Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Field Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

 

Status update — January 25, 2016

After 28 months on Kiva and 66 loans fundraised, Fundación CREHO has graduated out of Kiva’s Experimental Partnership program and been given a risk rating of 1.5 stars. 

Partner description:

Fundación CREHO (Honduran Foundation for Educational Loans) is a lending institution founded in 2002 in Tegucigalpa that focuses exclusively on student loans. It aims to be the leading private organization offering education loans in the country, contributing to the transformation of Honduras by enabling the training of qualified people. 

CREHO was founded as a collaboration of 98 small organizations that were interested in creating a private student lending organization in Honduras. 

Today, Honduras suffers from unequal income distribution and high underemployment; more than a third of the population is unemployed or underemployed. Part of the reason for this is lack of access to education among youth.

CREHO has formal partnerships with a number of universities throughout the country. Students can attend any institution within CREHO’s network, which covers the vast majority of quality Honduran institutions. 

Kiva lenders’ funds are used to help the organization give even more students in Honduras the opportunity to pursue higher education and their career goals.

A unique lending approach:

CREHO offers loans to cover tuition costs, including enrollment at technical and vocational schools and universities for undergraduate, master’s and doctoral programs. Additionally, students can get a loan to cover their rent, food and transport expenses as well as school supplies like computers.

About 58% of CREHO’s beneficiaries are women borrowers, and more than 56% of students take out loans for the purposes of attending college. While CREHO is still quite small, its rate of growth is not insignificant, especially taking into account its small staff of three full-time employees. In 2010, the organization disbursed about $190,000 in loans. In 2012, that number jumped to $250,000. 

The number of students has also grown quickly between 2010 and 2012, as well as the number of people who successfully complete their funded programs. According to the loan exit interviews conducted by the organization, 68% of its previous borrowers work for the private sector, and about 5% have founded their own businesses.

The average worker in Honduras makes roughly $243 per month ($2,916 per year), which is slightly under the national minimum wage.  According to the organization’s research, average family income of CREHO students is $5,404. It estimates that expected student income is likely to increase by 265% by virtue of having a college degree.