Funded

Total loan: $400

Karen Anally

Chimaltenango, Chimaltenango, Guatemala / Retail

A loan helped buy more Mexican shoes and clothing to sell to her customers.

Karen Anally's story

Namaste would like you to meet Karen Anally, a hardworking entrepreneur who lives in Colonia Socobal, Chimaltenango, Chimaltenango, Guatemala. She is 24, married with two young children, and has a high school degree. She is starting her second cycle with the Namaste Creating Prosperity Program. She learned a lot from her financial literacy classes and the advice from her personal business advisor, and grew her business quite a bit.

For seven years she has had a business buying and selling Mexican shoes, clothing, and other products. She sells them door to door and recently, with the help of her business advisor, she increased the range of products she sells and started selling them online. She has a small motorcycle that she uses to deliver purchases to her customers. Other things she has learned from her time with Namaste are to limit the giving of credit, to keep her business money separate, and to budget for both her business and home.

She will use her loan to buy more Mexican shoes and clothing to sell to her customers. Her husband picks up the products she orders in Mexico. Her business goal is to have a much larger scale business and to sell wholesale.

When she started with Namaste her monthly net profit was 1,700 Guatemalan Quetzales (GTQ) ($221). During the one cycle, she was able to increase that to 5,075 GTQ ($659) and by the end of this cycle, she hopes to get that to 6,265 GTQ ($814).

This loan is special because:

It provides mentoring for women entrepreneurs.

More about this loan

In addition to a micro-loan, through its Business Development Program, Fundacion Namaste Guatemaya, provides its borrowers with the business support that will help their enterprises grow.

Namaste provides financial literacy, business education, cash flow analysis, and opportunities for entrepreneurs to share experiences and best practices. The capstone of their model are Business Advisors that provide each borrower with one-on-one mentoring.

Namaste measures its success through the increase in profits of its borrowers. Of the more 3,500 women entrepreneurs Namaste has worked with, 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%.

About Fundación Namaste Guatemaya:

Fundacion Namaste Guatemaya (Fundacion Namaste) has developed and implemented the Namaste Creating Prosperity Program (NCP) in which Guatemalan women microentrepreneurs typically double their business profits. It is a hands-up program that provides a business microloan, financial literacy training, and personal business mentoring from a trusted community leader who is a successful business person.

Fundacion Namaste has worked with more than 3,500 women microentrepreneurs in Guatemala. 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 vulnerabilities such as personal or family health issues, weather disasters, changes in marital status, extortion, and robberies.) 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!

Fundaci�n 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.