Meet some of the remarkable HopeBank Borrowers…

Beatriz Chiclote Limay, Age 40

• Family Profile: Beatriz is married and has 4 children, ages 16, 12, 10, and 2.
• Business: Beatriz wanted money to reinitiate her cooking expertise in order to sell plates of cebiche (raw fish in lime) on the streets for lunch as well as brochetas (shish kabobs of chicken feet) in the evening.
• Loan Details: Beatriz received 150 soles* (US $46) to buy the materials to begin her food sales on the street. 

 Carmela Samora Rodriguez, Age 52

• Family Profile: Carmela is a single mother and has 5 children ages 27, 26, 23, 22, and 9. She also cares for her 75-year old mother and for the two grandchildren of her 26 year-old daughter, ages 4 and 5, because she lives in Lima. 
• Business: Before her HopeBank loan, Carmela sold brochetas of chicken feet and chicken necks on a street corner in the evening.  She wanted to increase her product choice and make her business more mobile.  With her HopeBank loan, Carmela bought a second-hand cart with wheels that and a built-in gas stovetop.  She increased her menu by adding the sales of salchipapas (boiled potatoes with some meat) to her brochetas and changed her location.  Now, she also sells varied items from her house front during the day such as varied fruits, gum, chips, and soda to gain additional income.
• Loan Details:  Carmela received a 350 soles loan ($109).

Consuelo Bautista Vasquez, Age 38

• Family Profile:  Consuelo has a 7 year old daughter.
• Business:  Consuelo sells cebiche (raw fish soaked in lime juice) in the meat market on Monday each week.  Fish is only sold in the markets on Friday and Monday as it comes from the coast in trucks and once it arrives is never refrigerated (due to lack of unaffordable refrigerators).  Monday is also the day that the campesinos (sierra people, land farmers with indigenous roots) come from the higher mountains to buy meats, vegetables, and other items for the week.  Consuelo is very successful in selling her plates of cebiche for one sol during lunchtime at the Monday market to those who come to purchase goods for the week. (Lunch is called siesta and goes from 1-4pm).  She is able to sell all of her cebiche and this money returns back to buy the products for the next week and to care for her family and household.  Consuelo asked for a small loan to increase the amount of fish she could buy each week so that she could produce more cebiche, and in turn increase her sales volume and income.
• Loan Details:  Consuelo received a 100 soles loan ($32).

Cristina Melba Sanchez Gamboa, Age 35

• Family Profile:  Cristina is a single mother and has 4 children, ages 14, 11, 8, and 4.
• Business: Cristina approached HB to receive money in order to reinitiate her street sales of food such as salchipapas (boiled potatoes with some meat), brochetas (chicken heart shish kabobs), humitas (meatless cornmeal tamale), and tamales.
• Loan Details:  Cristina received a 250 soles loan (US $77) to purchase the items necessary to begin her food sales.

Gloria Socorro Cuenca Vigo, Age 34 and Merly Yovana Garcia Cuenca, Age 16

• Family Profile: Gloria is 34-year old single mother of 6 children ages 16, 14, 11, 8, 6, and 5. (6-year old Laura pictured to the right).  Merly is the oldest daughter of Gloria, she is 16 and has a 1 month year old baby. Both approached HopeBank for individual loans and both were granted loans.
• Business: Gloria works as a vendor for the Peruvian ice cream company DanaFria.  This company provides its vendors with an immobile icebox each day designed to keep their different ice cream varieties cold as they sell their products in the streets.  The vendors must purchase their heladas (ice creams) at the beginning of each day to have use of the cold cart.  Gloria has worked as an ice cream vendor for 12 years and she purchased wheels (80 soles) for her cart so that she could be mobile with her sales.  Up until involvement with HopeBank, her daughter Merly worked with her Mom to give her breaks when her Mom wanted to wash clothes for additional income (12 pieces of clothes washed by hand pays 2 soles and 50 centimos).  Now that Merly is a young adult and has a child of her own, she too wants to work as a vendor and learn from her Mom, so that she can contribute to the household and take care of her own child.  (It is a very common sight that mothers work on the streets all day, 12-15 hours, breastfeeding newborns and other children by their side also participating in sales).  In fact, the 14-year old boy in this family sells bags of candy on the streets in the evenings 10pm-1am to bring in additional money for the family and school.
• Loan Details:  Gloria received a 350 soles loan so that she could increase the diversity of her ice-cream products.  Most vendors can only afford to buy popsicles, which are popular and sell for 50 centimos.  However, there are other popular treats such as barquimiels (ice cream covered in chocolate on a sugar cone), these are often too expensive for vendors to buy who have no extra money to spare. Merly received a 300 soles loan to begin her enterprise as an ice cream vendor.  To become a vendor, a person must purchase 200 soles of ice cream, so Merly will do so with part of her loan.  With the other part, she will buy wheels for her cart so that she too can have a mobile business.  We are encouraged that these loans can increase their family income, which Gloria can teach her daughter her knowledge of street sales, and that Merly can become self-sufficient.

