Francisco Javier Cardenas Garza

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Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to Francisco Javier Cardenas Garza by Fundación para la Vivienda Progresiva in Mexico. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 14 - 20 months, Fundación para la Vivienda Progresiva will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

My name is Julie Pachico and I'm a Kiva Fellow who's had the privilege of spending the past three months working with Kiva's Field Partner Fundación para la Vivenda Progresiva (FVP). During my time here, the incredibly helpful and supportive FVP staff has made it possible for me to drive down countless bumpy, unpaved roads in search of Kiva clients to interview, learn border Spanglish such as troque (truck) and yonque (junkyard), attend a lucha libre fight and eat more homemade tamales and meat tacos than I ever thought possible.

FVP is unique among Kiva Field Partners because it's the only one based on the U.S.–Mexico border. Its main office is in Nuevo Laredo (on the border with Texas), with two other branch offices in the border towns of Ciudad Acuna and Piedras Negras. This video gives you a brief glimpse of FVP staff in action and shows images of clients Kiva lenders have helped fund: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fYK3Xg_C9dg

During my time here, I've come to view the border as a particularly volatile and vulnerable region in Mexico. The majority of clients that I met immigrated here from the south of Mexico, seeking better-paying jobs or a chance to cross into the U.S. in order to find work. I met Kiva borrowers such as Gloria and Hidalga, who immigrated here from two of the poorest states in Mexico, Chiapas and Veracruz, in search of opportunity.

So how does microfinance enter the picture as a potential solution? With a loan from an organization such as FVP, a family can build an extra room in the front of their house, which they can later turn into a business. For instance, Laura expanded her front porch so she could rent the space out to other street vendors. Felicita used her loan to start a stationery shop and Julia used hers to start a grocery store. These businesses enabled both of them to work from home, generate extra income for the family and take care of their children. Businesses that are dependent on high sales during holidays can also take advantage of microloans to stock up on merchandise in preparation for the busy season: Martha used her Kiva loan to purchase flowers in preparation for the popular Dia de los Muertos festival, while Pati was able to buy decorations for her Christmas-themed store.

While I did meet some clients such as Guadalupe, who used her loans to expand her egg-selling business into a chicken rotisserie, the severity of the economic crisis in Mexico has caused most clients to depend on microfinance for day-to-day survival, rather than to escape poverty. Microfinance may be a stepping stone to alleviating poverty as opposed to a be-all, end-all solution, but it is a vital stepping stone nonetheless. What may be more important about microfinance in Mexico in the long term, though, is not the fact that it provides easily available capital, but the way in which it empowers women and transforms their role in their families. Over 44% of FVP's loans are to female entrepreneurs, and this number is only expected to increase.

I've come to see loan officers in particular as the underrated heroes of microfinance, as they are the ones who provide the strongest connection between the client and the organization. Through mud and dust, burning temperatures and near-freezing ones, the loan officers at FVP are often the first to arrive in the office and the last to leave. FVP is also notable for hiring an all-female staff in their two branch offices, where one of the managers commented to me that she'd considered recruiting new hires by placing an ad in the paper for “single-mothers only, because they're the ones who work the hardest!” You can watch a video about a typical day with a loan officer in Nuevo Laredo here: http://bit.ly/5iuG15

FVP staff wishes to send a personal message of thanks to Kiva lenders: “FVP thanks Kiva and Kiva lenders; their support for this program enables it to be accessible to more families in our community, which is seeing an improvement in its quality of life. We are convinced that through hard work and our daily efforts, we can continue to provide a better future for our community's children."

If you would like to support and learn more about microfinance in the border region of Mexico, please check out FVP's partner page on Kiva (http://bit.ly/5FUMlo) and join our lending team, the FVP Incredibles (http://bit.ly/7MLdhp). To view all currently fundraising loans from FVP, please click here: (http://bit.ly/5PkhuR).

Gracias,

Julie

Kiva Fellow