A Tragic Fire in Roatán

The closest I got to the beach that weekend was on the back of the motorcycle traveling between clients’ homes.

Roatán receives thousands of tourists each year but the island’s largest peak season is now, with Semana Santa (Holy Week) having just passed. From Spring Breakers to retirees, foreign tourists flock to this island off the coast of La Ceiba in larger numbers to enjoy the beautiful beaches that the island has to offer. However, my trip two weeks ago as the peak season got underway served a different purpose.

While most tourists are not able to venture off the beaten path, neighborhoods such as these are where you will find Adelante clients.

The Roatán zone from our La Ceiba Branch Office currently serves over 300 clients, many of whom invest in businesses to serve the tourism industry, while many more run businesses serving the local communities. Despite the luxurious resorts offered to incoming guests, many locals continue to suffer in poverty. One such woman is Adeline.

Adeline is a proud and bold woman who raised eight children on her own and has had two grandsons, 12 and 13 years old, in her care since they were very young. The difficult economic situations she has faced prevented her from being able to learn to read and write and laments that there simply was not enough money to send her children to secondary school.

Adeline is a native of Roatán–a Caribbean island known for beautiful beaches and expensive resorts. The poverty that her and many other natives of the island suffer from is often left unseen.

As a native to the island, Adeline is a native English speaker but also speaks Spanish. With greater migration into the island from mainland Honduras, Spanish is becoming more widely spoken there and many natives feel an amount of resentment toward this phenomenon. Because of this, Adeline and the other members of the group were thrilled to get a chance to have me there to chat in English.

I met Adeline while the Roatán Zone Credit Officer was working hard to get credit evaluations and other work done before the Semana Santa work holidays. These evaluations take place prior to each loan cycle to review the needs of each individual and their current economic situation.

While helping Orville with his credit evaluations, I arrived to the following standard question with Adeline, “Do you own your own home?” The answer I received was not what I had expected: “Well I did but three weeks ago it burned down.” Luckily no one had been at home when the fire started but she still has not been able to figure out the source of the fire. Where she lived, she did not have electricity, ruling out an electrical fire and did not have gas for her stove.

A dish rack and scraps of wood and metal sheeting was all that was left of her home when we returned to the scene three weeks later.

Until she is able to rebuild, Adeline has moved into the home of one of her six sons, about 15-20 minutes away along the unpaved road. She will continue working hard each day at her butcher shop in the market so that she can once again offer a home to her two grandsons, abandoned by their father.

Although pleased to have their grandmother around, Adeline’s grandchildren share in the pain she has suffered from in this recent tragedy.

Despite the various challenges faced by Adeline she continues to grow her business. With each loan cycle, she continues to take on larger amounts and pays back diligently, proving the success she has had within Adelante’s microlending model. Although she has a long way to go to make progress toward a new home, her loan history makes her eligible for our individual loan products. Once she begins rebuilding, Orville hopes to offer her with the support she needs to finish up the construction via a Home Improvement Loan.

Orville looks on with sadness at all that is left of what was once Adeline’s home.

I was personally amazed by how immediately Orville had responded to her tragedy in order to offer her hope for the future. Bringing our clients’ needs to the forefront and addressing how we can solve them is what we see as vital to successfully operating as a microfinance institution while fulfilling our social mission, and this is exactly what April being the Month of Microfinance is all about.

Her fellow Adelante borrowers also brought forth moral support, immediately displaying concern for what had happened. Adeline is very head strong and independent, which had originally made her reluctant to discuss the fire with her friends. However, the support from each of the women and from Adelante staff like Orville gave her enough confidence to open up and reminded her of just what it means to be part of a solidarity group.

Innovative Solutions out of Poverty

Our Board members and a few staff with Carmen outside her home which she has been able to invest in with a Home Improvement Loan

Last month, Adelante’s Board got a chance to visit a few clients of ours outside of La Ceiba. Not only did they get a glimpse into the lives of our clients, they also got a chance to make a few purchases for themselves! The trip started with a visit to Carmen’s home, where she produces delicious sweet breads and pastries that her husband later carries out to the market. Having already tried her pan de piña on a previous visit, I warned a few members ahead of time that it would be hard to buy just one. Carmen’s home improvement project continues to be a work in progress, and our Board marveled at how well she is able to manage her business from such a small working space.

