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Ecuador > Fundación ESPOIR

Fundación ESPOIR ("mi bankito") is an Ecuadorian non-governmental organization (NGO) that specializes in communal banking to hard-working women. The organization is based in Quito and has several branch offices across the country with Kiva operations in Azuay (Cuenca) and Manabi (Portoviejo), specifically. Their key market differentiator versus other micro-credit institutions is their offering of health and financial education to their entrepreneurs. Such topics include setting personal and business goals to understanding reproductive health and nutrition benefits. Their Cuenca office even houses a medical clinic where about 300 entrepreneurs per month receive health services for themselves and their families from the two doctors on staff.

ESPOIR aims to serve low-income women who live in the marginalized urban and rural areas of Ecuador and have unfulfilled basic needs. These women may or may not have previous business experience. The only requirements are that they be willing to increase their earnings, improve their management skills and their health, and that they be prepared to fight for their own well-being and that of their families.

The majority of ESPOIR's portfolio is group loans. However, their individual loan business is growing, as long-standing entrepreneurs with ESPOIR "graduate" from group loans and take on larger amounts to finance and sustain their businesses for the goal of asset accumulation. In addition, ESPOIR offers emergency, university and home improvement loan products.

As of December 2008, ESPOIR had 1,712 communal banks, 30,902 borrowers who were virtually all women, with 41,815 active loans and with a portfolio of $15,284,495.20.

Mission: To contribute to the economic, social, and healthy development of enterprising women and poor small businesswomen in Ecuador, and to provide them with micro-credit and education so that they might strengthen their capacity to generate income, in search of the better life for women, children and their families.

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