Friendship Bridge has been a Kiva Lending Partner for 16 years. They work with women living in rural areas of Guatemala who are characterized by extreme poverty and high levels of illiteracy. Kaylin Lang, Kiva U.S. Operations Associate, visited Friendship Bridge and shares her experience of meeting several of their women borrowers in Guatemala.
“Friendship Bridge values our long-standing, 16-year partnership with Kiva. Kiva’s innovative crowdfunding investing platform connects us with lenders globally in order to serve and empower more women in Guatemala who are seeking access to financial services. The loans from Kiva enable our clients to start new or grow existing businesses, whether they are first time borrowers in a Trust Bank, or established entrepreneurs with growing businesses in our Bridge to Success program. We look forward to continuing our successful partnership for many years to come.” –President and CEO of Friendship Bridge, Tracie Cordeiro
Trust Bank Meeting in Alotenango
It’s a warm, sunny March day in Alotenango, Sacatapéquez, Guatemala. A group of seven women listen intently as the loan officer describes the difference between fixed and variable costs and the implications for their businesses. The women’s eyes follow as she points to specific images on the colorful poster she is holding up – these images illustrate the concepts the loan officer is explaining. In a country in which 33% of indigenous adults cannot read or write, visuals are key for making this content accessible in these educational sessions. The women are enjoying themselves, the company. They are engaged, ask and answer questions, and chatter and laugh amongst themselves.
This is Mujeres La Fe Alotenango’s monthly Trust Bank meeting, and the women are clients of Friendship Bridge, a nonprofit social enterprise that provides microfinance, education, and preventive health services to help women in Guatemala build a better life. Friendship Bridge has been a Kiva Lending Partner since 2007, and they have raised over $18.6 million on Kiva in that time. Their Trust Bank model provides participants with an opportunity to develop leadership skills; in this model, the women serve as co-guarantors of a loan and act as a self-regulating network of support. The monthly Trust Bank meetings, facilitated by a loan officer and typically hosted by one of the women in her home, consist of two key activities: loan repayments, and a participatory education lesson on topics such as business, money management, self-esteem, women’s rights, health and children’s education.
“For me it’s an honor to be able to serve as President of this group, to mentor and support the other women, to help them in managing their loan in the best way possible.”
As the lesson wraps up and the women gather to make their monthly loan repayment, Lidia, the President of the Trust Bank, speaks a bit about her experience leading this group of women.
“For me it’s an honor to be able to serve as President of this group, to mentor and support the other women, to help them in managing their loan in the best way possible,” Lidia says.
Lidia has been a Friendship Bridge client for 13 years; she learned about the organization by word of mouth, which is how many of the 30,000+ women – primarily indigenous Maya – whom Friendship Bridge serves in Guatemala hear about them. She understands the significance of her role as President of the group and does not take her responsibilities lightly – from recruitment to coaching to difficult repayment-related conversations. In the past, she served in a leadership role for more than 10 years at a school in her community, an experience which she reflects on with much gratitude and satisfaction. There, she says, she was able to learn and grow as a leader as well as have a positive impact on many. Her inherent desire to serve aligns well with her primary task as President of the group – to empower the women to stay on-time with payments and, more importantly, to use the loan to grow their business so that they may improve their lives and their families’ lives.
“I used the loan to make the ground in my store concrete. It’s saved me so much time, being able to have my store here, attached to my home, as opposed to far away across town. I don’t have to pay rent for that place anymore, and I’m also able to be home to help out and support my family.”
Lidia stands proudly in front of her convenience store, pointing to the concrete floor that was made possible by her recent Kiva loan. She plans to extend the concrete flooring to the rest of her home. Her store’s inventory is diverse – personal care products, beverages, snacks, even pet products can be found on the racks and shelves. Lidia mentions that a variety of businesses are represented within the Mujeres La Fe Alotenango group – some women have tortilla businesses, some also have convenience stores, one has a smoothie stand. This mix and the resulting differing perspectives and viewpoints on certain business-related topics make for lively discussions during Trust Bank meetings, she notes.
When asked to share a bit about her family, Lidia smiles with pride. Her two daughters finished their education: one is a teacher and the other is a secretary. Her husband recently retired from being an elementary school teacher. She is thankful for her family’s support and strives to be an example for them.
Bridge to Success
In the afternoon, we head to Santo Domingo Xenacoj, another municipality of the department of Sacatepéquez, Guatemala. Here, we meet Lilian, a Bridge to Success Client. Launched officially in 2021 and the newest of Friendship Bridge’s programs, Bridge to Success (Puente al Éxito) aims to facilitate the success of women entrepreneurs in rural Guatemala with intensive business development training, individual microcredit loans, technical assistance, connections to peer networks, and access to new markets.
The Bridge to Success program provides two major benefits to clients:
Financial Services in the form of individual loans for working capital and purchasing fixed assets; and
Business Training in the form of evidence-based classes focused on business strategy, planning, and management, as well as leadership and community development.
Some market services are offered as well, such as branding, business formalization services, networking, fairs, and business competition, among others.
