November - Women`s Empowerment International

Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
Women’s Empowerment International
NOVEMBER 2012
Village Savings Partnership
Calendar
WomensTrust
Gramen de la Frontera
Adelante
WE STAR Center
Upcoming Events
Grameen de la Frontera site visit
– November 11-14
Holiday Reception in City Heights – Dec. 8
~ 10.am. to noon, City Heights Library, 3795
Fairmount Avenue, San Diego, CA 92105.
Please join us for yummies, shopping and a
chance to meet representatives from our newest
program in San Diego, the Women Empowered
Inititiatve.
WE Board Retreat – Jan. 12, 2013
An Evening at Sea Rocket Bistro –
Jan. 31, 2013
Dinner with Zoe Ghahremani, author
“Sky of Red Poppies” – Feb. 10, 2013
International Women’s Day Celebration
– March 10, 2013
WE Begins
New Village
Savings
Partnership
in San Diego
WE has entered into a
new pilot partnership! The Women Empowered
Initiative will focus on
creating village savings
groups in San Diego for
low-income women. This
is a pilot project created
by PCI, formerly known
as
Project
Concern
International,
a
San
Diego-based nonprofit
that focuses on disease
prevention, community
health and sustainable
d e v e l o p m e n t
internationally and in
San Diego.
The Women Empowered
(WE)
Initiative
will
begin this fall with the
creation of six village
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Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
Holiday Reception
Features Village
Savings Members
Please attend our Holiday
Reception
to
learn
more
about our village savings
project and meet PCI staff and
some of the village savings
participants. Our reception
will take place December 8,
from 10 a.m. to noon, at the
City Heights Library, 3795
Fairmount Avenue, San Diego,
CA 92105.
The hours coincide with the
City Heights Holiday Farmers
Market – only 1/2 block away
from the library – which features
many WE STAR Center clients
selling prepared food, fresh
produce and unique gifts. Stop
by the library before you shop,
and we’ll be happy to escort
you to the farmers market to
introduce you to STAR Center
clients and products.
Feel free to bring your best
friends!
savings groups in San Diego that will
help participants save money together,
lend to each other and start businesses,
either alone or together. As the program
continues, we expect the participants
will be better able to contribute to their
household incomes, provide a financial
safety net for their families, increase
family nutrition, promote education for
their children and, ultimately, become
powerful agents of change.
What is a savings group?
• 15 to 25 women form a group
• They save money together at regular
meetings
• They lend to each other and collect
interest on the loans
• They may develop
businesses together
and
manage
• Groups are facilitated by and receive
training from the program coordinator
who provides expertise in entrepreneurial
skills, small business management,
literacy
and
numeracy,
financial
budgeting and leadership skills
• Savings groups are based on savings
rather than debt
• Savings groups are managed by the
members who set up a system of checks
and balances to maintain the safety and
security of the funds.
Women’s Empowerment has pledged
$10,000 for support of the one-year
pilot project and anticipates that
many of our members and supporters
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Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
will serve as mentors to the program participants.
The six groups are now in the early stages of formation. Two groups will be
based in City Heights among the East African community and four will be
located in San Diego’s South Bay, including two among Latina women and two
for Filipina women
We are extremely excited to participate in this new project in our own community.
Such village groups - self-sustaining and self-managed - have been extremely
successful in PCI’s projects in the developing world and we have high hopes
that the same benefits will be seen here. Village savings programs give women
a safe place to save and they bring community members together so they can
work together on other community initiatives.
Members of the groups determine the majority of the group’s policies (including
membership, savings and loans, distribution of earnings and other issues).
Members pool individual savings and rotate an internal fund that provides
the basis for loans and an emergency fund. All members of the group serve
in all leadership positions on a rotating basis, thereby spreading and building
leadership skills equally among the group members.
Established 50 years ago in San Diego, PCI operates programs in 16 countries.
Programs vary by country and include providing access to clean water, fighting
HIV/AIDS in Africa, providing disaster relief and microenterprise, combating
world hunger and promoting women’s empowerment and gender equality. It
has also focused efforts on San Diego and the border region.
Last year, PCI launched the Women Empowered (WE) Initiative, a global effort
to promote economic and social empowerment among women through the
formation of village savings groups, internationally and in San Diego. Its goal
is to enroll 100,000 women in savings groups in the countries where it works,
including Bolivia, Botswana, Ethiopia, Guatemala, India, Indonesia, Liberia,
Malawi, Nicaragua, Tanzania and Zambia. Already, 14,000 women are enrolled
in PCI village savings groups in Ethiopia alone.
