Catalinas Group

Maria (29 years old) is single and lives with her parents and three siblings. She has 9 years of schooling, since she did not like to study.

For 10 years, Maria has been knitting typical garments such as centerpieces, blouses “huipiles”, belts “fajas” and embroidering and crocheting “huipiles”. She also buys and sells handicrafts, such as key chains, pencil cases, earrings, bracelets, backpacks, knapsacks and traditional tablecloths. She sells at a stand on the shore of beautiful Lake Atitlán.

María wants to diversify her business, so she applies for a Kiva loan to buy traditional T-shirts and sweatshirts to satisfy the tastes of her clientele. She envisions having a formal store, stocking it more, and taking advantage of the year-end holidays to generate more profits.

Maria is one of the eight Maya Kaqchikel women who make up the community bank Banco Comunal de Puente de Amistad “Catalinas”, in the department/state of Sololá. They benefit extensively from the “Microcredit Plus” program of loans, monthly training and medical care. Topics such as savings and the good use of loans enrich their knowledge which helps to achieve their goals. Most of these women are artisans. Every two months they benefit from the Health program, where they have access to basic women's services, which help them to prevent illnesses.

Thank you Kiva lenders for promoting the development of women like Maria.

In this group: Catarina, Magdalena, Marta, Irma Judith, Sandy Aracely, Francisca, Maribel , Maria Francisca

Translated from Spanish View original language description.