Friendship Bridge is an agile and innovative organization that is always looking to see how they may better address gaps identified in the communities they serve, and through Bridge to Success, they now cater to and empower those women who operate what are known as livelihood-sustaining enterprises. Bridge to Success participants are highly motivated, have an economically viable business model poised for growth, and are the drivers of economic development and new jobs in their communities.
As of the end of 2022, there were 177 Friendship Bridge clients participating in the new Bridge to Success program, which lent over $503,000 in its first full year of the program. Clients with more than 4 months in the program increased their income by 24%, profits by 31%, and number of employees by 29%, on average.
Lilian is one of those clients. She has been with Friendship Bridge for 10 years, and originally was recognized for her great weaving talent. Up until recently, Lilian sold her apparel products online (check out her business Facebook page) as well as from her home, but as she lives in a more remote part of town, she realized she needed to move with the hopes of getting more customers and increasing her business’s visibility in her community. She now has an apparel store near the downtown area of Santo Domingo Xenacoj. She says this move, combined with the training she receives through Bridge to Success, has allowed her business to grow significantly in recent months. Lilian used a Kiva loan, facilitated through Friendship Bridge, to buy a piece of furniture that would serve as a desk, cash register, and display case in her apparel store. She also used some of the loan funds to acquire inventory.
Through the Bridge to Success program, Lilian receives weekly, personalized training. This is usually run in person, but can also be delivered virtually on occasion, if the client cannot meet in-person due to other responsibilities. Inventory management, purchasing, and marketing are just a few of the topics which Lilian has learned about in these training sessions so far.
“What I’d like to learn more about is leadership, I’m looking forward to that. I have one employee right now, and would like to guide her and help her so that she may also one day have her own business.”
When reflecting on what she’s most proud of, Lilian mentions her personal growth. Thinking back on how far she has come and on how much she has learned and been able to put into practice fills her with pride and gratitude, as well as with a steady motivation to continue making small improvements in her daily operations that will have an outsized impact.
“What I’d like to learn more about is leadership, I’m looking forward to that. I have one employee right now, and would like to guide her and help her so that she may also one day have her own business.”
A partnership committed to lifting one to lift many
The length of this partnership between Kiva and Friendship Bridge – 16 years and counting – is undeniably a testament to the strong mission alignment and shared objective of creating opportunities for the individuals they serve.
“Friendship Bridge values our long-standing, 16-year partnership with Kiva,” says President and CEO of Friendship Bridge, Tracie Cordeiro.
“Kiva’s innovative crowdfunding investing platform connects us with lenders globally in order to serve and empower more women in Guatemala who are seeking access to financial services.”
Friendship Bridge’s impact has been recognized internationally – they were recently pronounced the #2 microfinance institution in Latin America. An independent evaluation by research company 60 Decibels also found:
47% of Friendship Bridge clients live under the $5.50 a day poverty line.
97% reported the loans from Friendship Bridge had improved their quality of life.
94% reported they earned more income.
94% reported their loan helped them to better plan their finances.
58% reported they are accessing loans for the first time.
85% stated they would not be able to find a good alternative to the loans and services that Friendship Bridge offered.
You can learn more and access the full report here.
Friendship Bridge’s commitment to empowering women to eliminate poverty is at the heart of what we at Kiva know to be true from a gender equality standpoint. At Kiva, over 80% of our loans go to women. That’s $1.5 billion in loans to women, reaching 3.8+ million women borrowers in over 94 countries. We advocate for gender equity – the allocation of resources based on the needs of individuals (rather than to everyone equally) without gender bias or discrimination – as a vehicle for achieving greater gender equality, the granting of equal access to rights and opportunities, regardless of individuals’ gender identity or expression.
Guatemala ranks 113th out of 146 countries in gender equality, according to the Global Gender Gap Report 2022, making it the most gender unequal country in Latin America and the Caribbean. And even thoughresearch shows that women are more likely to invest their earnings in ways that have a long-term impact on their families and communities, an overwhelming number still lack the economic agency to do so.
This economic agency often is the direct result of access to resources which empower women to become financially stable, resilient, and self-reliant, allowing them to better support and protect themselves and their families from abuse, violence, and financial dependence. Read more here about how equitable access to financial resources creates additional opportunities for women.
Kiva loans provide the means for these women who are otherwise excluded from traditional financial services to build or grow their own businesses, access higher education, and invest in themselves, their families, and their communities.
“The loans from Kiva enable our clients to start new or grow existing businesses, whether they are first time borrowers in a Trust Bank, or established entrepreneurs with growing businesses in our Bridge to Success program,” says Tracie Cordeiro.
At Kiva, we know that removing barriers to finance is key to achieving gender equity, and that’s why loans are a powerful vehicle for women’s empowerment.
We also know that by partnering with impact-focused organizations such as Friendship Bridge, who believe strongly in the power of microfinance when paired with other wraparound services, who constantly ask themselves if they are serving their clients in the most thoughtful way, who continuously evaluate the impact they’re having while ensuring they implement direct feedback from the clients themselves and introduce new products and services accordingly; we are furthering our mission. We find solidarity and inspiration in partnerships such as this one with Friendship Bridge – one that strengthens our mission and vision of a financially inclusive world where all people hold the power to improve their lives.
“We look forward to continuing our successful partnership for many years to come,” says Tracie.
And so do we.
