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Support hard working, creative entrepreneurs in Nicaragua just like Yesenia.

Yesenia del Socorro Rostran, Managua, Nicaragua, 32 years old.

Daily routine: She gets up at 3:40 am, she starts the day by cleaning the corn for the tortillas, then her husband and 13 year old son take the corn to be grained . She starts making tortillas at 4:30 am. Through the day she takes her of her corner store and sells tortillas while doing house work. At 4 pm she goes to the market to replenish supplies for the businesses.

Garlic business: She buys boxes of garlic, which she then packages them by weaving banana leaf through the middle. She sells packages of 10. Her 13 year old son also goes on the streets and tries to sell them or takes them to the market and sells it to the fruit stands.

She dreams buying a bigger truck to be able to buy more inventory for her businesses and grow bigger in all of them.

Who used to work with her in 2009: Just her and the husband.

Who does she employ now: her brother who has 5 children.

Between her family and brother, 12 people benefit from this business

Marital status: married (husband helps with all the businesses)

Level of education achieved: grade 6

Children: 4, ages 13 to 5 months

Originally: from Tipitapa. She Left her hometown looking for better job opportunities. Arrived to Managua 7 years ago only with her clothes and a matress

First loan: in 2009- US$300

Type of business: sells garlic, makes and sells tortillas, sells beans, butchers pigs and owns a corner store

Why did she choose this business: Her father used to sell garlic, so she started helping her father at age 9.

What did she use the loan for: To buy inventory for her corner store, to buy garlic in bulk, to buy bigger pigs to sell the meat.

SHE GREW UP IN A VERY POOR FAMILY. SHE HAD A SMALL HOUSE WITH A DIRT FLOOR AND ONE BEDROOM FOR HER SIX SIBLINGS, HER MOTHER AND HER FATHER. AS THE OLDEST, SHE WOULD WATCH HER SIBLINGS IN THE MORNING WHILE HER MOTHER WENT TO WORK, AND THEN IN THE AFTERNOON SHE WOULD GO TO SCHOOL.

When she was eight years old, she started her first business. She collected seashells from the beach and made necklaces to sell to tourists. This gave her just enough money to pay for all her schoolbooks and supplies. As a little girl, she would pray that God would give her an important job. Her Christmas dream – her everyday dream was that one day she would be able to help others.

When she was fourteen, her father “lent” her to a friend to wash dishes in the kitchen. Instead of washing dishes, the woman had her go out into the streets to wave down cars for the restaurant. She was humiliated.

Then a neighbor asked her if she could teach her two children who were struggling in school. Within a short while, she had 25 students. The parents paid her ten cents for each child each day she tutored. This was very rewarding work, which she continued until she finished high school. She graduated from high school with an accounting degree and for the following twelve years she had a steady job with the government. Everything was going well until she lost her job because of circumstances beyond her control.

For three years she struggled to provide for her family.

But her entrepreneurial spirit prevailed and she decided to sell fish to the tourists. Shortly after she started her business, she heard about Opportunity International Nicaragua who believed in her and gave her a loan for $100 to expand her business. Her business grew and became successful. Two years after receiving her first loan, she was recruited to join the staff at Opportunity as a loan officer, responsible for 300 people in 15 trust groups. Her education, entrepreneurial spirit and compassion for others were recognized at Opportunity and it didn’t take long for her to promoted to supervisor and then branch manager.

NEED IN NICARAGUA: MICROFINANCE SERVICES

Nicaragua is the poorest country in Latin America and the second poorest in the Western Hemisphere after Haiti. Close to 50% of the 6.5 million people are living below the poverty line (32% with less than $2 per day). The unemployment rate is 7% and underemployment is over 46% which means that most Nicaraguans do not have a source of income to meet the most basic needs of their families. Nicaragua needs an influx of capital to stimulate the development of the private sector in the poorest and marginalized areas of the country in order to break the cycle of poverty.

OPPORTUNITY INTERNATIONAL

Opportunity International provides a bridge to financial inclusion and community development finance for the world’s entrepreneurial poor. 

  For more than 45 years, Opportunity International has been collaborating with visionary partners and donors to deploy innovative financial services, business solutions and training—all increasingly enabled by technology—to help those living in poverty transform their lives, their children's futures and their communities. 

  The proof in the power of giving people a hand up instead of a hand out is in the 14 million lives in 24 countries transformed through access to opportunity.

Opportunity International provides access to financial solutions empowering people living in poverty to transform their lives, their childrens futures, and their communities. On average $150 dollars funds one loan, is repaid and re-loand every 3 months and helps mothers provide more meals, regular schooling, and basic santization for their kids. Families, communities, and regions are developing out of poverty because of this powerful tool that is recycled and multiplies. Read more WOMEN represent an estimated 70% of those living on less than $2/day. Cultural and legal inequalities in developing countries create obstacles that prevent women from starting and financing new businesses.This leaves them more vulnerable to poverty, forced labour and violence. Yet, women consistently show inspiring resilience and determination to find ways to break free from poverty. Many studies, and our own experiences, confirm that women with access to financial services can dramatically improve the quality of life for their families. In families where women have an income, they have a voice in financial decisions, resulting in better nutrition, health and education for children. When family needs are met, women are more likely to invest in their community. When women have the skills to participate in public life, government corruption declines. The gains that women achieve by accessing microfinance services are almost 3 times more likely to be reinvested in their children, providing a powerful generational multiplier that accelerates economic growth.

By Supporting this ride you will be supporting people to start, run and grow small business that will creates jobs for family and communities memebers so that our neighbors in the developing world can have dignity and purpose through personal achievment. The tool of microfinance transforms everyone involved!

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