Ines Huaman Carrassco, Age 43

• Family Profile: Ines is a single mother and has 8 children, ages 24, 22, 20, 18, 17, 16, 15, 13.  Six of the children live with her and she is very adamant about earning money to send her children to college if possible; 3 of her children has passed the exam to study at the public National University of Cajamarca.
• Business:  Ines is a wonderful cook; we hired her to lead the cooking effort for the lunch we sponsored to bring the women together.  Ines caters her food where and when possible—to family parties, institutional gatherings, and to local restaurant “menús” (these are economical 3 soles lunches that most people buy if they eat out).  Whenever she is not cooking to cater to others, Ines makes tamales and sells them on the streets during the evenings. Ines is well known in the neighborhood for her cooking skill, yet needed more money to buy additional materials. 
• Loan Details: Ines received a 250 soles loan to increase her food output.

Jhuliana Magali Orrillo Garcia, Age 24

• Family Profile: Jhuliana is married and has one son who is 3 years old.  They also live with and care for her parent-in-laws (it very common in this culture for young adults to take on the financial responsibility for caring for their parents).
• Business: Jhuliana wanted to contribute to her household by cooking and catering food for local restaurants and family parties.  Her husband is a taxi driver, and works an average 13 hour day and must rent the car and pay for gas (average price for a gallon of gas costs about US$3.50—this yields about a 30 soles income after 13 hours of work, or 71 cents an hour!)
• Loan Details: Jhuliana received a loan of 300 soles (US $93) for her cooking business.

Juana Erminia Machuca Diaz, Age 57

• Family Profile: Juana is a single mother and has 3 children, ages 21, 16, 14.  (Her oldest daughter Maria Fredesvina is also a HB beneficiary).  Juana is the head of the house and lives with her 3 children and her grandchild.
• Business: Juana has sold candy on the streets for 15 years.  She came to HB to receive a small loan to diversify her candy products and to also purchase gaseosas (pop or soda) to sell in addition to her candy.
• Loan Details:  Maria received a 150 soles loan and chose to pay bi-weekly over 1.5 months. 

Juana Andrea Jarra Huaman, Age 30

• Family Profile: Juana is a single mother and has three children, ages 11, 8, and 4. Juana also lives with her mother and brother.
• Business:  Juana requested a loan in order to buy live "cuys" (cuy is a guinea pig and considered a delicacy in Peru). With her loan, Juana and her mother Manuela began their business to purchase, kill, and prepare cuy meat for street sales.
• Loan Details: Juana received 200 soles (US $62).

Maria Caruanambo Carrera, Age 29

• Family Profile: Maria has 2 children, ages 7 and 4.
• Business: Maria currently washes laundry for people.  She receives about 5 soles a day for her work, as she only has water for two hours in the morning and fills up two small plastic bins with enough water to wash about 24 pieces of clothing.  Maria wants desperately to change her work situation, as she is stuck in this line of work because she does not have a DNI (governmental identification, like our S.S. card).  Lack of identification is a problem with many of the poorest citizens who do not have the 26 soles necessary to document themselves as citizens. If a street vendor is caught without a DNI and has a food cart or is selling in the market, the police can confiscate anything the person has.  In short, without a DNI, a citizen cannot obtain any official work and they live in fear of losing what they already do have.  Maria wants several things in the future: to increase her ability to wash more clothes by buying a bidón (like a large plastic garbage can) so that she can hold more water at one time, and to have a small sales cart of foods and drinks up near Santa Apolonia, a frequently visited tourist spot here in Cajamarca. 
• Loan Details:  Maria received a small first loan of 30 soles ($10) to obtain her official documentation. 