Filena makes these decorative flowers out of recycled aluminum cans to then sell for a profit.

After leaving with plenty of fresh breads, several members joked about what other products they would get to buy at the next client’s home. Fortunately for them, Filena is one of our most creative clients. Filena engages in several business activities which she carries out from her home in a rural area outside of the city. She makes and sells flowers made from recycled aluminum cans, jewelry and crocheted clothing and decorations for the home.

Filena invests her loans in purchasing her materials and is always hard at work to create beautiful pieces. Her determination is paying off for her, as she is making progress in improving her family’s standard of living. She is now a recipient of Adelante’s Home Improvement Loan product for about $1,490. Her creative style made for great souvenirs for our Board Members, giving her a boost in her day’s profits. With such numerous skills, I was shockedd to learn that Filena’s talents are all self-taught, developed on her own through perseverance and commitment to improving her family’s standard of living. Thanks to the business loans that Filena has taken out with Adelante over the years along with assemblies every two weeks, she has been able to expand upon her business ideas to handle a much larger loan than an average Adelante loan.

Blanca shows off earrings and other jewelry that she makes from home.

Our last client visit of the day followed the trend of empowered women producing goods from their homes. Blanca makes and sells jewelry, crochet and flower arrangements at home outside of Jutiapa, presenting our Board members with another souveneir opportunity. Each of these three women have worked hard to identify and develop their own skills to get their families ahead.

This Friday is International Women’s Day, a day to celebrate all that women are, the advances we have made and what we need to continue moving forward. On March 8, Adelante will be celebrating Carmen, Filena, Blanca and the thousands of other women who have taken on the challenge of leaving poverty behind by investing in their own businesses. Their innovative solutions in the face of poverty are an inspiration to everyone at Adelante.

Are you interested in supporting this content, as well as taking on grant research and writing responsibilities and campaign development as our Development Intern? Check out our posting here and apply!

Happy Three Years to One of Our Best!

Gabriel does well because he loves his job at Adelante. When asked what motivates him to do his best, he explains that he feels proud to be an instrument in Adelante’s mission to the rural poor.

This month we would like to introduce you to Gabriel Gomez, our 2012 recipient of the “Best Credit Officer” award. This week marks Gabriel’s third year working with Adelante as a Credit Officer from our La Ceiba Branch Office! He began work on February 14, 2010 and has since impressed all his co-workers here. Oscar Mejía, Manager of Operations, has worked with Adelante for eight years and recently commented on Gabriel, “He’s organized, dedicated and honest. He pushes himself and has a great handle on his job. And there’s a reason for all this, there’s a reason why he does his job so well–he receives great satisfaction from the work that he does and having the chance to work with the women he works with here.”

Gabriel begins most work days arriving a little early to his first assembly to spend some time chatting with his clients. To him, the relationships he has been able to develop with the women borrowers has been vital to his success.  Gabriel explains, “I always work to be more than simply a credit officer to the women; I try to be a friend. These women are my sisters and my mothers.” The respect that he has earned from his clients has served him well as the relationships he has created give the women he works with extra motivation to manage their loans and businesses well.

Here, Gabriel delivers a lesson on how to implement a new business idea into pre-existing businesses for an assembly outside of La Ceiba.

The first trip I made out to the field was to two assemblies managed by Gabriel. We arrived early, giving me a chance to gain some of the women’s confidence by chatting with them alongside Gabriel. Each assembly of women meets every two weeks to receive educational lessons from their credit officer and report on their loan payments. Beyond the formal purposes of these assemblies however, the greatest benefit for many women is having the chance to gather with others from their community who share similar goals of improving their family’s lives and create or strengthen bonds with others. For women who must often simultaneously take care of their children and the household while running their own business, the assemblies offer them a formalized social gathering to get some time outside of the house. The kids that tag along get the extra perk of playing with the other children who have come with their mothers.

Before working with Adelante, Gabriel had previously worked for a local bank. He says what he likes about Adelante that sets this job apart is that clients are not required to provide collateral to take out loans. What he sees as most meaningful is Adelante’s “trust in the word that they have given” and the fact that “they know that Adelante believes in them”. Because Adelante’s stated mission is to support the poorest of the poor women in rural Honduras to work their way out of poverty, Gabriel’s work often brings him face to face with difficult situations. When I asked him how he handles this he explains that his first step when a borrower has found herself with personal or economic struggles, he guides the women around her to support her in any way that they can, explaining “The pain of one has to be the pain of everyone else too. We can always offer moral support even when we don’t have the resources for financial support.”

