Today is Giving Tuesday, and every act of generosity counts.
Today we’re sharing with you updates from two of our projects: First, Women’s Savings and Microcredit and later, Horizontes sin Limites.
The Women’s Savings and Microcredit Project has had remarkable success in San Gaspar Chajul. Starting with 20 women coffee sorters who lost their jobs to a piece of sorting equipment, the credit program now has 2,000 women in two organizations: The Microcredit Association is made of up 80 groups of 20-25 women each and offers individual loans up to $300 without any collateral necessary except the collective guarantee of the group. The other organization, a Microcredit Cooperative, has approximately 500 members (many former members of the Association), who are eligible for larger loans of $500-$1000 that are backed up with collateral.
The women from the Association are in the process of building their own four-story building in San Gaspar Chajul, and have become a significant economic engine for the community, as well as the only low-interest lender to the poor in the entire Chajulense region.
The Coffee Trust provides training in financial and administrative management, as the extraordinary growth of the programs requires increased capacity and advisorship. The women also learn how to manage their loans and develop their own small businesses.
We invite you to support important projects like this one this Giving Tuesday.
