Adding to basket
Forty-five year old Merly, a mother of two grown children aged nineteen and twenty-seven years old, is married to a local transportation driver in the department/state of Retalhuleu. Merly earns income from making delicious traditional snack foods and drinks. For eleven years, she has been running her business from her home that she shares with her parents-in-law. Merly is well-known and she regularly draws new customers to her business. She has one employee. Her goal is to build her own home.
She is requesting her first Kiva loan to buy two blenders and ingredients for her recipes at the wholesale level. Part of her income will be earmarked for the continuing university studies of her youngest child.
Merly is the president of the Friendship Bridge Trust Bank “Mujeres Luchadoras Chapines”. There are seven other women in the group who are pleased to participate in the “Microcredit Plus” program of loans, weekly educational training (business, health, family, women) and bi-weekly health care services (exams, consults, family planning). These “plus” programs are essential for their success, since Merly attended school for nine years and the others have little or no formal education. The health care system in Guatemala is stretched thin and challenging to access.
In providing loan support, Kiva lenders are helping Merly and her friends with their businesses preparing foods and beverages, raising chickens, and selling clothing, tortillas and gas. Thank you to each of you!
In this group: Manuela, Miriam Carina, Geybi Roxsana, Rosa Olinda , Hilda Marleni , Claudia , Claudia , Merly Anabella