The dedication that Gabriel commits to the women he works with has been paid back to him with the advice and support that they provide to him in his own life. This however, does not get in the way of doing his job. If anything, the strong bonds that he has created have allowed him to do his job best—last June, Gabriel received an award at our Annual Staff Retreat for having the best results at the close of each month. Nicolas Flores has been Gabriel’s direct supervisor since Gabriel was first hired three years ago. However, Nicolas finds that oftentimes, he has already knows what is expected of him and gets started before even being asked, “He is always one step ahead”.

When Grandmothers become Mothers Again

When I ask older clients how many children they have, the answer isn’t always as straightforward as one might expect. Some aren’t sure if they should include children that have since passed away, others don’t know if they should just count the children that are still living at home and others like Nicolasa must also include the adoptive children from within the community that she has taken in. But perhaps one of the most common factors is that many women, for various reasons, now are found raising the children of their children: the job just never ends.

With such high rates of adolescent motherhood in Honduras, many young girls are not fully capable of raising their children independently. This means that for many rural poor women, they start over again as mothers when grandchildren come along. This provides an added strain on older women who have worked since their own childhoods and no longer have the same energy to grow their businesses. By receiving small loans, older women can invest in businesses that allow them to work from home rather than having to make sales on foot.

Toribia is a grandmother from a Garífuna community in the department of Atlántida who lives with her 18 year old daughter and two grandchildren, aged 2 and 5. Six other children have since moved out of the house and her husband passed away when her children were still young. For years she has been selling fish in the community and refreshments and oranges from her home in order to provide enough for her seven children.

With Adelante loans, she has now expanded into selling clothing, which her 18 year old daughter transports to the nearby Cayos Cochinos to sell. With her daughter’s weekly trips to Chachahuate, Toribia takes up the responsibility of raising her grandchildren and her local business activities. By working together with her daughter, the two young children are able to be cared for while their mother makes the tiring weekly trips to Chachahuate by boat. The earnings made among their business activities allow the young grandchildren’s needs to be met and give Toribia a chance to improve her family’s standard of living.

The issue of teenage pregnancy and motherhood in Honduras affects not just the children and the mothers themselves, but the parents of the young mothers as well. Dependency on parents is often sustained and grandparents must learn to adjust to a growing rather than shrinking household as their children get older.

While Toribia can count on a daughter who works with her to support the family, not all clients I have met are that lucky. Toribia’s daughter manages to support the business while getting ready to start her final year of high school. It is not uncommon within rural areas to find the young mothers and fathers of children without work or education, leaving much of the burden on the backs of hard working grandmothers and grandfathers.

Holiday Preparations in Intibucá

The twin cities of La Esperanza and Intibucá were already in full holiday swing last week. With many locals, I ended the week at a Christmas event in the main plaza filled with dancing, music and ponche–a delicious pineapple drink served hot to cope with the cold weather.  Paintings from Intibucá, Marcala and Choluteca were on display farther from the stage, giving people a chance to appreciate the local art scene as well.

Here, a group of dancers perform in La Esperanza’s main plaza.

When I arrived to the plaza, the event was already underway, with a folk dance performance. The act ended with a few audience members of all ages brought up to dance. A young singer came up next to perform a couple songs, followed by a reggae duo from Corozal, a small town outside of La Ceiba where we also have clients.

Amidst the holiday preparations, Adelante clients were busy at work preparing for greater sales. It was great to meet so many women preparing their businesses for a Christmas sales boost. Although the increased profits made during the Christmas season will unlikely be kept up for the year to come, the extra money helps these women to save, and to offer their families a little bit more in the weeks to come.

On a stroll through the market with another Credit Officer, Yovanny, we saw Ricarda, who had stayed late at the market just to chat with a fellow Adelante client. Ricarda had sold out of her tortillas quickly and was happy to spend a couple hours supporting her friend as she finished off her tortillas sales. With such high demand for the staple, they don’t have to worry much about competing with each other. And by the time I met with Santos, she told me to come back early the next morning so that I could take a picture when her basket would still be full of rosquillas, quesadillas and other sweet breads popular in the area.

