I love
to photograph for my favorite nonprofits. En Comun, a microcredit Bank on Nogales Mexico,
is certainly one of those. My husband
and I have supported it for years, but last week we finally had the privilege
to meet some of the borrowers and see their businesses.
Modern
Microcredit was devised by Mohammad
Yunus, a Bangladeshi Economist who later won the Nobel
Prize for Peace in 2006 for this work.
He famously said, “Poverty is unnecessary.”
The gist
of the Grameen
Model, as his bank has come to be known, is that borrowers working in
groups, mostly women, take on progressively larger loans which are paid back
over a short period. The borrowers also
have classes in business and receive coaching and support. The default rate is
typically less than 1%.
The
facts are fascinating, but nothing compares to talking with the beneficiaries.
I
thought you might enjoy learning a bit about my new Mexican friends.
Lela has
two teenaged kids and has used her microcredit loan expand her business selling
Avon products. Her income has been spent
weatherproofing her house and providing necessities for her children. She’s considering hiring other women to
expand her business.
Doña
Nativada Is clearly the matriarch of the neighborhood. She watches her own grandkids and other local
children. She uses her loans to buy a
variety of used items in the U.S. and resells them locally. She’s been able to keep her family together in Mexico, build a new home for them, and
loves the choices she has because of the additional income.
"It is nice to have money," she says.
Leopold
is a single man who operates a successful small store selling food and
household items. With his last loan, he
has expanded the back of his store and created a small video game arcade for
kids, which they pay for hourly. He’d
like to spend his next loan on a second store which his nephew will operate.
Julia is
a beautician who, working for someone else, paid 50% overhead. With her loan, she went into business for
herself, in her home. Her overhead is
now 20%. Her husband works in an
electronic factory. She smiles widely
when she explains that the best thing about the new arrangement is that she
doesn’t have a boss.
Bruno is
a baker. He primarily serves as a
wholesaler for the many small grocery stores nearby. He has expanded, with the help of En Comun,
and has two employees. His dream is to grow
the business so that he and his wife and two daughters can move out of her
parents’ house. He is justifiably proud of his product (we may have sampled a bit) and his success.
Five families changed forever.
Please contact me through the website if you'd like more information or want to get involved.
