Success Stories

Alma Lizeth Zarceño Morán was always happy that her two children, who are eleven and 7 years old, have been able to go to school, thanks to the help of her mother-in-law, who runs a small bakery. But, at the same time, Alma realized that she needed to earn her own income and do her part to contribute to the household's expenses. So Alma was delighted when her mother-in-law agreed to share her bakery's equipment with her, so that she could start her own baking business...

Lontia Mwanza is 43 years old and lives with her husband, their 11 children, and her late sister’s three sons, daughter and grandchild in a compound in Lusaka, Zambia. Supporting 16 growing children would be a challenge for any family, but it has been even more so for the Mwanza’s, so much so that that they’ve had to resort to renting out one of their rooms for additional income in order to feed their children. They also depend on a local church to help support some of their children’s needs...

December, 2011
For the third consecutive year, a FINCA Jordan client has been awarded the Citi Micro-Entrpreneur Award for best project in the Poverty Pockets category. Ghazi Al-Khatib of Deir Alla owns and operates a small masonry business where he specializes in recreating models of the historic site at Petra, as well as Roman columns, from artificial stones.

Ghazi Al-Khatib has always greatly respected the architectural wonders of the world, especially the historic wonder found in his homeland of Jordan – the monument at Petra.

Majeda Suleiman and her husband were successful Jordanian entrepreneurs, earning a good income from the trading company they had started to support their family. In 2008, however, the company suffered a series of reversals, and Majeda and her husband lost everything. They ended up owing thousands of dollars to their suppliers, and had to sell much of their property to repay their debts. The family’s living standards suffered severely. 

Julio runs a woodworking business that involves his whole family. Julio and his family live in the village of San Antonio de Ibarra, a place famous for its families of skilled carpenters and its rich tradition of woodworking.The day we arrived to visit him, his sons were away in the market city of Otavalo, buying supplies of wood.

Lala Yolchiyeva lives in the town of Ponichala, on the outskirts of Georgia's capital Tbilisi, with her husband, their son and her husband’s parents. To help support the family, she raises vegetables and other crops on a small farm. She sells her vegetables in the local market to people from Ponichala and the area. Lala first became a FINCA Georgia client in 2008 in order to boost her farm's productivity and increase her income to help improve the family's living standards.

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union, Kopaisin Ganibaeva lost her job at a collective farm, like tens of thousands of other people in the mountainous and sparsely populated country of Kyrgyzstan. In order to help her husband support their family and put their two boys and two girls through school, she started her own farm near the village of Kadyrsha in the Karasuu region, planning to sell her produce in the local market.

Since joining Finca in 2005, upon the advice of friends who were once Finca clients, Charity Cheelo has become the successful owner of her own tailor shop in Chilulu. The 37 year old mother of four used her first village banking loan of $63 to purchase the African fiber necessary to start her business. Currently, she plans to apply for a $315 loan, with which she intends to start new business dealings in the maize industry.

Prossy Mukisa supports her four children and her parents with the income she earns from her music shop, where she rents out instruments and hires out musicians for parties and other functions in Kazinga. Prossy is determined to give her children an education so they can seek opportunities she was never able to after her father took her out of school and married her off at age 12 to collect a dowry for the family.

Goharik Martirosyan inherited her traditional Armenian ceramics business from her parents. She has always been very proud of the family business and has been devoted to teaching the skills of pottery and design to all of the family’s children to ensure that its folklore and traditions are passed on to the next generation. Goharik’s efforts have been successful because everyone in the family, including all the children, is a master of this delicate profession.

Ingrid Johana Castillo was struggling for survival. Her small business selling dust rags and dish cloths in a nearby market did not provide enough income to support her mother and two daughters, and though she also worked preparing "paches"-small tamales made from potato dough, covered in sauce and wrapped in banana leaves-to sell, she could not make ends meet. 
 

In the remote and destitute rural area of Haiti called Bondo Ti Savaan, two hours from the city of Miragoâne, 29-year old Florence Lavaud struggled for years to make a living from selling charcoal and working in the fields as a farm laborer. Despite her hard work, she could not even support herself, and had to rely on family members to help her survive.

Margarette first became a FINCA client in 2006, because she wanted to give her three children a better life. Her big dream was that her children would go to school so they could have a better future. Back then, Margarette supported her children with a small business from her house in Aquin, selling meat, as well as some hardware items. 

