Adding to basket
Traditional blouses or “huipiles” are hand-woven and embroidered with colorful symbolic designs. Twenty-five year old Maria, a mother of two children who are eleven months and five years old, earns income from weaving and embroidering these beautiful garments that are proudly worn by many women in the area where she lives in the department/state of Sacatepéquez.
To earn extra income, Maria raises chickens that she sells from her home. She, along with her husband, who is a systems technician in a loan cooperative, supports the continuing education of their son who is in kindergarten. She requests her fifth Kiva loan to buy various colors of thread. Her goals are to expand her business and employ more community members to attend to clients.
Nine Maya Kaqchikel women elected Maria to be the Secretary of their Friendship Bridge Trust Bank “Azucenas San Jose Yalu”. They take care of their vegetable farms and traditional textile businesses. Maria calls the monthly meetings to order, the women make loan payments and then a Facilitator engages them in a monthly, interactive, educational training, part of the “Microcredit Plus” program. Topics are relevant for their lives and drawn from four areas: health, family, women, business. The business training helps them manage their vegetable farms and traditional textile businesses. Every other month, a visiting nurse offers them exams, consults and family planning.
Thank you, Kiva lenders!
In this group: Berta Judith , Maria Marcela , Ricarda , Edna Judith , Ana Leticia , Maria Adela, Maria Feliciana , Petrona, Maria Dalila , Regina
