Putting a Face on Microfinance
by Linen Greenough

I arrived in Guatemala four days after hurricane Stan had ripped through her western high country in October 2005, causing rivers to bulldoze the landscape, ruthlessly decimating lives and crops. Days after hopeless effort of many volunteers and government workers, the town of Panabaj was declared a National Cemetery with countless lives buried forever beneath the mud. I learned new words such as "damificados" for victims and "el llanto" for such grief that can only be described as the crying of the soul.

My purpose in Guatemala was two-fold. First I was to do my third total-immersion in a Spanish language school and then I wanted to put a face on my investments with Katalysis Bootstrap Fund, by seeing microcredit in action.

Sergio Gonzales, the director of FAPE, one of the Bootstrap Fund's Partner organizations in Guatemala, and his staff coordinators and promoters loaned me their eyes and ears for two days as we traveled into the rural mountains to meet four different groups of empresarias (business women). One by one we learned of the various businesses the women have and slowly my investment began to have character with names and faces. Marita does laundry, ironing, raises pigs, and sell tortillas. Like so many of the women we met, her husband works in construction in Guatemala City and doesn't get home often. We heard from Aldela who had a clothing store, Magdelena who sold tortillas, Nadelina who sold medicines and cosmetics, Juliana who sold fruit drinks, Maria and Lucia, mother and daughter, who weave material for the beautiful huipiles that Josephina decorates in an intricate crewel design, and many other Marias selling food, snacks, chickens, toys, Christmas lights, kites, and pigs. There were butchers, cake decorators, farmers, weavers, and those that sold thread to the weavers. As an example, Josephina told us that she started with FAPE seven years ago with a loan for $15.

The women I saw were prospering, confident, joyful, and had found work that was satisfying and paying off. Many had passed the first rung of the ladder out of poverty. Dreams were coming true, lifestyles improved. They had their children in school and recognized its importance. In most cases the children were in school through 6th grade and many were continuing further.

To see women, as we had, working as entrepreneurs and children going to school represented FAPE's goals in action. There were huge challenges in front of them though as the hurricane had affected 500 families who were FAPE clients. Sergio said that they would not forgive existing loans but that they would find a way to delay payment and restructure new loans at a lower rate so that the clients could get back into business.

My head and heart were full of this two-day experience. I had made new friends, seen microcredit in action and had been given a sense of hope for the future.