No Need For Loan Sharks

Tomasa and Silvario were first introduced to us in the spring of 2007. Our program director Mercedes was visiting their village San Ignacio. "We had been made aware of their situation,” says Mercedes, "and we wanted to see if we could help them out. They were quite shocked to find that organizations existed that actually did these kind of thing. Tomasa came to a meeting one Saturday morning to learn more about the qualifications and commitments they would have to make to receive a DJ loan. The major commitment was to attending a 26 week training program on How to develop a good business.

Tomasa was very faithful in attending the weekly classes and helpful with the other four women who made up their co-op. Together these five women would meet weekly to do their studies and discuss how their businesses were doing. The great news is that all of the women were able to repay their loans with the six month time limit.

Tomasa and Sivario took advantage of the opportunity to receive a second loan. Tomasa began the leader of her co-op and helped in the process of finding a second group of women who would make up her new group. Often women who do an excellent job as a member of one co-op go on to be the leader of a new co-op.

Whenever I visit Guayaquil, I always try to make a visit to the home of Tomasa and Silvario. They have become ambassadors for us in the village of San Ignacio and very helpful for us in finding potentially new micro-enterprise recipients.