WCCN's Newsletter, Spring 2009, Volume 25, No. 1

Indigenous borrowers from CDRO, one of WCCN’s new partner agencies in Guatemala, show of the proceeds of their loans. Photo by Michael Kienitz.

We are very excited to report that during the last few months, WCCN was able to establish its first set of partnerships with microfinance organizations in El Salvador and Guatemala. As a result, WCCN currently has operations in three Central American countries, lending $9.3 million to 17 different microfinance organizations, which are reaching around 350,000 borrowers.

WCCN’s 25-year history and 18 years of experience working in microfinance, our broad understanding of the microfinance industry in Central America, and the committed board, staff, and supporters have made it possible to succeed in this expansion process. To date, the entire expansion process has moved very smoothly.

As you might remember, on November 24th, 2008, the Wisconsin Coordinating Council on Nicaragua changed its name to Working Capital for Community Needs, keeping the acronym WCCN. We believe that our new name better reflects our core work of providing working capital to micro-entrepreneurs and farmers in Latin America with no other sources of affordable credit.

El Salvador

Padecomsm (Patronato para el Desarrollo de las Comunidades de Morazán y San Miguel) is the microfinance division of an NGO that was organized during the civil war. The mission of Padecomsm is to be “…an entity that specializes in accessible microfinance services, flexible and appropriate for microenterprises and small businesses, with economic profitability and social responsibility; contributing to the improvement in the quality of life for [their] clients.” Most of Padecomsm Credit’s portfolio is allocated to microenterprises, small businesses and industry, serving the very poor, rural department of Morazan. The majority of loans are made to women through individual and solidarity-group methodologies.

A program beneficiary stands behind her new well. The hole has been cemented over, and is awaiting the rope mechanism. Photo by the author.

Two years ago, the Richland Center-Santa Teresa Sister City Project (SCP) suggested that WCCN try an adopt-a-village experiment. In 2008, WCCN agreed to sponsor projects in La Solera, one of Santa Teresa’s rural communities in the buffer zone of Chacocente Wildlife Refuge, in Nicaragua.

Unlike the communities within the refuge, La Solera is accessible by public transportation. A daily bus (a large truck with benches) connects La Solera with Santa Teresa. La Solera has the Chacocente area’s only store, a small co-op grocery. It also boasts a new public health clinic, built a few years ago by a battalion of U.S. soldiers. (Somehow the clinic key went home with the troops, and the community was locked out until late 2008.) It serves eight communities and is staffed by a nurse, with a doctor coming once a week from Santa Teresa.

Nicaraguan president Daniel Ortega’s first year in office (2007) did not bring any significant changes to the way the Nicaraguan economy operates, but his second year showed a surprising and poorly calculated attempt to force changes. Now, as Ortega starts his third year, it seems that the government’s strategy is to try to calm the waters after the storms they generated, which severely damaged the economic prospects of the country, which were already hurt by the current global economic crisis.

Maria Yvette Moreno de Muñoz, working at her sewing machine. Photo by Mark Aumann.

In a confident yet modest voice, Maria Moreno describes her sewing business with pride. Her primary business comes from sewing uniforms out of her home. When she started her business ten years ago, Maria opened a new chapter in her life. For years, she and her family had lived in a small one-room makeshift home built of metal sheeting. Then, Hurricane Mitch struck Nicaragua. WCCN microfinance partner León 2000 reached out to Maria’s family in their time of need. With the sight of her daughter standing in water up to her knees still fresh in her memory, Maria tears up when recalling her decision to take out her first loan.