HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org

HISTORY

Friendship Bridge (FB) was established in 1990, having first worked in Vietnam and then shifting its focus to Guatemala in 1998.  Headquartered in Lakewood, CO, Friendship Bridge has a staff of six in the U.S. and a team of 80 in its six branches, two satellite offices, and headquarters office in Guatemala. Intentionally employing staff that represents the demographics of its clients, FB’s employees are 68% women and 67% indigenous. In addition, 10% of the staff is former clients.

Friendship Bridge currently provides microcredit and education to women throughout 10 departments in Guatemala and maintains a 98.5%+ loan repayment rate.

Mission

To provide microcredit and education to Guatemalan women so that they can create their own solutions to poverty for themselves, their families and their communities. 

 Vision

A world in which empowered women eliminate poverty.  

Friendship Bridge Microcredit Plus Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program offers Guatemalan women renewable microloans – averaging $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle – and non-formal, participatory education lessons on business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education. FB targets impoverished women living in rural areas of Guatemala that are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy.  On average, a Friendship Bridge client is 38 years old, earns $1.74 a day, has had 2.6 years of formal education, has a household size of 6.15, and is unlikely to speak Spanish, the official language of Guatemala (information based on a 2007 survey conducted by FINCA fellows). Friendship Bridge’s facilitators (loan officers) speak both Spanish and the local Mayan language of their communities (currently nine of the 24 indigenous languages spoken in Guatemala).

While participating in the Microcredit Plus program, Friendship Bridge clients start, expand or diversify their businesses, which range from weaving to raising livestock or poultry to roadside vending to growing fruits and vegetables for sale at the local markets. Friendship Bridge clients borrow as a group, forming Trust Banks – groups of 7-25 women who serve as co-guarantors of the loan and act as a self-regulating network of support.  

As loans are repaid, they are re-loaned, creating a continuous cycle of opportunity for Guatemalan women, their families and their communities.

Microcredit Program

Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program is a hand-up, not a handout, offering many benefits for women.  Loans provide self-sufficiency, income generation and consistent cash flow. As a result, women gain self-confidence and respect from their families and communities.  This access to capital for women, who would not normally be eligible for loans at traditional banking institutions, provides them with the opportunity to participate more fully in the economy and to gain self-worth. Many of Friendship Bridge’s clients have stated that their husbands support their involvement with Friendship Bridge, because the husbands themselves are unable to access capital. 

Friendship Bridge’s average microloan is $300 for a four-to-twelve month loan cycle with a 2% monthly flat interest rate. Currently, Friendship Bridge’s loan repayment rate is upwards of 98%.  During 2010, Friendship Bridge clients used their loans in the following ways: commerce–59%; textiles (production/sales) –18%; animal husbandry – 8%; agriculture – 7%; handicrafts (production/sales)– 7%; other – 1%. 

Trust Bank Leadership

Friendship Bridge’s Trust Bank model provides the participants with an opportunity to practice and develop leadership skills. All members of the Trust Bank are involved in determining a regular, monthly meeting time and location that accommodates them all, as well as electing its own board of directors – a president, vice president (optional), treasurer and secretary.  Responsible for the management and leadership of the larger group, the board helps address attendance and/or repayment issues with individual members, ensures that meetings are run effectively, and handles banking tasks on behalf of the group. An important distinction in Friendship Bridge’s model is that the loan officers do not collect loan payments, but rather the Trust Bank board of directors is responsible for the collections role.  Two members (rotating monthly to mitigate risk), including one officer, take all of the collections to the bank for deposit. This structure provides decision-making roles for Trust Bank members, further aiding in their empowerment and leadership development.

 Non- Formal Education Program

Friendship Bridges monthly loan repayment meetings are coupled non-formal participatory educational trainings – offering lessons on topics previously determined by FB’s clients.  In 2008, clients were surveyed and determined the primary curricula topics that interested them, which have since been developed into Friendship Bridge’s educational program.  The topics include business, money management, health, and self-esteem. The 2010 curriculum has focused on business management, with an emphasis on defining business success, accounting for time, managing inventory, maintaining separate business and personal “accounts” and developing customer relations. At the start of each year, which correlates with the beginning of the Guatemalan school year, the monthly lesson stresses the importance of children’s education and offers tips on how to be a supportive parent to a child in school.  Interactive methods of teaching, including rotafolios, a flip-chart style learning tool that includes illustrations or actual client photographs, are used to deliver the lessons to our primarily pre-literate client base.

By requiring attendance at these meetings, FB creates an opportunity for women to develop bonds with their fellow Trust Bank members, while learning new skills that are applicable in their everyday lives.  With most clients having only a few years of formal education, the trainings offer a learning experience that is generally otherwise unavailable to them.

The Building Bridges video captures the impact made by Friendship Bridge’s Microcredit Plus program.

Please visit www.friendshipbridge.org for additional information and to read some of the personal success stories of Friendship Bridge’s clients.

Friendship Bridge can be contacted via email at info@friendshipbridge.org