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Life in the high Andes can be challenging for many reasons. Freedom from Hunger is bringing hope with its self-help program, Credit with Education. |
In the hardscrabble environment of the high Andes, families eke out a difficult existence. In this high desert, farming is hard and, because communities are often remote, travel to markets to buy food is an extra burden. Their distant location also leaves communities without dependable healthcare. Prospects can be bleak, especially because these communities are often bypassed for microfinance services that could offer help.
Freedom from Hunger brought Credit with Education to Bolivia in 1990,
to Ecuador in 2002 and to Peru in 2003. Working with local organizations that
share our commitment to deliver microfinance and lifeskills training to these
communities, Freedom from Hunger and its partners are helping tens of thousands
of women and their families transform their hard work into real opportunity.
With Freedom from Hunger's training and technical assistance, outstanding local
organizations such as CRECER
in Bolivia, Fundación ESPOIR in Ecuador, PRISMA and Confianza in Peru, and Finca
Peru are learning how to provide Credit with Education sustainably. As full
partners, these organizations also devise and implement their own innovations
and plans for growth so that more and more communities will have access to affordable
credit and lifeskills training in health, nutrition, and business and household
finance.
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Women living in the rural Andes must feed and care for their children on just a few dollars per day. Starting and growing a home-based business can improve their income, and lifeskills training teaches them about the most nutritional choices for their children. |
As in other parts of the world, Credit with Education has been adapted
to fit the local conditions in Bolivia, Ecuador, and Peru. In addition to scheduling
meetings when it makes most sense for women to attend regularly, the education
topics are adapted to respond to local customs, traditions, beliefs, and challenges.
In Bolivia and Ecuador, women also have access to additional healthcare services
for themselves and their families...a strategy that not only promotes family health
but also enables women to make the most of their enterprises and reliably repay
loans.
But for all the variations, Credit with Education is remarkably the same here as it is in other regions of the world.
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As a part of their lifeskills training, women use visual props to learn how to recognize when their child is very ill and needs to see a doctor. The decision to leave their business and travel to a clinic is difficult because it means lost wages and money that may otherwise go to food or needed supplies. |
Women form self-help groups and co-sign for each other's loans. They repay loan
principal and interest at meetings and deposit savings for emergencies. The women
also participate in lifeskills training sessions to improve their business management
skills, safeguard their families' health, and build the self-confidence to change
long-standing behaviors. And, like Credit with Education participants
everywhere, women's groups in the Andes encourage each other at meetings and between
meetings, generating the "collective courage" they need to make changes for the
better in their businesses, in their homes, and in their communities.
The impact is also familiar. Women are growing incomes, finding it possible to
send their children to school and make realistic plans to achieve their dreams.
The combination of loans and learning makes the difference.
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At regular meetings women repay loans and deposit savings as a part of the Credit with Education program. Because of their remote location, many Andean communities are bypassed by other microfinance organizations. But Freedom from Hunger is training local organizations to serve them sustainably. |
In fact, an impact study from Peru confirms that women who receive business education
along with their loans reported higher income than women who received just loans.
But the real difference was seen in "slow months" when profits drop. Women participating
in Credit with Education were also able to smooth their income in these
slow months — meaning they were less likely to cut back on food, take children
out of school, or turn to moneylenders. Learn
more about this rigorous, independent study.
Another study from Bolivia documents improvements in women's empowerment and
important changes in behavior that lead to stronger businesses and healthier
families. Learn
about the Bolivia Impact Study.
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