In anticipation for Christmas, Carmen has been busy making dulce de leche and preparing delicious chicken tacos.

I met Cintya at her stand, who has enjoyed greater shoe sales as customers are busy buying gifts and looking for new shoes for themesleves. Carmen was hard at work making dulce de leche when I popped in for a visit and lunch with our Intibucá Office Supervisor Ethel and Carmen’s Credit Officer David. From her home, Carmen prepares typical food like the tacos we ordered for lunch, but also started making and selling dulce de leche a couple years ago.

Ethel gets ready to dig into her order of chicken tacos!

Serapia’s convenience store will soon be ready to sell meat and other frozen products, thanks to her coming Individual Loan!

Serapia, however, must be the most joyful of them all. I met Serapia at her house where she lives with her husband and four of her five children. Here she runs a small convenience store and raises animals to sell. With Christmas approaching she has already sold two of her three turkeys and is getting ready to sell her three pigs. Unfortunately, she has struggled to keep her chickens safe from the mountain cats who come out at night, making these less profitable.

After four loan cycles Serapia has qualified for an Individual Loan, which she will be receiving this Friday! The loan of L. 12,000 ($600) will allow her to purchase a freezer for her store. With a new freezer, she’ll be able to see her profits increase, telling me, “The fridge I have is only good for storing drinks. With a freezer I’ll be able to start selling meats–products that my customers have frequently asked me for.”

From her home, Serapia is able to engage in multiple activities to support her family–selling basic goods, raising animals, attending to household chores and caring for her children.

She started her store three years ago with about $40 of earnings left over from selling her fattened pigs. After hearing about Adelante and becoming a member of a local assembly, Serapia is now able to make much larger investments into her business. Her first group loan was for about $192 and is now paying back a loan for about $305. The Individual Loan will now give her the opportunity to invest and grow her business in a way that she would not have been able to previously.

The Christmas season is a busy time for everyone at Adelante, as many clients look to take out new loans to take advantage of the holiday boost in the economy. As for me, I’m looking forward to my first Honduran Christmas and New Year. The holiday spirit shown in Intibucá and La Esperanza was just the thing to get me ready.

Erika: One New Client’s Bright Young Daughter

Erika models the necklace she made after the first day of the workshop.

I met Erika during our Jewelry Making Workshop in Intibucá during October, our most recent offering from our Product Innovation Workshops. At nine years old, Erika was the oldest daughter of a client at the workshop. As the workshop got started, Erika and her mother Rosa sat with the other women who had attended the first workshop, about a third of those in attendance. While her mother and the others at her table picked out new materials to work with and the newcomers got started with their tools, Erika reviewed the beads and material available and observed her mom and the others as they got to work. Erika’s excellent grades and hard work in school made it possible for her to miss two days so that she could accompany her mom to the workshop and learn how to make jewelry with her.

With Erika’s help, Dulce Maria is able to balance learning a new skill with caring for her son. By selling jewelry, Dulce Maria will be able to earn more money and better support her family.

While shy at first, Erika gradually began to talk to the other clients, and eventually became comfortable with me. As she adjusted to the setting at the workshop, Erika started to stray farther from her mom’s side, taking on multiple roles. In addition to making necklaces and earrings at Rosa’s side, Erika helped the other mothers out by acting as babysitter for the younger kids so they could focus on the workshop, cheered on clients who were having trouble with the tools and even helped me out by taking a few pictures. Although she enjoys helping her mother and coming up with new jewelry designs, Erika’s favorite class is math and she wants to be a teacher when she grows up. With her incredible ability to learn, she also revealed a natural teaching ability. Ana is a new client with Adelante and this was her first workshop. While she struggled with the tools, Erika came over to give her some encouragement, telling her, “You just have to remember to keep your hands still. I know you can do it!”. With Erika’s help, Ana learned to relax a little bit and was proud to show me the bracelet she had finally made when I returned to her work station. 

Maria (left) helps Erika become comfortable with the jewelry tools, while her mother looks on.

