The microcredit organization, Esperanza International, has been successfully operating in the Dominican Republic and Haiti for the past 15 years to provide hope or in Spanish ‘esperanza’ to the rural poor by the dissemination of micro-finance loans. Esperanza is dedicated to serving the poorest of the poor and to date have disbursed over 106,000 loans with a portfolio in excess of $22 million. Beyond just providing credit, Esperanza now offers its 18,000+ clients a wide variety of financial services, including health insurance, loan insurance, savings, education loans as well as home improvement loans and dental services.
Northeastern University’s Social Enterprise Institute was fortunate enough to host the first Boston visit of Esperanza’s President, Carlos Pimentel. Over 100 Northeastern students and community members gathered in a packed classroom on Wednesday, February 23rd to listen to Pimentel’s lecture, which focused on Esperanza’s work in the Dominican Republic and the impact the organization has had thus far. Afterward, students eagerly asked questions about everything from the earthquake’s influence on loan disbursement in Haiti and the DR to the reasoning behind interest rates on loans.
Following Pimentel’s lecture, students of the Advanced Topics in Social Entrepreneurship capstone led by Serrano Legrand and Shilpi Roongta, organized a fundraising event in the Alumni Center to raise funds for the Northeastern Microfinance Fund (http://www.numf.tumblr.com) which is a student led initiative to raise $25,000 for a fund which supports loans for the communities that the capstone students worked with during their Spring Break Field Practicum. The event raised over $2,000 that evening and brought in distinguished guests of CBA’s Board of Visitors, as well as friends, family and students.
When asked about Esperanza’s success stories, Pimentel explained the story of one legendary associate, Bienvenida Nina. Bienvenida’s initial lending group disbanded after the first loan cycle, but being a determined entrepreneur, she was given special permission to continue taking out loans on her own. Each loan cycle, her loan sizes have expanded and so have her two businesses, a colmado, or corner store, and a fried chicken restaurant. Her fried chicken is extremely well-known in the area for being ‘the best fried chicken around’ and it brings in a sizable profit. She hopes to soon take out the largest loan that Esperanza has ever distributed to start a grocery store. Bienvenida Nina’s two young girls assist in her colmado and restaurant and wish to one day follow in their mother’s footsteps. She was able to build a beautiful two-story house for her family with the profits of her businesses and no longer resides in the small tin house they had occupied previous to obtaining loans from Esperanza.
Bienvenida Nina is just one example of several entrepreneurs who have been able to drastically improve the lives of themselves and their families through microcredit and the expansion of their businesses. Esperanza International is on the right track to eliminating extreme poverty in the Dominican Republic.
For more information about Esperanza, please visit: www.esperanza.org
