Juana Susana Perez Puac

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

These two women work together and they both took out Kiva/ASDIR loans to enable them to buy yarn for their weaving business. Anacleta and Juana are part of a group of four women who cooperatively weave and sell their products. The other two women in the group also took out Kiva/ASDIR loans to buy yarn.

They are very early on in their loan, but they believe that they will have no trouble making their payments.

These women weave with a “foot” or treadle loom, which was introduced to the Mayans by the Spanish during the conquest. Traditionally,these looms were only operated by men, but now, they are operated by men, women and children. They weave traditional “cortes” (fabrics) which are then sold to people who make them into women’s skirts, aprons or sashes.

We conducted a video interview in Spanish with Anacleta (Juana was camera shy) which you can link to at the bottom of this update.

About Kiva's 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. ASDIR has been a Kiva partner since 2008.

About the area:

Totonicapan is one of 22 departments in Guatemala and is located in the western highlands of Guatemala. The capital of the department, referred to as “Toto”, sits at an elevation of over 8111 feet (2495 meters) and the climate is relatively mild/cool. Over 2/3 of the 300,000+ residents of the department of Totonicapan live in a rural area and are primarily Mayan descendants who continue to speak their native language of K’iche. Weaving, agriculture (mostly corn) and woodworking are the primary economic drivers, particularly in the rural areas.

video interview

Totonicapan Guatemala

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