During the two day workshop, I got a chance to meet several inspring clients but was most deeply impacted by the potential that Erika had shown. Rosa tells me that they live in a somewhat isolated area in the mountains outside of La Esperanza and didn’t have electricity until just four years ago. Like her daughter, she also values education and had worked hard for years so that she could finish her high school degree just a couple years ago, while simultaneously raising her two children. Her economic responsibilities also extend to her mother who has become very sick and has lost the ability to talk. To help her husband cover their family’s expenses, Rosa makes tacos, enchiladas and tamales to sell outside the local soccer field during games every Sunday. Since the first Jewelry Workshop, she has begun to implement this new business and has now taken out her second Adelante loan, a much larger loan than her first–about $370 compared to $165. This larger investment signals to me that her new business venture has taken off well. With Erika’s ambition, Rosa’s new business and both of their hard work, Rosa will see her daughter grow up with greater opportunities than she was offered as a young woman. Like so many of our other clients, Rosa knows that it is up to her to shape the future for her children.

Rosa and Erika stand proudly to accept Rosa’s Workshop Certificate. At the end of the day Rosa told me, “And what she doesn’t know yet, I’ll teach her!”

Adelante and our clients in Intibucá are very appreciative of the support brought forth by Women’s Empowerment International. Without their funding and support, these workshops would not be possible. 

Heavy Rains and Hurricanes’ Impacts in Honduras and New York

Marta with her 22 year old daughter and 3 year old granddaughter

Marta Rosa is a new client from Choluteca on her first loan cycle. She became a part of Adelante to increase production of enchiladas and tacos that she makes and sells alongside her 22 year old daughter. Although Marta has been doing this for many years, last October’s heavy rains left her and her family homeless. Her two sons have not been able to secure steady jobs, being forced to settle for seasonal agricultural employment.

The devastating rains of last year remind us of why Adelante began in the first place—in response to the devastation left by Hurricane Mitch. However, for me, a native New Yorker, her story makes me reflect on the damage just recently left behind by Hurricane Sandy and last year’s Hurricane Irene. I was thankful to see Hurricane Sandy pass by a few weeks ago without leaving any or minimal damage to my own family and friends. Last year, my family was not so lucky.

I was in Quito, Ecuador on orientation last August when I first heard about a hurricane heading toward New York but the news I had read seemed to predict greater problems for New York City and other downstate areas than where my family lives outside of the capital of Albany. After getting to Guayaquil, where I would be studying during the fall semester of my senior year, I got a call from my parents. Although New York City had been spared much predicted damage, parts of Upstate New York and Vermont were not so lucky.

After losing power the day before, my family had been woken by police at their door around 1:00 am to evacuate their home in late August. They loaded what they could into their car but most of my belongings that I had left while I was abroad remained in the basement. In the rush of moving out of my apartment and packing for my semester abroad, I was left with little time to label or organize the boxes I was leaving behind. For the next two months, my parents stayed with family and received the support of members of the community who were not affected.

Down the street from my house on one side is a lake where I had learned to swim and on the other side, a river where I watched the Village of Scotia water ski shows and fireworks as a child. The rains that hit my town resulted in the overflow of the Gilboa Dam, flooding from the lake and river into my town and water eventually breaking through the foundation of my house. By the time I arrived back from Ecuador, the house was almost done with repairs and my parents had been able to resume their normal lives.

The devastation that my family and others were faced with was also often met with community support and generosity. When I spoke with Marta, many things raced through my mind. In her rural community, about an hour out from the closest city, were police officers able to be effectively assisting with evacuations? Even if they could evacuate people from areas in danger, would they all have had somewhere to go? Unlike my parents, she certainly did not have flood insurance to cover at least some of the costs. Moreover, Marta’s neighbors do not have the same capacity to support each other during these disasters that my family’s community does.

Marta has been renting this house from a neighbor since she lost her home in the floods last October. She hopes that her business will bring her the profits she needs to buy a new home in the future.

After losing her home, she was able to move into a rental owned by a neighbor, where she lives with her three children all in their 20s and her three year old granddaughter. Her husband passed away 15 years ago so they must all work together to cover their household expenses, which now include the cost of renting and will soon include her granddaughter’s school expenses. Her two sons both work in agriculture, typically finding work during harvest season. During other times of the year, it is harder for them to find work, making Marta’s business even more vital to the well-being of her family.