Florence Nabukenya and her husband care for three children of their own as well as four orphans, who were left to them by Florence’s siblings when they died of HIV/AIDS. Before Florence became a FINCA client in 1993, the family of nine shared a single bedroom in a very small house in Namuwongo, a slum in Kampala, the capital of Uganda.

In Haiti, the western hemisphere’s poorest country—devastated by an earthquake January 12 and a series of aftershocks since—Chriselia Archill is raising four children, while also supporting her mother and four of her siblings, on earnings from her successful restaurant. The extended family lives in the seaport town of Les Cayes, about 140 miles southwest of Haiti’s capital Port-au-Prince.

Gulchekhra and her brother leased a boutique in the commercial center in Bishkek, the capital city of Kyrgyzstan, where they sold shoes in 2004. Unfortunately, their business was not very successful and they were forced to close the shop when the center shut down. As an alternative source of income, Gulchekhra started to sew traditional dresses and suits for a children's dance troupe. Her friend introduced her to a FINCA Solidarity-Credit Group.

After Janet Mapulanga’s husband passed away in 2007, she struggled to support her family of 3 children. While her oldest son, 20 years of age, was able to take in her youngest daughter after he married and left home, Janet attributes her ability to support herself and her second daughter to her loan with Finca. After joining a village banking group in M’tendere, 42 year old Janet was able to successfully open a charcoal stall with her K300,000 loan.

Sabrije Tehaj lives with her husband, their four young children and her in-laws in a small home in the village of Kushnin in the Has region of Kosovo's Prizren Municipality. Her husband works in a bakery shop and Sabrije helps support the family with the earnings from her home-based business. A creative and nimble-fingered tailor, Sabrije designs and hand embroiders the ornate traditional wedding costumes of the Has region.

Doña Blanca, who lives in Barcenas, started a small bakery in hopes that she and her husband would be able to send their eight children to school and improve their diet. Though her delicious bread became very popular, Doña Blanca lacked the working capital to expand the bakery and improve her family's income level.

After her husband died in 1985, Evelyn Karata and her seven children fell into severe poverty. Evelyn began making and selling doughnuts, but this netted her just $1 a day. For five years, the family ate nothing but beans and ugali, a porridge made from corn flour. Her kids had to drop out of school, even her daughter who had been accepted to nursing school.

A few years after Gorreti Namubiru married at 17, her husband died from AIDS. Her in-laws took away everything she had and refused to help with her three children. Her neighbors and relatives treated her like an outcast. Gorreti's mother - a FINCA Uganda client - was her only hope. She introduced Gorreti to her village banking group, "Kwa A."

Martha Ngwinda often had to choose between feeding her children and sending them to school. To boost her income, she started a nursery school in her home. With her first FINCA loan of 1,000 kwacha (US $10), she bought cups and toys for the school. "It was the first time I had ever touched such a large sum of money."

Nargiz Ohanyan became a FINCA client in 2003 to help build her fruit stand business in the local market. Back then, she had only one stand in the market and sold just Armenian fruits _ mostly apples and pears. Her first loan from FINCA was for $130. Thanks to her business skills and with the help of FINCA's loans, she has expanded to four stands offering a wider range of fruits, including quinces, pomegranates, and even citrus fruits imported from neighboring Georgia.

In a recently concluded pilot test in Uganda, where just five percent of the population has access to electricity, FINCA provided micro-energy loans to 430 clients to finance solar home systems that offer a sustainable source of electricity for lighting and other uses. Our clients reported a number of benefits from the solar home systems (SHS), including improved respiratory health and cost savings (both resulting from reduced burning of kerosene for lighting) and also said that their children were able to study at night.

FINCA Jordan client Tamam Fraije and her husband rent a farm in Deir Alla where they live with their four children. She and her husband run the farm and manage the sales and shipping of the fruit they grow to markets around Jordan. As their family grew, Tamam started to look for businesses she and her husband could run when they get older. She also wanted to try something a bit different from what her neighborhood is accustomed to.

When Gaspa first started selling her bread, she barely made enough in one day to purchase flour, oil and yeast to prepare another batch of dough for the next day, and could not afford the school fees for her children.

