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Microcredit Helps Alleviate Poverty in Guatemala, Zimbabwe

Doña María Paulina Gutiérrez (center), Rosalba Lopez (left), field agent, and Gladys Garcia (right), Manager of Mujer y Trabajo stand in front of a basket of brightly painted clay birds.

"Combining her artistic talents with a small loan of about US $80, Doña María Paulina has become a successful entrepreneur."

Davis-based Freedom from Hunger and the Guatemalan organization FUNDAP (Fundación Para el Desarrollo Integral de Programas Socioeconómicos) are partnering to bring the powerful resources of education and microcredit together. Their collaboration is helping alleviate poverty for thousands of women and their families in the Totonicapan department of Guatemala.

Doña María Paulina Gutiérrez, 53, is one of them. She makes clay figures -- birds, dogs, other animals, angels -- that also function as piggy banks. She creates these works of art from scratch, and then sells them to distributors who transport and sell them in markets throughout Guatemala.

Combining her artistic talents with a small loan of about US $80 and the support of her 28-member village bank group, called "Mujeres del Milenio" ("Women of the Millennium"), Doña María Paulina has become a successful entrepreneur.

In 14 countries across Asia, Africa and Latin America, Freedom from Hunger has collaborated with organizations to bring its signature program, Credit with Education, to more than 166,000 women and their families in poor rural areas.

Women participants in the Credit Against Poverty microcredit program take part in key decisions regarding loan management..

"The credit plan includes an HIV/AIDS training and awareness component - in response to the high rate of the disease in the area."

San Francisco-based International Development Exchange (IDEX) is an ally in the uphill battle of rural women in northern Zimbabwe. IDEX partners with the Zimbabwean organization Credit Against Poverty (CAP) to help people living in poverty to start small businesses.

Because almost 90% of the recipients of CAP credit are women, the program is having an important impact on family health and nutrition. It is also empowering women to play an active role in economic affairs outside the home. CAP's borrowers are also its owners, and they take part in key decisions about loan management.

Eunice Chitafi is one of the women helped by IDEX and CAP in the Chipenge District of Zimbabwe. There, the credit plan includes an HIV/AIDS training and awareness component - in response to the high rate of the disease in the area.

Eunice sews uniforms and custom-made clothing for the local community. She makes all the clothes in her small, one room house where she also prepares food and sleeps. Recently she requested a small loan (US$93) to repair her old sewing machine and to increase the fabric selection for her business. Her success has built her confidence in the ability to support her family.

As is common to many families in Zimbabwe, Eunice also supports her parents, who live in rural areas outside Chipenge and are too old to work. She is also raising her orphaned nieces and nephews whose parents died a year ago from AIDS.

For more information, contact Nunu Kidane at nunu@idex.org or 415-824-8384