After the disbursement of the loans, the Asociación Solidaria Unidos para el Desarollo took a group picture with their loan officer, Ruth Pollak, and Asociación SOLAC's president, Jose Luis Incio Coronado.

Loan Disbursements - Sagrado Corazón de Jesús and Unidos para el Desarrollo

On Friday 11th of December the members of the two village banks, a total of 20 people, received their loans, which ranged from 100 to 400 Nuevos Soles (35 to 140USD). The total loan portfolio amounted to a total of 6,450 Nuevos Soles (2,250 USD). This marked the beginning of a 6 month lending cycle, during which the village banks will have monthly repayment meetings, starting on the 11th of January 2010.

The President of Asociación SOLAC took part in both disbursement meetings, introducing himself to the groups and wishing them, as a group and as individuals, a lot of success for the next six months. The participants then signed a contract between each individual and the organization, and another one determining bylaws for their ASOL. Subsequently, when they received their loans, they were given personal booklets, which include their loan details and dates of the next meetings. Finally we celebrated the opening of the village banks with cake and a soft drink, and took some group photos.

Asociacion solidaria Unidos para el Desarrollo

As planned, the final meeting before the loan disbursement was held in Santa Isabél on the 4th of December. In this meeting three men and seven women formed what we call an ‘Asociación Solidaria’(ASOL) – a village bank – and called it “Unidos para el Desarrollo” (United for Development). They elected a President, a Treasurer and a Secretary for the association and signed their ‘Acta de Constitución’. All members were looking forward to the loan disbursement held on the following Friday 11th.

Change of plans for the training sessions

SOLAC had originally planned for the training sessions to start with the ASOL (Asociación Solidaria – Village Bank) of Unión Perú on Wednesday 2nd of December. However, after AVSI’s supporters visited the community of Santa Isabél on Monday the 30th of November, they required that the training opportunities be offered to all inhabitants of both communities, rather than just to the two ASOLs. Therefore, the beginning of the training sessions had to be postponed to give AVSI and SOLAC time to publicize the training sessions in the two communities and get more people to join that part of the project.

On Wednesday 2nd of December SOLAC and AVSI met the women of the ASOL ‘Corazón Sagrado de Jesús’ anyway to personally explain to them the reasons behind the change of plans, and coordinate with the President of the community, señora Katia Tellos, for a general assembly of the community to be held next week, so to inform the inhabitants of Unión Perú about the opening of this new opportunity. Subsequently, the same process will be followed for the community of Santa Isabél.

Asociación Solidaria Sagrado Corazón de Jesús

On Monday 30th of November, the Village Bank which was coming together in Unión Perú finally became official. They chose three of the youngest women to be the board of directors, the elder ones claiming that they already had experience in these kinds of roles, and it was time for the younger ones to learn.

A brief discussion among them led the group to choose the name ‘Sagrado Corazón de Jesús’ (Jesus’ Sacred Heart) for their Village Bank. This kind of religious names are very common among Village Banks of all MFIs in Peru.

Finally, all members of the group signed the ‘Acta de Constitución’, where they officially declared that they would work together as a group for the common purposes of improving their economic and social situation.

New Village Bank in Santa Isabél

On the 21st of November, the SOLAC microfinance team was informed that some more funding was being deposited by one of our most regular supporters, the French NGO Education World, to help our project along. This funding means that we are able to open the second Village Bank which we were planning to have as part of the Pilot Project, in Santa Isabél de Huachipa.

The following week we thus went to promote the project in the community of Santa Isabél, and organized a meeting for Friday the 27th for all those interested in knowing more about the project. As we had done in Unión Perú, in the meeting we explained the basis of Microfinance, and already has about a dozen people sign up as a group.

We then arranged a second meeting for Monday the 30th with those who had signed up, to explain in detail to them how SOLAC’s microfinance project is going to develop over the next six months. That day, a group of representatives of AVSI and other institutions collaborating with and funding them came to visit the community of Santa Isabél.

After the second meeting with the potential group, we visited them in the next few days to evaluate their economic situation and saving capability. In the mean time, a couple more people joined the group. We arranged to meet again on Friday 4th of December for the first official meeting, where the group will sign the ‘Acta de Constitución’, elect their board of directors, and choose a name for the Village Bank.