Nuevo Amanecer Group

Thank you for your loan. It has been disbursed to the Nuevo Amanecer group, consisting of Teresa Vera, Karen Delgado, Telma Vera, Oilda Lopez, Catalina Mendieta, Primitiva Gracia, Maria Elizabeth Almada, Alice Bell, Maria Antonia Ayala, Irene Aquino, Maria Victoria Fernandez, Azucena Ortiz, Teodosia Estigarribia, Marina Estigarribia, Teodora Estigarribia, Remigia Estigarribia, Adriana Galeano, Dominga Piris, María Centurión by Fundación Paraguaya in Paraguay. We are excited to watch this business grow. Over the next 4 months, Fundación Paraguaya will be collecting repayments from this entrepreneur and posting progress updates on the Kiva website.

Today I met with two members of the Nuevo Amanecer Women’s Group in Villa Elisa, Paraguay. Joined by group president Teresa Vera, group member Adriana Galeano started our chat by telling me how grateful she was to Fundación Paraguaya and Kiva lenders. While crocheting a pattern onto a new shirt, Adriana told me that “Nobody else believes that women who take care of the home can also start their own little businesses. The Foundation believes that we can, and they give us credit when no other institution will.”

Many of the women in Nuevo Amanecer earn their income the way Adriana does, by selling their services as an artisan (crocheting and sewing) to a small but established clientele who order their goods. This, along with other businesses such as convenience stores and cosmetics sales, has been a successful model for the women of the group. Teresa Vera told me that, for the most part, the group does not have trouble making payments and that the members were succeeding in using their loans to grow their incomes.

Now in the sixth cycle of Fundación Paraguaya’s Women’s Entrepreneurship program, the women of Nuevo Amanecer have also developed a strong bond and consistently support one another. In addition to making their loan payments and making their mandatory contributions to a savings account, the group members also contribute to a small fund that is designated for helping group members in need. If one of the women loses a family member, for example, or has a medical emergency, the rest of the group comes together to decide how they can help.

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