Life can be very funny. Sometimes the right opportunity just happens to fall in your lap at exactly the right time.
One evening in Oaxaca, while randomly searching the internet, I stumbled across a local non-profit called the En Via Foundation. Curious, I read a little bit about them. They work in micro-finance, meaning they give small scale loans to women. But they try intersect this with Oaxaca´s thriving tourism industry, mainly by giving personal tours of women who are applying for and have benefited from their loans. Tourists pay the equivalent of $50, and get to visit multiple different women who are either applying for a loan or have used a loan in the past. These women get the chance to explain their projects or what they hope to do with the money they receive. At the end of the day, 100% of the $50 goes into an interest free loan for those exact women. In this way, tourists can see a different side of the country they´re visiting and can contribute in a more meaningful way to the regions they visit. The women who will be receiving the loans can meet their benefactors in person, and tell their story. It gives a more human face to tourism. After reading a bit, I was hooked. I had to go on one of their expeditions. But the next one was leaving the next morning at 9am. And for the proceeding one, well, I was planning on being out of Oaxaca by then. It was now or never. I hurriedly emailed the contact info, explaining myself and my rushed circumstances. I wrote down the address and told myself that if I didn´t hear back in time I´d just show up at their door at 9am anyways and beg my way in. Thankfully, for my dignity, I did hear back in time and secured myself a place for the next day.
We met the next morning, and spent the first half hour learning a bit more about En Via and their work. Their program is modelled on many other successful microfinance projects. They only donate to women, who must form groups of 3, which helps to ensure repayment. There are 3 levels of loans - the first is 1300 pesos (about $100), then 2000, then 3000. Each group of 3 has 10 weeks to pay it back, after an initial ¨freebie week¨at the start where they can buy their supplies and get organized. They also have to attend weekly meetings on their progress for the whole 10 weeks. It´s been hugely successful so far: of about 400 disbursements, only 3 haven´t repaid. It was so successful in the pilot village, Teotitlan de Valle, that they began another project in a second location, Diaz Ordaz, which was the village we visited.
Diaz Ordaz is primarily a Zapotec village, and very, very poor. We visited 6 women in total - 2 groups of 3. First was Estrela, the cross-stitcher. She was a darling and my favorite of the group. Her project was to cross-stitch/sew various items - table cloths, tortilla holders, placemats, even bags. They were very good, with exceptional detail. What I really liked about her was her unweilding initiative. When a free sewing course was offered about a year ago, she thought it would be a good skill to learn, so she took the class. After that, she saved some money from selling tortillas and bought some materials and began to make different things. It just snowballed from there. She was going to use her loan to buy a bigger variety of material so she can have more variation; buy better material; and buy at wholesale prices so she can turn a better profit. Currently, she makes about 10 pesos (less than a dollar) per item, and this month (a busy month) she has an order for 40 items. She´s also a single mother who supports her mother-in-law. She was so incredibly sweet, with a vivacious and bubbly personality. She made us fresh tortillas just for our visit.
There was also Raquelle, the baker, who runs a small bakery in her home with the help of her family. Her and her mom each took out loans (together with Estrella they made a group) to buy their ingredients in bulk - so they could bake more products and make more profit. She and her 60-something mother walk door to door everyday for hours selling pastries and pieces of cake. They hope to one day save enough to buy a new stove. They gave up one of their cakes and gave it to us as a gift for coming.
The second group was composed of Ella, who makes atole (a warm drink made from corn - it´s delicious). She gets up at 4am everyday to make it, and then carries a 15L pail around town for a few hours each morning selling it. The other 2 in her group were another mother-daughter duo, who were just beginning their own business. They were making the chocolate tablets used to make Oaxacan hot chocolate.
It was a really incredible day, and interesting to see development projects in action. To see the initiative of the women, their determination, their tenacity. To see how empowered they were, as they began to gain the respect of their family and community members. On the way back, Emily, the program manager, told us a particularly moving story. One of their first clients used to make tortillas and sold them in the market. The tortilla business is a tough one: it´s physically dangerous work (all the smoke causes a heap of respiratory problems) and it doesn´t bring in much money. She saved enough from selling tortillas and used her first loan to begin a small sewing business (similar to Estrela), which she had a great natural talent for. She did so well that she saved enough for her daughter to continue secondary school (she only had primary herself) and when she´s older, college. Now, her daughter can dream of opportunities that were never possible for herself. That´s empowerment. That´s success. I´m so glad I got to participate and witness this.
