Kiva Entrepreneur Victoria from Peru
Wednesday, March 17th, 2010
http://www.kiva.org – Kiva lets you make a loan to a specific low-income entrepreneur — empowering them to lift themselves out of poverty.
Las Tigresas Group, Peru, Food: Food Production/Sales
http://www.kiva.org/app.php?page=businesses&action=about&id=165063
The members of our group, Las Tigresas (which means The Tigers in Spanish), are part of the Asociación Arariwa. This communal bank consist of 16 members from the San Jeronimo district of the city of Cusco. The majority of our group members work in a large market in Cusco, although some are nurses in a local hospital.
Ruth is the president of our group. She lives with her spouse and three children in Cusco. Ruth has been selling breakfast at a stand in the market for nine years. Her husband works afternoons and nights as a taxi driver and helps Ruth run her stand in the morning. Ruth needs a loan to improve her stand and to help get her through the Christmas season. Her New Year’s resolution is to save enough money next year to build a house.
Most of the members of Las Tigresas sell food. Some, like Ruth, sell meals in the market, while others sell cheeses, fruit juice, or sell food wholesale. The group members will use their loans to improve their businesses and for personal uses, such as paying for improvements to their homes, or paying for their childrens education.
All of the group members appreciate and thank you for the loan. They promise to pay the monthly payments on time.
(All but two of the group members appear in the video, which shows a group member toasting the coming New Year during the first meeting of the communal bank.)
Duration : 0:0:28
John from http://www.okraw.com talks about fresh lucuma fruit and dried lucuma powder. Lucuma is an “up and coming” dried fruit that will catch on due to its amazing flavor.