The Colombia Project

Helene Dudley

Eliana Galviz invested a $265 Colombia Project loan to buy more materials for her one-person shoe production business. The extra sales allowed her to hire a salesman and a production assistant in Obando. A school lunch program will soon have two permanent income streams, thanks to Sister Ruby’s strategic investment of Genova’s 50% of the loan repayments. These are the types of inspiring success stories picked up on site visits that rarely show in monthly reports from our partners.

Colombia Project board members George and Noralba Gonzales visited four program sites while in Colombia for their son’s wedding in November. In Genova, they learned that the harvest from the mini fish-farm (constructed with loan repayments) is divided evenly: 50% to enhance the school lunch diet and 50% sold to earn funds to run the program. Sister Ruby is using additional loan repayments to set up a second-hand store to provide cost effective distribution of donated goods and provide revenue to pay salaries.

Once the permanent loan pool is large enough that no new funds are needed from the US (and thus, no opportunity to earn 50% from repayments of loans made from U.S. funds) Genova’s social service programs will still have the interest on loans (US$2500 for the first 3 years) and revenue from investments such as these, thanks to the wise use of the US$5500 generated to date from loan repayments. Alba Lucia in Santa Marta has used approximately US$1500 of the US$5900 earned from repayments to create two communal banks whose members administer their own loan programs, thus freeing Alba and her paid staff to do other good works in the community.

In addition to Eliana’s success, the new program established this summer in Obando is off to a good start, leveraging $1500 in Colombia Project funds to support $1800 in loans to 11 micro-entrepreneurs in just the first 3 months. Equally important, Sister Consuelo of Obando has requested a visit to Genova to get ideas to improve the Obando program. The Colombia Project has offered to pay expenses for her and other interested administrators to travel to Genova to learn from Sister Ruby. There are also discussions regarding the best way to share information on the communal banks in Santa Marta. This networking of program administrators is key to program sustainability since the partners have so much to learn from each other.

 

While Colombia Project partners quickly catch on to the value of micro-loans for individuals, most are reluctant to withdraw their 50% of loan repayments to invest in program development. Instead of asking The Colombia Project for more funds, they use 100% of the initial round of repayments for new loans. This represents a lost opportunity in fish farms, stores, communal banks and other sustainable programs not created. Sister Ruby’s example will hopefully awaken the other administrators to the full potential of The Colombia Project.

These success stories are possible thanks to the trust and support of our donors. On behalf of the 570 micro-entrepreneurs who received $130,000 in loans over the first ten years, thank you for your generous donations.