Marta and her 22 year old daughter run their business together making and selling tacos and enchiladas in the community. They share responsibilities in making the food, and her daughter goes out to sell their food while she cares for her granddaughter. After relocating and reestablishing their business after last year’s rains, they are starting to build up a new clientele. Marta is proud of the work she and daughter do, saying, “She goes out everyday to sell the food we make and now those who have tried it love it and go looking for her to buy more!”

Marta’s dream is to someday have a home that she can call her own again. In July she took out her first loan for $166. She hopes that with the new investment, she will be able to grow the business that she and her daughter have developed together and eventually be able to own her own home again.

Marta’s granddaughter, aged 3, poses for the camera while her mom and grandmother make tortillas.

Economic Interdependence in Rural Communities outside Trujillo

Maira shows off the topogigio she bought from her Adelante compañera, Amada.

The smell of fresh bread is in the air and Maira is hard at work producing more! Maira makes her freshly baked bread every day for her customers, mainly friends and neighbors from within her own community in the department of Colón. She also runs a small convenience store from her home, as well as renting out her five horses to customers to carry loads or as a form of transportation. Friends and neighbors are an incredibly important part of the success of Adelante clients, as local interdependence is necessary in such rural parts of Honduras.

In the one bedroom home that she rents, Maira lives with her six children between the ages of four and 16. Although transportation for all of her children is costly and can be difficult, she is proud to say that all of her children are in school, with her youngest starting kindergarten. Between school fees and transportation, costs can vary week to week but can reach up to $4 per child per week. Although this might seem minimal at first, with six children this adds up to almost $100 a month. To reduce costs, her older children ride her horses to school when they are available.

Maira started her small businesses with her own savings but uses Adelante loans to expand upon them. Her most recent loan of $167 was used toward the purchase of two horses, in addition to the three that she already had. As we chatted in her fellow assembly member’s home, she glanced over to Amada’s cooler and expressed one of dreams for the future, “I want to buy a new cooler. Mine doesn’t work anymore so I can’t sell items like these that Amada can sell. This will help me to earn more money.”

Amada shows off her scale, which helps her ensure that she charges the right price based on weight.

However, without her own cooler, Maira will continue to fuel the economic success of her assembly members’ own businesses. Amada is a 68 year old client who lives next door to the assembly meeting place. She also runs her own convenience store but unlike Maira, is able to sell topogigios (a popular frozen juice) and other perishable goods. After the meeting, Maira  bought a guanábana flavored topogigio from Amada and noted that Amada and her other fellow assembly members buy her fresh bread and other products from her convenience store. The women commented that with the variance in the products they offer, they are able to buy from each other and stimulate the local economy.

Amada and Maira are wonderful examples of what Adelante is working so hard to achieve, and that is both independence and interdependence within the communities we are working in. There is nothing more amazing than watching these incredibly hard-working women inspire their families and encourage others to join them in their success!

Amada’s convenience is located in her home, where she sells all types of spices, seasonings, snacks, perishable products and staples including rice, flour and sugar.

To read more about Maira and Amada’s community and the journey that their Credit Officer takes to get there, subscribe to our monthly newsletter to receive the coming November issue!

Fulfilling Dreams of a Better Home and Business

Carmen is a client from the department of Atlántida who bakes bread and pastries for a living, a business that she has had for five years. When I first met Carmen, she shared with me that building a kitchen was her her most sought after goal. With the help of Adelante‘s Home Improvement Loan product, she is now able to make her dream a reality for her family. She began with Adelante about two and a half years ago with a loan for about $126 and is now receiving her second Home Improvement Loan, with which she is building a kitchen. With her first Home Improvement Loan for L15,000 ($762), Carmen was able to replace her doors, windows and the wooden beams that support her roof. Her new loan for L18,050 ($925) will allow her to build an annex which will serve as the kitchen and dining room for both her family and out of which she will continue her business.

On the right, Carmen’s kitchen is beginning to take form.

Carmen lives with her husband and four children between the ages of 7 and 12. Her home currently has two bedrooms and a small main room which serves as the living room and kitchen. The Home Improvement Loan will bring great changes to Carmen’s life, as it will allow her to have greater space to work while caring for her four children.

Carmen’s freshly baked pastry filled with pineapple jam

 

With her small oven she bakes various types of breads and pastries, including the Honduran specialty, semitas, and pastries such as the one tp the right stuffed with pineapple jam. Carmen also bakes cakes for her customers upon request. While Carmen bakes and attends to clients at home, her husband goes out to sell her bread and pastries at a local market. I got the chance to try one of her pineapple stuffed pastries myself and would definitely stop by frequently for her baked goods if I lived in her community.

