Adding to basket
Despite having no formal education and being a single mother raising two children who are now nineteen and twenty-three, thirty-eight-year-old Isabel aims for success. She lives in a rural area in the department/state of Solola and was able to save enough of the income from selling used traditional textiles to send her children to the first few grades of elementary school. She sells from her home where she lives with her youngest child who is now nineteen. The twenty-three-year-old child is married and doesn’t live with her.
With her first Kiva loan, Isabel will buy more used colorful traditional clothing to resell. Because new traditional textiles are quite expensive. There is a market for good used pieces that are proudly worn by the Maya women.
Isabel has joined five other Maya K’iche ladies to participate in the “Microcredit Plus” program of Friendship Bridge which includes loans, monthly educational training, and bi-monthly health care services. Their Trust Bank is called “Bendicion de Patzite”.
Monthly educational training is essential to their success and covers an aspect of four topics: business, family, women, and health. Gathering effective business management techniques helps them with their traditional textile businesses. They learn how to budget, plan, price, and how to value their time. Healthcare services are vital to their success because the Guatemalan healthcare system is stretched thin and challenging to access.
Thank you, Kiva lenders!
In this group: Isabel, Ana, Magdalena , Manuela , Manuela, Lidia