In San Diego, the pilot project’s success will be measured by tracking financial
performance, member satisfaction and operating
efficiency. Also, the impact on individual group members
will be tracked by measuring changes in poverty, food
security, household expenditures and savings, gender
equity, health and education.
We look forward to sharing more details
with you as the groups form and grow.
Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
Rosalind Serwaa sells household items – sheets and towels – from a shipping container
on a busy road in Pokuase, Ghana.
From a Leaky Kiosk to a Dry
Shipping Container, Courtesy
of Hard Work and Microloans
Rosalind Acoto Serwaa wasn’t always able to display her stock in the secure,
cozy shipping container that now houses her wares. When she first began
her business selling gently used household goods, such as bed sheets,
towels and curtains, Rosalind had only an outdoor kiosk with no roof and no
protection from the heavy rains which visit Ghana annually.
She was able to sell only towels in those early years, because that was all
she had room for. But with the help of a small loan from WomensTrust, WE’s
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Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
partner in Ghana, Rosalind was able to graduate to a covered table,
increase her stock and eventually purchase a shipping container.
Her present location is an excellent spot adjacent to the main
road to Accra, the nation’s capital.
Rosalind has been a borrower with WomensTrust since 2006,
and as she repays each loan (there have been ten now), she’s
able to get a larger loan to continue building her business. At 52,
Rosalind is the proud mother of two grown children, a boy and a
girl, ages 21 and 26, who sometimes help with the store.
She works long hours, from 7 to 5, six days a week, but she
doesn’t mind because she’s working for the future. Her sister
owns a similar shop in Accra, so they’re able to pool their
resources to buy their goods in bulk, making their scarce
dollars go further.
With her next loan, Rosalind hopes to
buy a sewing machine so that she can make pillow
cases to match the sheets she sells and offer
complete sets to her customers.
She
dreams of adding a second shipping
container some day, but that’s a
dream for another day.
For now, Rosalind is just grateful
that business is good, and that her
association with WomensTrust allows
her to have health insurance as she
ages. Her greatest immediate need? A pair
of reading glasses.
WomensTrust is WE’s fifth partnership, and our second
in Africa. WE has partnered with WomensTrust, located
in the rural village of Pokuase, Ghana, since September
2010. A delegation of WE members visited Pokuase
this fall to meet with staff and clients. Rhea Kuhlman,
one of our ambassadors, provided this story. WE
will retur n to Ghana next year. Please consider
traveling with us. For more information, email us at
womens.empowerment@cox.net.
Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
Determined Businesswoman Credits
Her Work, Dedication and Patience
“It’s up to you to rise above where you are,” says Simona Aldama, glowing
in her pink shirt and wide smile. She is a 34-year-old single mother of four
children who speaks both Mayo and Spanish.
In 2005, she received her first loan of $1000 pesos ($96 US at that time) from
Grameen de la Frontera (GDLF), WE’s partner in Sonora, Mexico, and used it
to buy a pair of goats to breed and
sell. In seven years, she has never
missed a payment.
In 2011, she took out a loan for
$7000 pesos ($550 US) to build her
business. She now has dozens of
goats she is breeding. She dreams
of expanding her enterprise to
include horses and cows.
In Sonora, Mexico, Simona Aldama is a
seasoned borrower and a successful breeder
of goats. In seven years, she has never
missed a loan payment.
make home improvements.
each month.
Her success has allowed her to
pay educational expenses for her
four children. Her son will graduate
from high school and plans to
apply for scholarships to go to the
university where he wants to study
medicine. He will be the first doctor
in the community of Bacajaquia in
Sonora.
Simona’s business also helps her
provide food for her family and
She is able to save one third of what she earns
Simona’s day starts at 4 a.m. when she gets her children ready for school. She
says the hardest part of her work as a goat breeder has been seeing an animal
die, and not being able to do anything to prevent it. She wishes she had a
veterinarian close by and the money to pay for services.
In addition to her affiliation with GDLF, Simona is also the coordinator of her
community food bank. She stands out in GDLF Center meetings because she
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Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
Now on her fifth loan, María de la Cruz Mejía Rodríguez sells snacks out of a
wheelbarrow in a small village in Honduras. She has used her profits to renovate her
kitchen, build a patio and take care of her family.
Turning Loans Into
a Successful Snack Business
María de la Cruz Mejía Rodríguez is an enthusiastic small business entrepreneur
in the village of San Pedro de Tutule, near Intibucá, Honduras. The first loan
she obtained from the Adelante Foundation, WE’s partner in Honduras, in 2010
was for only $211. Now she is on her fifth loan cycle, and is paying back a loan
for $632. This is a testament to her excellent repayment history, assembly
meeting attendance and diligence investing in her business.
