The Chalmers Center For Economic Development

Alejandrina, Baker and Mother of Five, age 32.
Member of Las Bendecidas Savings Group ("The Blessed")

"I lived in a small, very poor community in Sucre, [Bolivia] where all the families lived by working the soil, planting and eating what they produced. My daughters were grown and they could not continue their studies in the community, because there is not a big school, let alone could they buy the materials they needed for school. That's why I came to Tarija because I was told that in this city there are opportunities for women to study and for business.

[I moved here a year ago.] At first it was very difficult for me because I did not know what to do, and I washed clothes in many houses with my hands (helping ladies) to get money for food. I am separated with my husband and he would come sometimes from Santa Cruz to see the children and help sometimes with the rent money. I was very sad, and I went to church to ask God for help and He helped me, because one day my sister told me that I [could] make bread to survive because in the neighborhood where I live everyone is looking for good bread to eat. That's how I started this business, but again, I earned money just to eat.

[Then] I joined the savings group, [and] this was totally new to me. [I] had never heard that there were savings groups and aid like these. At first it was hard for me to pay my dues, but my group always encouraged me and told me in my own language (Quechua), "You can do [it]. The poor can save; you'll do it." When I received the loan from my group of 100 bolivano. (15 U.S. Dollars), I felt like a very rich woman, but [I] had to resist the temptation to spend that money. So I went to the market and bought flour and other ingredients that I need to make bread. I made more bread than ever and I sold everything. I felt very blessed with my winnings [that] I could buy the school materials needed for my children. And now, every day, I work this business in the evenings and my older daughters help me care [for] the little ones while I sell the bread. I'm happy because they are all studying."

Alejandrina is just one of many poor women who have been impacted by Eva and Sara, Bolivian trainers who have been equipped through the Chalmers Center’s Microfinance with Education Network. As members of this Network, Eva and Sara have been trained to start church-centered savings and credit associations like the one that ministered to Alejandra, encouraging people who are poor to save and lend their own resources to one another. These locally owned and operated savings and credit associations, which represent the cutting edge of the microfinance movement, are relatively low-cost to operate and have the ability to reach poorer populations than the traditional, credit-led approach to microfinance.

But poverty alleviation takes more than access to capital. Chalmers’ Microfinance with Education Network emphasizes that people who are poor are often suffering from a marred identity. Centuries of oppression and lies in animistic religions have combined to undermine many poor people’s sense of dignity, worth, and capacity. Hence, trainers in the Microfinance with Education Network are equipped with the skills and curricula to communicate the truths of the gospel: that in Jesus Christ we can be restored to all that it means to be created in the image of God.

As Eva and Sara state it, "Alejandrina, we all have skills; we are great for something; we have God-given talents; we only need to ask Him [for] help finding out what talent we have. You are wonderful, because you are His daughter."

At first it was hard for me to pay my dues, but my group always encouraged me and told me in my own language (Quechua), "You can do [it]. The poor can save; you'll do it."

---

Eva and Sara work for Semillas de Bendición and are affiliated with Five Talents International, a Christian microfinance organization. Learn more about how your organization or church can receive this type of training from the Chalmers Center.