Mujeres De Batalla Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Paula Frias group, consisting of Paula Frias, Maria Bois, Felicia Pierre, Maximo Encarnacion, Madeleine David, Juliana Castro, Mariana Vois, Celie Macey, Juana Ramirez, Maria Frias, Maria Rosario, Maria Joseph, Martha Castro, Santa Frias, Argentina Re, Pedro Contreras, Alba Vilorio by Esperanza International, a partner of HOPE International in Dominican Republic. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the 5 months of this loan, Esperanza International, a partner of HOPE International will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Paula Frias has recently moved from the outskirts of San Pedro to the city and is no longer able to be an active member in the microfinance bank “Mujeres de la Batalla”. Paula moved to the city so that she would better be able to sell clothes to those in the city. Before leaving Paula paid all that was due on her loan and left her community is good terms.

The microfinance bank continues without Paula. The president of the bank declares that the economy of the community has been difficult ever since a sugar cane processing factory closed six years ago. Some businesses are affected more than others by the economy, especially those selling fried foods and clothing are drastically affected when the economy is down. However, those bank members with “colmados”, or small grocery stores, declare despite the poor economy they are doing fine.

The picture shows the bank members in front of the bank president’s home after their last bi-weekly meeting.

While at the last bi-weekly payment meeting Maximo took some time to explain his business and his past history with Esperanza International.

“It’s small, but it sells”, declares Maximo as he stands inside his colmado to the question regarding how business is. Maximo, along with his wife Aurelia, operate a “colmado”, or small grocery stand in their community, Bario 41. The community itself is by no means easy to reach. Bi-weekly the group’s loan officer must take two uncomfortable “motoconchos”, or motorcycle taxis and a bus to reach the rural community. The community is quiet; chickens roam the streets and horses are used as a means of transportation throughout.

Maximo has been living in the same home and operating his small colmado out of the front room of his house for over 11 years. Just over a year ago Esperanza International entered the community and offered its loan services to community members. Maximo joined fellow community members to become part of the microfinance bank, “Mujeres de la Batalla”, or Women of the Battle and is now on his second microfinance loan. Maximo took out his first loan to increase the stock in his colmado to turn a greater profit. Maximo purchased popular items including rice, oil, cookies, and beans and was able to repay his loan and take out a second loan to continue to purchase stock.

With the profits from the colmado, Maximo’s wife Aurelia has been able to open shoe and accessory sales from the front room of the house. Now as Maximo works in the colmado, Aurelia can sell her accessories to the same customers. Aurelia declares, “The Lord helps me everyday” and desires to see her business grow.

The recent economic crisis has affected both businesses, especially as many of the clients depend upon paying on credit and have been unable to complete their payments. However, Maximo and Aurelia look forward to growth in the future and for Maximo to take out an additional loan.

Dear Esperanza lenders,

As you may know, all entrepreneur profiles on Kiva’s website are posted by local Field Partners like Esperanza, whose mission is to “free children and their families from poverty through initiatives that generate income, education, and health, restoring self-worth and dignity to those who have lost hope.” As a Kiva Fellow working with Esperanza International in the Dominican Republic and Haiti, I saw Esperanza’s mission at work most recently while visiting a batey.

For those that are not familiar with the term “batey,” it is a small, barrack-style community built and maintained by large sugar corporations. These communities are often completely surrounded by sugar cane fields, and often they lack basic resources such as clean drinking water, transportation, reliable electricity, and medicine. The majority of a batey’s members work in planting, cutting, and loading sugar cane for eight months of the year. The other four months are a stalemate, during which there are no sugar cane earnings.

In order to ensure continued earnings, one entrepreneur, Cloreta Yan, who lives on a rural batey, used her Kiva loan to open a small store in her house. Her community previously did not have a store where they might buy basic supplies, which meant that community members had to travel to nearby communities to shop. When my fellow Kiva Fellow Kalie Gold and I first visited Cloreta, she offered very basic supplies, such as sugar, oil, and rice. When I conducted a follow-up visit, she was selling over 20 items, including tobacco, ice, drinks, and cookies. She is now earning 600 pesos a week and, according to her loan officer, continues to expand the line of merchandise she sells.

Esperanza has supported 4,251 Kiva entrepreneurs thus far, resulting in approximately $200,000 loaned. Continually working to improve their organization, they have recently opened an office in Trau de Nord, Haiti. Esperanza continues to grow - thanks to Kiva lenders like you!

Staff members at various offices throughout the Dominican Republic visit their entrepreneurs frequently, and many of you will receive an update on an entrepreneur who received a loan contribution from you. Unfortunately, due to logistical and administrative constraints, reaching every entrepreneur for an update is just not possible, even with Esperanza’s dedicated team. Whether or not an update is provided on a specific entrepreneur to whom you made a loan, I hope that you have enjoyed this update on the impact that Esperanza has had with Kiva funds.

Finally, I would like to thank you personally for supporting an entrepreneur in Haiti or the Dominican Republic. It saddens me to realize that this letter marks the end of my time working with Kiva’s Field Partner Esperanza here in the Dominican Republic. For the last three months I have had the pleasure of working with Esperanza, visiting numerous Kiva entrepreneurs, and training staff members in writing business profile updates for Kiva lenders such as yourself.

To see all current fundraising loans from Esperanza on Kiva.org, please click here:

http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&partner_id=44&status=Fundraising&sortBy=New+to+Old&_te=mj&_te=mj

To see a short YouTube video on Cloreta Yan, please click here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8reiqg1pbBo&_te=mj

On behalf of Kiva, Esperanza, and its entrepreneurs, we thank you for your continued support.