María de la Cruz uses her small business loans to invest in her micro enterprise
of producing and selling snacks. Next to the central park in her hometown of
San Pedro de Tutule, Maria offers passersby her delicious snack products out
of a wheelbarrow. One of her most popular items is the nacatamal, which is a
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Maria: Turning Loans Into ...
Simona: Determined Businesswoman Credits ...
Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
is always ready to help another member who can’t make a payment.
Asked what advice she would give to a new GDLF borrower, she said: “That
you give it your best, because it is all about work, work and work. If you give
up at the first obstacle, you haven’t done anything yet. You have to dedicate
time and work in your business, and have patience. And every two weeks,
make your payment. You have to have a good credit history for the next time
that you want to get a loan.”
Then, in Mayo she adds: “Jamuchim naute karmake GDLF Tamaky!” Women,
let’s work together with GDLF!
Yes, Simona. Let’s do that!
At WE’s Annual Meeting in June, Beatriz Marina Bours Munoz gave a moving
report on the impact Grameen De La Frontera has had in the small indigenous
villages around Ciudad Obregon in southern Sonora. To read more about
some of these success stories, contact GDLF Liaison Linda Corey at ljcorey@
sbcglobal.net
steamed corn cake stuffed with meat and vegetables. Especially popular on
weekends, she produces and sells up to 500 nacatamales every Saturday!
Although María de la Cruz has worked with other microfinance institutions
before, today she is a client only with Adelante. In support of Adelante’s
simple qualification process, she confesses, “I prefer working with Adelante
because they don’t ask for much; there are not many requirements.”
At age 58, this widowed mother is still committed to supporting her family.
She has five children who are no longer dependent on her income, but they
all still live at her home. Not only do her adult children live there, but she
also hosts eight grandchildren and the wives of her two sons. With the
income she has earned from her micro-business, she has renovated her
kitchen and built a new patio.
María de la Cruz’s is driven to work hard in order to improve her family’s
quality of life. That is inspirational.
Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
A Garden Grows into a Business
Luchia Lokonyen loves to farm. It makes her feel fit and healthy, allows her
to feed her five children healthy, organic food and helps support her family.
Luchia is one of 85 farmers with a plot at City Height’s New Roots Garden,
run by the International Rescue Committee (IRC), WE’s partner in the WE
Center for STAR Women in City Heights. She is the first of the farmers to
get her Certified Producers Certificate, which allows her to sell her products
independently at the City Heights and Linda Vista farmers markets.
Luchia Lokonyen, from Uganda, turns a
of gardening into a business in City Heights.
love
Luchia has been in the U.S.
for four years. She came
as a refugee from Uganda
with her children, who are
now 6 to 18 years old.
Having been a farmer in
Uganda, Luchia was happy
to discover that she could
also be one in San Diego
through the New Roots
Garden. Wanting to be
productive and to feed her
children healthy food, she
went to the International
Rescue Committee to get
her own garden plot.
She started her garden
originally just for her family, then realized she could also sell her food to earn
income. She grows 24 types of produce, from amaranth to watercress. She
works two long days a week in the garden, on Mondays and Tuesdays, from
6 a.m. to 5 p.m., and sells another two days. “Farming is like exercise to me.
I feel so healthy doing it,” she says.
At the WE Center for STAR Women, she received help to get her garden
business started, including loans to purchase driving lessons and buy a van
to transport her produce. She also got help navigating the county bureaucracy
to get her producer’s certificate and advice for finding ESL classes.
Luchia is clearly proud of her business. She is popular with her customers
who are from a variety of countries. Some don’t know how to cook what she
sells, so she happily shares her recipe advice along with her produce!
Business Loans and Ser vices for Women in Pover ty
WOMEN’S EMPOWERMENT BOARD OF DIRECTORS
• Sue Alpert – Membership Chair
• Carol Clause – Co-President
• Linda Corey – GDLF Liaison
• Winifred Cox – Co-Founder, Fundraising Chair
• Rebecca Drexler
• Leigh Fenly – Co-Founder, Co-President
• Jean Fort – MFI Relationships Chair
• Janet Hamilton – Secretary
• Kirsten Hanson – WomensTrust Co-Liaison
• Sandy Hoover – WomensTrust Co-Liaison
• Rhea Kuhlman – Treasurer
• José Nuncio – Finance Chair, Adelante Liaison
• Mary Rutland – STAR Center Co-Liaison
• Lorna Strang – Marketing/PR Co-Chair
Women’s Empowerment International
P.O. Box 501406, San Diego, CA 92150-1406
www.womenempowerment.org
womens.empowerment@cox.net
619-333-0026
WE is an independent 501(c)(3) tax-exempt corporation.
All donations are tax-deductible
Copyright 2012 All Rights Reserved