Blanca Méndez works at Oikocredit’s international office in Amersfoort, a lovely, green city in the heart of the Netherlands. We at MicroPlace know her as we work closely with Oikocredit on a daily basis to source many of the listings that you see on MicroPlace.  Blanca recently went to South America and wrote a series of blog posts on this trip. You can see all her posts here.

Not only do microentrepreneurs stay loyal to a microfinance institutions (MFI) for years: they stay loyal for generations. I did not realize it until I met Juana Mayta Wanka, her son Leonardo Torres and his wife Karina Cori in La Paz, Bolivia. 

It was not easy to find their house. With much effort, the car rode up the very steep hill on the border of La Paz city. “There, that is the bakery,” said the FIE loan officer. While the loan officer rang the doorbell, I looked around for a bakery sign. The view down to the city was amazing! I was trying to find Oikocredit’s office in the jungle of buildings 500 meters below, when the small door opened, and Doña Juana greeted us a lovely smile. She is 63, but she crossed the garage and walked up the stairs to the second floor much quicker than all of us.

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The big concern about today’s financial crisis is not that investment bankers may lose their jobs, but that it may spill over to Main Street.  People worry that if all the banks are collapsing or hoarding capital so that they won’t collapse, who is going to lend money to businesses?  Businesses need capital so that they can do what businesses do best:  make profit and provide jobs.  Without capital to grease the system, the core fundamentals of an economy, well, just freeze up. 

Well, that’s what it’s like every day of the year in the urban slums of Bangalore, Manila, and Rio. You see, without basic capital, just as our economy shuts down, so does theirs.  Without a little bit of capital, shop owners can’t buy inventory, tailors can’t afford a new sewing machine, farmers can’t afford fertilizer.  (more…)

Gloriana Guillen works at Pro Mujer. We at MicroPlace got to know her when she came to eBay to speak at Silicon Valley Microfinance Network called “Voices from the Field.” Given her background in media (more details on her background is at the bottom of the post), it should come as no surprise that the video of her talk on the role of the microfinance loan officer is great. We are thrilled to have her as a guest blogger at MicroPlace.com.   

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