Kiva conducts regular, ongoing monitoring of all Lending Partners, but only posts status updates here in response to relevant, major changes at the partner.

Status Update - June 11, 2018

On June 3rd, Volcan Fuego in Guatemala erupted sending pyroclastic flows down its south-eastern slopes which engulfed several villages such as San Miguel de Los Lotes and El Rodeo. More than 100 people have lost their lives and more than 200 are still missing as search & rescue efforts are on-going amidst renewed volcanic activity emanating from Fuego. 4,000 people have also been evacuated. We have contacted our partners in Guatemala and both field staff and their families are safe. Our partners are in the process of contacting their clients to ascertain the gravity of the situation and initiate disaster relief activities. We will be in touch with our partners to assess how best we can help their borrowers recover in the event some of them have been affected. 

Partner Description:

Fundación Namaste Guatemaya (Fundación Namaste) is a non-profit organization in Guatemala that empowers women with microloans and mentoring. It has been providing a comprehensive set of poverty alleviation services directly to clients since 2008. Fundación Namaste’s over-arching vision is that low-income women entrepreneurs in Guatemala will have the necessary tools and access to support in order to increase business profits and thereby move from poverty towards the middle class.

Its flagship program, the Namaste Creating Prosperity Program (NCP), promotes the economic well-being of each entrepreneur and her family, and also supports healthy community economics and participatory democracy. Notable among the corollary benefits for family children are better nutrition and healthcare, and more years of schooling. It is a strong development process by which the women grow in empowerment with the support of staff and interactions with their sister businesswomen. Sustainability is achieved by the businesswomen retaining their education and using it within their families and communities into the indefinite future.

Fundación Namaste has worked with more than 3,500 women microentrepreneurs in Guatemala. Of these, 7% were classified as extremely poor when they joined the Namaste program, as their families were living on less than $1 per day per household member. Almost all the rest were labeled as “working poor,” living in very vulnerable economic conditions and unable to sustain shocks such as personal or family health issues, weather disasters, changes in marital status, extortion, and robberies.

A unique lending approach:

The flagship program (NCP) is a unique approach through which women entrepreneurs typically earn double their profits. The NCP is a hands-up program that combines training, personal business mentorship from a trusted community leader and successful businessperson, and customized microcredit business loans to help women increase profits, formalize business infrastructure, and enter the formal business sector. 

What are the results for the 3,500 women? Five out of every eight women successfully completed their work with Namaste and saw their profits rise, on average, from a working poor income of $247 a month to $515 – an increase of 109%. (Most of the other three women were defeated – at least temporarily – by those vulnerabilities mentioned earlier.)

The bounce to $515 a month puts these women at the very cusp of what the Guatemalan National Survey of Living Conditions terms a “middle class” income. And 15% of the women have climbed to $1,000 a month – solidly middle class. For most of the women and their families, it has been a dream come true!

Fundacion Namaste joined Kiva through our  Experimental Partnership Program, and has therefore received a lighter level of due diligence. Accordingly, loans associated with this partner carry a higher level of risk than typical Kiva loans.