Loans Distributed...Bags Packed...Nostalgia has kicked in!

Looking back six weeks from now, I boarded a plane from Mumbai, that brought me to Guatemala. At that moment all I could think of was my family, my home I was leaving behind. I was thinking about the world I grew up in, my dream world. Guatemala is where I faced reality. Now that I am leaving Guatemala, for another school year at UNC, and all I can think about is the transition I am making between these two distinct realms. From the poverty and struggle, the people of La Limonada face everyday, to the comfort and luxury of the University.

Undoubtedly, I have received much more from the community than what I had to offer. I will agree with Sarika, that out of all the experiences I had in Guatemala I am going to miss the people the most:

Our host parents, Teresita and Gustavo, who cared for us as if we were their own children.
Tita, the lady spearheading Lemonade International, who involuntarily taught me that love and compassion goes beyond all materialistic pleasures, it lies within the simplicity of one's heart. Also, Tita's team, who welcomed us to their home and made our visits to La Limonada as enjoyable as they were.
Our loan officer, Nestor, and the admin, Damaris, whose dedication and expertise  helped us establish FAC successfully.
The teachers at the schools who escorted us through La Limonada whenever we needed too, always with a smiling face I must add.
The children at the schools, who kissed and hugged us whenever we met them, as if we were their own.
Sofia and her family, who were kind enough to take us to Lake Atitlan and ensured that we had a good time in Guatemala.
Lastly, our five women borrower's, who cooperated with us throughout the program, attended all the workshops, answered all our questions and bade us goodbye with their prayers.

Today we conducted the fifth workshop where we gave out micro-loans each worth Q500 or $60 . It was a proud moment. This marked the beginning of the long-term relationship we are going to have with our borrowers. Along with micro-loans we implemented a savings circle amidst ex gang members,"The Muchachos", living in La Limonada and working at the carpentry workshop. They all seemed really excited to save with FAC so that in the future they would have enough capital to invest in their own businesses. They had amazing entrepreneurial ideas.

My takeaways from Guatemala include inspiration for leading a more meaningful life, insight into the lives of those living in poverty, memories which made my Guatemala experience what it is, lastly, love and friendship I received from the people here, I will cherish these relations forever.

I want to take this opportunity to thank my teammates Santi and Sarika who worked really hard towards FAC. The Guatemala experience would be incomplete without them.

So Far......So Good!

It has been almost a month in Guatemala and I must conclude of my experiences that this has been one of the most educational and inspiring trips I have had so far. A bit of background information: originally I wasn't on the Guatemala trip. I had signed up for the Carolina Microfinance Initiative (CMI) International Programs trip to Zimbabwe. In India I never got the opportunity to be a part of a group travelling abroad to help people out of poverty. In fact, I was introduced to the term micro-finance at a Community Empowerment Fund (CEF) interest meeting at UNC. They showed me a documentary portraying the evolving role of micro-finance in the globalized and connected world of today. In this documentary the founder of the Grameen Bank, Prof Muhammad Yunus, spoke about the plight of a woman in Bangladesh  making baskets everyday only to have most of her profits being taken away by a middleman. This inspired him to give the woman a small loan to buy her capital and get rid of the interference of the middleman. I still did not believe in the concept. Like a banker, I thought that giving poor people loans would never work as they had no security, they couldn't be trusted and would never repay. But that was exactly the point of  micro-finance.From this point onwards I kept researching and learning more about it. The beauty of micro-finance is that its not donating money. Donation never cures the problem, the people we provide loans are expected to pay back in full.

CMI's workshops were most helpful in learning the intricacies of starting a micro-finance initiative (MFI). I joined CMI's Kiva team to organize fundraising dinners in which the proceeds would go as micro-loans to entrepreneurs around the world through the online donating website www.kiva.org. I was satisfied knowing that I was making a difference. During this time I was told about the CMI trip to Zimbabwe, I hopped on board. I met Jonathan, a gentleman living in Chapel Hill but is originally from Zimbabwe. He is a wire artist and every year takes a group of students back to his homeland to help uplift the local community. We visited his house, had a wonderful Zimbabwean meal and finalized the dates of our trip. Unfortunately, elections in Zimbabwe forced us to cancel our trip. I lost hope of establishing an MFI this summer;however, Santi called me as soon as he knew and asked me if I would be willing to accompany him and Sarika establish an MFI to Guatemala. I couldn't miss this opportunity. The rest is history.

It is wonderful how everything worked out and now we are in our fourth week at Guatemala, completed three workshop sessions, filled in the loan applications and the survey forms, and now we are almost ready to disburse the loans to five entrepreneurial women from La Limonada. As I said before, initially I thought the poor were not a very good credit risk. Once I went to the homes of all the borrowers and saw their determination to work and improve their lives I realized that they are not poor by choice. If they are lazy to work it is either due to lack of capital or because of the way they have been brought up over the years. That is why Tita and her team have established two schools in La Limonada in order to educate the youth and cure the problems of violence and poverty from where it begins. People living in poverty want to improve their lives and are constantly searching for opportunities to do so. Banks do not  provide them with capital, if they do they charge exorbitant interest rates and take their houses as security.

The need of micro-finance is ubiquitous. Try and make a difference. Even if you are able to influence one life it is worth it.