FACES

Mission: Helping to improve the social and economic situation in southern Ecuador.

Specialty: Rural lending to women

Organization Profile: FACES, the Foundation of Community and Social Development of Ecuador, a holistic, development-oriented NGO, was founded in 1991 to contribute to the social and economic progress of the southern region of Ecuador, particularly the provinces of Loja and Zamora Chinchipe.

FACES began by providing microfinance loans in the form of micro-credits to a small group of rural women living in the municipality of Loja.  In addition to microfinance services, the women also received training and health care due to the holistic nature of FACES.

FACES focuses on four major areas: entrepreneurial development (ADEM), community development (ADECO), health services (ASA) and environmental management (AGA) with ADEM acting as the microfinance component of FACES.  ADEM provides microfinance assistance along with technical assistance to its clients while ADECO focuses on strengthening managerial and organizational capacities of local leaderships and governments; ASA on providing preventative and primary healthcare services to the poor, women and children; and AGA on sustainable management of natural resources and reforestation of the Amazonian region located between Loja and Zamora Chinchipe provinces. 

FACES is a member of the Ecuadorian Forum of Microenterprise Development (FOME) and the Network of Rural Finance (RFR) and currently has branches at the rural township of Catamayo and Malacatos.

WCCN Partner Since: 2010

Borrowers: FACES provides loans for 4,803 individuals.  Of these clients, 64% are women and 36% are men (as of 2009).

Lending Portfolio: FACES has an average loan size of $693 with a total lending portfolio of $2,637,962.  Commerce, small enterprise and industry consist of 45% of this portfolio, agriculture and livestock 24%, services 18% and transformation of products 13% (as of 2009).