A return visit to some of the members of the rural Comite San Antonio got me thinking about the life enhancing, rather than life changing, impact of microlending.  Comite San Antonio’s credit lines help this group of self-sufficient women who have a modern approach to life, family, and work.

Family is sacrosanct in Paraguay, and most of this committee are happily married to caring men who have good jobs.  Members of this committee juggle families, work, and school just as my colleagues in Boston do.  They borrow from Fundacion Paraguaya because the additional cash is helpful and the terms and training are good.  Comite San Antonio has made its monthly payments on time for the year during which they have been Fundacion clients, they have added to their “caja chica” (cash kitty), and they have built their savings account.  They’ve done this without extra committee meetings or special fund raising activities.

I’ve previously written about Gloria, who sells clothes and decorated flip-flops.  She’s always thinking about ways to extend her product sales (she and several of the others love doing the flip-flops, which they learned to do through the Fundacion), and her loans go towards buying inventory.  Miriam and Lilian are successful hairdressers.  Miriam is divorced, has a home, attends university (mathematics), and her hairdressing business is flourishing.  She has taken the minimum loan amount because for the time being, she does not need much additional capital, but she wants to remain in the committee.  She says she is entirely self-sufficient.

Stylish Lilian is another hairdresser; she has two children and a husband with a good job who also works in the afternoon at a store they run.

Lilian at home/work

Lilian and Oscar are relative yuppies; they work hard, they have a lovely home with a big yard, and Lilian is talking about building a separate space for her hair salon, so the salon space inside the house can be used by the household.  So here’s a young couple on the rise.  Lilian told me that when she was first pregnant, her husband did not want her to work.  But she has studied cosmetology and hair styling and color, and she wanted to keep busy.  And, she says, one never knows what lies ahead, so the additional income is good.  Her respectful husband acquiesced.  Lilian has put her credit to work for her, investing in salon enhancements and now, in cosmetics.  She is a very happy Mary Kay distributor.  Lilian told me that her clients are well off.  Some are professionals, such as architects, and some are housewives.  Lilian likes working from home where she can tend to her children as needed, and her client schedule is flexible.  She said she likes working with the committee because it gives her social interaction outside of family and business, as well as access to credit at favorable terms.

Contrast “Mujeres al Progreso,” an urban committee headed by the indefatigable Dora.  Several of this committee’s members are candidates for Fundacion Paraguaya’s poverty eradication project.  Dora is a natural saleswoman, a single mother (as are most of this committee’s members) who sells cosmetics and used clothes.  She has invested her credit in growing her sales business, and she told me that she would like also to sell fruits and vegetables from her home.  Dora rents her home (no hot water) and sends her son to a private school (100,000 guaranis, $25, per month).  Dora is savvy and wary; she has a nose for buying well so that she can sell profitably.  Many of her sales are on credit, which enhances her profitability.  Dora used to work as a waitress in Ciudad del Este’s center where she bought cosmetics for herself.  She found herself selling to her neighbors.  As her small son grew, she found a flexible schedule and working from her home suited her single parenthood.

Dora stands over the loan renovation meeting

Dora is the president of her committee, and does the bulk of the record-keeping and weekly loan payments.  She is good with numbers and enjoys working with Fundacion Paraguaya.  Dora has had prior credit experience.  Badly in need of cash, she borrowed from a “prestamista,“ a money lender who collects interest by the day.  “Never again,” she said.  Her committee has a checkered history; there have been late payments and difficulties building the caja chica.  But Dora browbeats members, and is grateful to see the savings account grow.  Dora relies on her committee’s asesora for ongoing help and training (product training as much as financial literacy) for the whole committee.  Some of this committee’s members are domestics or recycled plastic collectors, barely scraping by inside the city.

Mujeres al Progreso members, as candidates for the Fundacion’s anti-poverty initiative, meet regularly with their asesora for business plan reviews and financial training (largely a matter record-keeping).  The asesora faces the usual organizational challenges; clients have to work, they don’t like to meet if it rains or if it’s cold, or if Paraguay’s soccer team is in the playoffs of the Copa America.

Will micro loans from Fundacion Paraguaya change the lives of this committee’s members?  If they can learn to invest their capital, rather than using it to live off of, they may enhance the quality of their lives.  The extent will vary with individuals.  Not all clients are entrepreneurs, and Dora knows this.  Individual members need to take initiative, they need to learn what it means to use their capital to help their futures, and that there is a difference between subsistence and sustainability.  And that is a reach.

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