Investigation : July – October 2009

Asociación SOLAC carried out a study to determine key factors needed to establish a microfinance system. The study includes information on the whole district of Lurigancho-Chosica, details on the area of Alto Peru, and more specifically data collected on the socio-economic situation of the families living in the three communities studied: Santa Isabél de Huachipa, Unión Perú and Santa Crúz de Huachipa. Interviews, focus groups and questionnaires were carried out to survey the specific economic, social, educational and health conditions of these families.

Meetings with Board of Directors and assemblies

Before starting the study, SOLAC arranged meetings first with the Board of directors of each community and then with the assemblies to introduce the association to the population and to inform them about the study. During the meetings, we explained the purpose of the study and the idea of the microfinance project, as well as asked for their collaboration during the door to door questionnaires.

Focus Groups

SOLAC conducted six focus groups with the population of Alto Perú. The purpose of these focus groups was to understand the reality of the area from the perspective of the local population, as well as to help us design the questionnaires to collect data on the communities. Two focus groups took place with teachers from the primary school and the kindergarten. We discussed the main issues affecting the academic development of the children of Alto Perú, as well as the problems the school is facing in terms of funding to ameliorate its facilities and the materials for the students.

In addition four focus groups were organized with the comedores (community canteens) of the three communities. Each community has at least one comedor which is run by ten to twenty women. These women take turns to prepare lunch in large quantities, which they then use to feed their families and sometimes sell to others for a very low price. Sometimes they receive funds from the state but usually they put money together and do a big shopping for the entire week. During the focus groups, women were asked to discuss the main characteristics of the community such as the main occupations, the quality of the community’s health centre and their children’s education.

Saturday workshops

SOLAC was invited to participate to a Saturday workshop that a woman from Santa Cruz de Huachipa, señora Estela, organizes every week in her house for all the women of the 3 communities. During these sessions, the women work together to make scarves, hats and jumpers, either for their families or sometimes to sell them. Each woman contributes with her skills, the old ones usually teach the younger ones how to knit. The women are not selling many of their products yet, and some of them explained that the main problem was the lack of capital to invest in the machineries and the material.

Interviews at the Clinic Alto Perú

The people from the communities of Alto Peru visit the rural clinic of the area for treatment and family planning. The clinic is run by only one doctor and four staff. SOLAC interviewed all of them as well as some patients regarding the infrastructure of the clinic, the most common illnesses that are found, and other issues affecting the centre. One of the main issues discussed was the most common illnesses treated at the clinic. These are usually caused by the poor living conditions of the population of Alto Perú, particularly poor nutrition, the extensive amount of dust in the air as well as the pollution from the factories, and the fact that the only water they have access to is contaminated.

Municipality

SOLAC visited the municipality to collect information on the whole district of Lurigancho-Chosica. They provided us with zoning plans of Alto Perú (Planos de Catastro), the list of local initiatives and Associations (Organización de base), and the development plan (Plan de Desarrollo) which explains the goals the municipality intends to complete by 2010. We also interviewed the mayor, señor Luis Bueno Quino, about the main issues affecting the district.

Door to door questionnaires

Following the interviews and the focus groups, SOLAC had gathered enough information to design the questionnaires to interview representatives of a sample of households from the three communities. The aim of the questionnaires was to collect information that would tell us which community had the highest proportion of people that fit our profile of ideal beneficiary of the project, whilst not giving any premature hope to the inhabitants of any one of the three communities. The questionnaires mainly focused on collecting information about the interviewee’s and their partner’s occupation, the infrastructure of their house, and their credit history. In addition, we also asked the interviewees other basic general descriptive information about themselves and their families: their sex and age, how many people live in their house, how many of these people contribute to the family’s economy with an income, and which school the children of the household go to. The latter information was collected with the aim of giving us a wider socio-economic perception of the communities, whilst the former was meant to differentiate among the communities which ones would most benefit from the microfinance project.

The aim was to interview 50% of the households in each community. SOLAC interviewed 114 people in total: 43 in Santa Isabel de Huachipa, 39 in Unión Perú, and 32 in Santa Crúz de Huachipa. We mainly interviewed women (79% of the sample) since they are the ones who usually stay in the house during the day and who will be the main beneficiaries of the microfinance project.