Microloans Help Guatemalan Women Reach Their Goals

We recently returned from a fabulous trip to Guatemala where the weather was 70 and sunny every day!  Quite a difference from last May when tropical storms pummeled the land of eternal spring! 

Every year in February MayaWorks takes a group of social justice-minded people to Guatemala to visit our weaving groups, see our education programs and learn about microcredit first hand from loan recipients.  Our friends have the opportunity to speak directly with women who use their microcredit loans to purchase everything from land, to seed for crops, to livestock, to raw materials to create natural cleaning products.  These chats with the women are always a highlight of the trip.  North Americans are amazed at the ingenuity and resilience of indigenous women and are impressed at how they use their profits to further invest in their projects which, ultimately, allows them to put better food on the table for their families and send their children to school.

There are always challenges, though.  Because crops were destroyed by the terrible storms, women are in desperate need of corn, the staple in the Guatemalan diet.  To respond to this need, in the coming weeks MayaWorks will distribute corn to the families who lost their crops and will continue to provide assistance until all families are back on their feet.

Thank you for your support of our microcredit program.  It goes a long way in helping women to become financially independent and take better care of their families.