But when she heard about the FINCA Village Banking group Famn Vayant (“Valiant Women” in Creole), everything changed. She joined the group and used the proceeds of her first loan to buy flour and other supplies in bulk, increasing her profit.

Hasmik Hovhannisyan lives alone in the declining Armenian city of Abovyan, about five miles from the country’s capital of Yerevan. Her husband died over a year ago, while she was suffering from a stomach ailment. Overnight, she became a childless widow without any source of income. Her brother helped her financially as much as he could, but she quickly realized that she needed to create her own source of income—and knew this would be a great challenge.

Nicolasa Carolina López Rodriguez, who lives in a small town on the outskirts of Managua, recalls the tremendous hardships she endured as a young single mother: “My husband abandoned me, leaving me with five young children. When one of my kids suffered severe burns in a fire, I realized I had to find a way to meet life’s challenges on my own.”

She started a business making and selling tortillas to support her family...

In Afghanistan, “The Sun of Luck Started Shining on the Windows of our House”Roqia, a 20-year old woman who lives with her parents and six younger children in Sharak-e-Awlya in Mazar-e- Sharif in northern Afghanistan, tells her story in her own words:

Marie Nicole joined the FINCA “La Foi de Job” (“Faith of Job” in Creole) Village Banking group in Cayes, Haiti, in 2000. Her first loan was for 2,000 Gourdes (US$50.00) to help her start a business so she could support her four children. Today, she is the proud owner of her own store selling cosmetics, clothing and other products.

Sharifa is 25 years old and married with two children. She has a three year old daughter and a five year old son. They live in Mazar, a village in the Badakhshan Province in northeastern Afghanistan.

Though her husband had a job as a driver, he didn’t earn enough money to provide the family with a steady diet. Sharifa heard about FINCA’s Village Banking loans from her neighbors and was interested to learn more...

The Village Banking group Famn Vayant ("Valiant Women" in Creole) meets in a church in the village of Massé, on the southwestern coast of Haiti. It began with 20 members, but its numbers swelled to 32 in the second cycle of loans.

When Imacula Eliza heard about Famn Vayant, she decided right away to join, knowing it would boost her business selling beans, rice, and sugar from her home. Imacula travels to the market in nearby Les Cayes by motorcycle, balancing large sacks of food on the back.

In 1991, Hortensia Contreras Linares, aged 65, a mother of five, joined the "Divine Providence II" Village Bank, in the coffee-growing Department of Santa Ana. To her great surprise, the members elected her President. She turned down the job because - she was ashamed to admit - she could neither read nor write. The members persisted and again elected her President. This time she accepted.

Nema Hamdan ALhmaiel Al-Jahran (Um Khaled) lives in the Al Talbiya Refugee Camp located in Zizeya with her husband and their seven children—five boys and two girls. To help support her family, the 54-year old Um Khaled has long run a small agricultural business, focused on raising and selling goats. She learned about FINCA Jordan soon after the program opened in the camp, and she quickly joined the Al-Nemaa (The Blessing) Village Bank group.

A single mother of three, Elizabeth García Callejas operates a small variety store, which she started with $185 in savings, on the east side of Managua. In 2000, she joined the Village Banking group Las Quatro Esquinas, or The Four Corners.

In impoverished Zambia, where 86 percent of the population lives below the national poverty line and life expectancy is less than 39 years, 63-year old Mailesi Chankonse is raising three grandchildren on her own, after their parents—all three of Mailesi’s daughters and their husbands—succumbed to complications related to HIV/AIDS. Zambia suffers one of the world’s highest HIV/AIDS prevalence rates. 

Maria Lucia Potosi Ramirez of San Jose de Chorlavi, Ecuador, is married and the mother of five children. She has spent her lifetime knitting beautiful wool sweaters and selling them in the local market. But the income she earned from selling her handiwork went toward providing daily necessities for her family, which never allowed her to save so she could buy wool in bulk at a lower cost. And, because she had no collateral, she couldn't access a loan from a traditional lending institution.

Etibar Shahverdi is 43 years old. He was born in Ganja, and still lives in the city. He is married and has one daughter, age 11 and a son, age 9. His mother and sister live with him and depend on him for financial support. Etibar earns a living for his family working as a cashier for a nearby factory. In his spare time, he supplements his salary by building household furniture for sale.

