watched them work with an individual to develop a repayment plan that is reasonable and achievable. I’ve heard them explain that the loan is not bigger because the repayment plan would be too burdensome. I’ve seen the pride on their faces and in their eyes when they talk about the positive impact their work has on their community and the people who live in it.

I also visited dozens of Kiva borrowers (hopefully you’ve received an update on your loan) to see, first hand, the power of micro credit to incrementally improve the lives of the working poor. From a woman who used her money to become her own boss sewing custom aprons; a construction worker who used his loan to repair his cement mixer (and used the left over funds to buy new equipment for his side disco/dj business); to a young father who told me that without the loan from ASDIR/Kiva to buy a loom, he would “have nothing.” No rags to riches stories, but certainly lots of small steps forward.

Kiva currently has over 110 loans with ASDIR, for loans totaling over $85,000. ASDIR is poised to grow its relationship with Kiva by posting more loans, so please be sure to check for new loans posted here ASDIR Loans Fundraising.

Sincerely,

Lori Gibson