Gaviotas Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the SILVIA ERAZU VASQUEZ DE FRANCO group, consisting of SILVIA, CARMEN ROSA, TRIFONIA, RUTH MILDREN, CARMEN, VIVIANA, VENEDICTO, VICTORIA, MARIA ELIANA, SILVANA, CORINA, GABRIELA, CRISTINA, EVELIN by Fundación Agrocapital, a partner of ACDI/VOCA in Bolivia. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 5 months of this loan, Fundación Agrocapital, a partner of ACDI/VOCA will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

I went to a Gaviotas group meeting today in one of the member’s homes. The women were charming and inviting, and Crifonia even shared delicious Argentine cookies for everyone out of her business stock.

Crifonia travels to the Argentine border twice a week by bus to buy cookies, soap, and many other products to bring back to her town to sell, and she used her loan to invest in more of this capital. Before, she used to sell prepared meals in the market, but this was more tiring and had lower profits. Her profits have increased quite a bit with the loans, and she has been able to buy a DVD player and bedclothes for her home. In addition, she is going to use part of her profits to travel to Cochabamba, a city 10 hours away by bus, to visit her family this weekend and go to the Virgen de Urkupiña festival to sell beer. She usually goes to Cochabamba once a year since she misses the city and her family. In the future, she would like to keep taking out loans to keep getting ahead in life.

Evelin has sold used clothes for two years, and this her third time taking out a loan. She has been able to pay rent and a buy a TV with her extra profits due to the help of the loan. In the future, she’d like to make her business bigger and start bringing clothing from Sucre, a city about 12 hours away from her hometown.

Carmen is a sweet indigenous woman who has sold prepared meals in the market for many years and has been with this group longer than most of the members. She used her loan to buy tools for her husband’s workshop, and eggs, potatoes, and other food items for her stand. “My quality of life has improved a LOT.” she told me. Now, she is able to pay rent on her stand and buy more food for her household with her new profits. In the future, she told me with a shy smile, “I want to do things the best I can.”

If these entrepreneurs interested you, consider lending to more AgroCapital clients here.