In this small corner Carmen currently does all the baking for her business, in addition to cooking for her family of six.

The construction started in September and will continue slowly as the rainy season is starting up. When the project finishes, she will no longer have to divide her already small living room into two to make room for her business. Before starting with Adelante, Carmen had worked with other microfinance institutions but left when a friend invited her to join her assembly. As she continues to grow her business, she plans in the future to build a septic tank with the profits from her business. With each loan Carmen makes with Adelante, she is raising her family’s standard of living and improving her business to make her more self-sufficient.

Adelante Entrepreneur Uses Profits to Improve Her Family’s Living Conditions

Glenis Adelina, an AA client from Colon

Glenis is an Adelante client from a small rural community in Colon. For her assembly’s bi-monthly assembly meetings, Glenis’ house is the meeting spot. She is proud of this house, as she has only just recently finished construction on it. The construction was a work in progress for a couple of years but thanks to the profits from her two businesses, she has been able to complete the project.

We have written about several other clients in recent months who have received Home Improvement Loans from Adelante since this product was launched last July, including Lucila, Mirtila, Brenda and Delia. However, Glenis’ story is different; Glenis was able to use her profits to invest in her home improvements, rather than having to request a loan to finance the improvements.

Glenis began with Adelante three years ago with a loan for L3,500 ($178) and has steadily increased her loan requests to her current loan cycle for L18,200 ($916). The loans are used to stock her two small businesses. During the week, Glenis has a stand outside a local school where she sells fruits, juices and candy. On Sundays, she takes advantage of the local soccer team’s presence to sell both used and new clothing and accessories outside of the stadium during games. When the team is away, she travels on the road to make sales at the stadiums where they play.

Side view of Glenis’ house

Glenis is married and lives with her mother, husband and 16 year old son. A relative and her 2 year old daughter have also moved into the house recently. Glenis, her husband and her mother all work to provide support for the household but they now must also support the two new members of the  house. The increased earnings she has received since beginning with Adelante and particularly in the past year, have enabled her to expedite the completion of the project that would have otherwise taken much longer.

Front view of Glenis’s home

Glenis is thankful to now have a tin roof over her family’s heads and be able to provide them with electricity, cement flooring and walls, saying, “I’ve been able to use my earnings to build this house, before we had none of this”. We are thrilled to see the improvements that Glenis has been able to make since she began working with us.

Glenis does not yet consider her efforts in improving her family’s standard of living complete. Her next project will be to install ceramic tiles over the cement floor. Unfortunately, not all of our clients are in the position to take up projects such as these without support. This is the reason for beginning our Home Improvement Loans a little more than a year ago. Whether the loan helps to put in place a secure roof, install electricity or build an annex for the small business, the loans share a common result: improved living conditions for the family.

The improved living standards that our clients enjoy from improvements to their homes is significant particularly because of the size of our clients’ households. Although Honduras has lowered its fertility rate from years past (7.5 children per woman in the 1970s[1]), rural fertility rates have long been higher than in urban areas–in 1993, rural women had an average of 8.7 children compared to the urban average of 5.3. (1). This disparity between urban and rural areas is partially due to lower education and and less access to contraception in rural areas (2). Although recent statistical breakdowns between rural and urban areas are not available, I expect that the rural rate continues to be higher than the national average of 3.01 (3). Just among the 20 women I have met so far, the average is more than five children per woman–including two women with twelve children each.

With greater numbers of children in the household, and households often being made up of extended family members, the effect that these home improvements have can be dramatic and certainly expand beyond the average US household size. The reach of each Home Improvement Loan and of each woman who is able to use her profits to invest in better living conditions makes our efforts all the more urgent.

(1) Source: Monga Bay. Honduras-Population Growth www.mongabay.com/history/honduras/honduras-population_growth.html

(2) Source: Guttmacher Institute. Early Childbearing in Honudras: A Continuing Challenge. 2006 http://www.guttmacher.org/pubs/2006/10/13/rib_Honduras_en.pdf

(3) Source: CIA World Factbook 2012 www.cia.gov/library/publications/the-world-factbook/geos/ho.html