Trabajadoras Tolimán (grupo I) Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Trabajadoras Tolimán (Grupo I) group, consisting of Irma Gonzalez, Rosa Guoz, Blanca Sulugui, María Cojtin, Maria Chach, Isabel Tun, Cristina Sajquiy, Juana Miza, Inecia Gonzalez by Friendship Bridge in Guatemala. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 6 months, Friendship Bridge will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

When I arrive at the Trabajadoras Tolíman group I notice they really live up to the name of the group: most of them have 2 jobs! Some of them could not attend to this meeting due to their hard work. I will tell you the story of three of them.

While speaking to Juana Ed Jasil, I find out she is the mother of Irma Sicay, one of the entrepreneurs. She tells me her daughter has 4 kids, 2 of whom have unfortunately died. Her oldest daughter was ill today and that’s why she couldn’t attend the meeting. Despite Juana living in another village an hour away, she went in her daughter’s place because she knows how important these meetings are, being a leader of another group herself.

Irma’s business is not going very well at the moment; she buys and sells huipilles, the traditional blouse worn by the women. In order to be able to pay the loan back, she has decided to go and work cleaning houses. She continues to trade in huipilles and as soon the rainy season has passed, she will sell much more, her mother believes.

Porfiria embroideries the huipilles she makes herself. The huipilles are sold to an agency that will take them to several markets. Just like many of the other members of Trabajadoras Tolíman, she also has two jobs and is taking care of a holiday chalet. She spends her evenings embroidering the huipilles: animals and fishes are her speciality. The tourists who stay in the chalet are always very enthusiastic buying from her! Porfiria’s three oldest daughters are all married, but her youngest, now 13 years old, is learning how to embroidery the way her mother does. After school, she often helps her mother with her business.

Betzabe sells all kinds of soaps. Before her loan, she couldn’t buy many different types of soap because the suppliers only wanted to give her only a few of each. Now she has expanded her business with her credit. She has any kind of soap you can think of: soap to wash white and coloured clothes, soap to wash your hands, soap used for scrubbing floors and many more. In her store she has even made a small corner where sugar, rice and vegetable oil are for sale. All in all: a real shop where she works very hard and even helps her kids with their homework when her husband is off to Guatemala City to work in construction.

On the picture you see how Porfiria is paying back to loan officer Gloria.