Milling Hope and Success from Sorrow and Adversity
At 58, Norah Musoke is considered a senior citizen in Uganda, where the average life expectancy is just 53. She has experienced enough tragedy and hardship for several generations of women, but—thanks to her extraordinary spirit and determination and with the help of FINCA loans—she has been overcome her past and today supports 18 dependants, employs over 30 people, and is a pillar of her community.

Angelina started her school business in 1997 with five pupils. So talented was she that she was invited to become a partner in a larger school in 1998. School enrollment grew to 220 students but when the partnership dissolved, Angelina was left without enough income to improve the facilities or rent a larger space.

Ana Osorio and her husband have eight children ranging in age from 24 to five. Ana made cheese, which she sold from home, to supplement her husband's income from milling grains. But she could only buy milk and other raw materials in small quantities, so she cleared just 30-40 lempira ($1.59 - $2.12) in profit per day. The family could not afford meat. While Anna could send her children to school, she could not afford all their books and supplies.

Fatima Mohammad Mussah currently lives in the village of Jebrayil in Herat Province, Afghanistan. Married, with ten children, she runs a small but successful tailoring business to help support her family.

In 1980, as fighting intensified between the Soviet invaders and the Afghan resistance fighters (mujahideen), and her family fled the Northern Afghan city of Mazar-i-Sharif with thousands of others for the safety of Iran.

Givi Bakhia worked as a government trade economist for 27 years, living with his family in Abkhazia until 1992. Givi lost three cousins, his house and his job to the Georgian civil war. His family, like many, fled the fighting to Tbilisi. Givi started selling batteries, flashlights, and pens on the street outside the Digomi Bazaar. Despite hard work, he could not save any money to invest in his business.

When the Taliban seized power in 1996, Estorai, a young woman from Kabul, had managed to get just four years of formal schooling.

To help support her family, she started a home-based beauty parlor in secret. Estorai feared savage reprisals from the regime if she or her customers were discovered violating the ban against cosmetics. Some Afghan women had their fingertips chopped off for daring to wear nail polish.

Margarita Garcia Gonzaga: mother of two and food shop owner, Village Bank member in Mexico

Margarita Garcia Gonzaga lives in Jonacatepec outside Mexico City. In the late 1990s, Margarita and her family were broke: her husband was out of work, and it looked like they would have to take their two small children out of school because they could not keep up with the monthly tuition payments. Margarita had a microbusiness, purchasing wholesale food items and reselling them to her neighbors, but her income was too small to support the family. Then FINCA Mexico began forming village banking groups in her community.

A single mother of seven, Marie-Claire Bunga wanted to boost her income so she could improve her children's diet, send them to school and afford medical care for them. She used her talents as a singer to earn money to start a small shop. She sells a variety of baked goods and fresh foods and still sings in her free time. She joined FINCA's 40-member Saint-Beno”t village bank group and used her $80 loan to expand her business.

Rabia Urokova, chair and founder of the Village Bank member in Tajikistan
Rabia Urokova works as a teacher in Kurgan Tube in Tajikistan, but her teaching salary alone does not cover educational expenses for her five daughters. To earn extra income, Rabia started a business in the central market selling plov, a national rice dish.

Rabia heard about FINCA’s financial services and immediately recognized an opportunity; she organized a village banking group with five entrepreneurs from the same market. Her first loan of $160 allowed her to open an additional summer business location, where her daughters sell plov while on school vacation.

Sherida Mkama: mother of 10 and owner of a produce business, Village Bank member in Tanzania
Sherida Mkama lives with her husband and their 10 children in Kamanga, Tanzania. Sherida began selling tomatoes in the local market in 1995 to support her family. While her business was good, all the money she made went toward tuition and uniform fees that Tanzanian families must pay for their children’s schooling, so she was never able to improve or expand her business.

Trapped in the cycle of poverty, Sherida had no reason to hope that things could get better. Her family’s fate seemed written by forces beyond her control.

Irina Shmakova and her family started a small farm five years ago about ten miles outside the city of Tomsk. They raise cattle, pigs, chickens, and other farm animals. Irina sells her farm products in the Tomsk Central Market and to a number of cafes and restaurants. During the 1999 Kosovo War, Besim and his family fled to Albania as refugees.