Maria Edith Cueva Mestanza, Age 24

• Family Profile: Maria Edith is a single mother and has two children ages 7 and 4.  Maria lives in very poor living conditions and does not have water or electricity.
• Business: When Maria came to HB for a loan she was working as an “empleada” (housemaid).  The housemaids are very exploited in this culture: they usually do backbreaking work 6 days a week for an average 10 hours a day and receive 70 soles for one month of work (and they are often treated with disrespect as they are considered “third class citizens”). This salary comes out to an average income of about 2.5 soles an hour (or in our terms, 75 cents an hour). Maria asked us to help her improve her condition of life with a loan in order to begin selling small plates of cebiche up in the campos (farm land of the campesinos).
• Loan Details: Maria received a small 100 soles loan (US $32).

Maria Elena Chusho Escobal, Age 29

• Family Profile:  Maria Elena is a single mother who has three children, ages 8, 7, and 5; she lives with her mother, sister, her nephew, and brother-in-law.
• Business: Maria has been vending chicken for over 8 years. She approached HB so that she could have sufficient money to buy live chickens.  Each morning at 3am, Maria awakes to kill and prepare the approximate 20 chickens she purchased in order to sell the meat to clients in the open market.  The meat of newly killed chickens sells for more because it is fresh.  After delivering chicken to clients who sell chicken in the market, Maria sells chicken from her house in the neighborhood. 
• Loan Details:  Maria received a 300 soles loan (US $93) to purchase live chickens for killing and vending.

Maria Elena Julca Alcantara, Age 47

• Family Profile: Maria Elena is married and has 3 children, ages 26, 10, and 7. All of the children live together with Maria and her spouse, as well as one son-in-law and grandchild.
• Business: Maria is a highly respected member of Barrio Estanco.  For years she has served as the “partera” (local birth coach) of the neighborhood “wawa wasi” (quechua name for birthing house).  Thus, she is considered a friend and grandmother of sorts to many of the local children.  Because the neighborhood is very poor, most of the women choose to have their babies for free in the dirt room provided by Maria Elena with her assistance (men are rarely present at birth as it is considered embarrassing for the men to see the women naked and in this state of being).  Although the local Cajamarca hospital birthing cost is 3 soles, many of the women opt to remain with Maria both for cost and friendship. Maria is not paid for this work, and so her other daily business consists of weaving baskets of different sizes (alongside her husband).  The baskets are used to hold clothes, vegetables, fruits, and breads in many houses.
• Loan Details: Maria received a 300 soles loan to buy more materials to create more baskets as she has steady selling outlets in the local markets. 

Maria Fredesvinda Reyes Machuca, Age 21

• Family Profile: Maria Fredesvinda is a single mother and has a 1-year old son.  She lives with her mom (Juana Erminia who is also a HB beneficiary) and her 3 other siblings.
• Business: Maria is a very hard worker; at the time she approached HB for a loan she was selling chupetas (more or less a yogurt push-up) on the street for 11 hours a day.  Because her products sold for only 10 centimos (about 3 cents) each, she would net approximately 4 soles after a long day of work (a little more than one dollar).  Maria asked HB for a loan in order to begin selling other products on the street in addition to her chupetas; her money was used to buy the ingredients to make local specialized condiments like aji (hot green pepper sauce) and ajo (garlic sauce). These “salsas” are very popular and go with all meals here in Cajamarca.
• Loan Details: Maria received a 200 soles loan.

Maria Gertrudes Escobal Alguilar, Age 39

• Family Profile: Maria Gertrude is a single mother with one son, age 5.  Maria rents a single room in a house in the local barrio.
• Business: Maria is a very positive and innovative woman.  She approached HB with the idea of exporting specialized local Cajamarcan foods to Lima where she is from and has many connections.  Maria received a loan to purchase and export rosquitas (round flour biscuits) and manjar blanco (locally produced carmel-like butter spread) to Lima.  She makes the 28-hour round trip each weekend to sell numerous kilos of Cajamarcan products that cannot be found on the coast.
• Loan Details:  Maria received a 300 soles loan.

 Maria Isabel Cachi Sanchez, Age 40

• Family Profile: Maria Isabel is married and has 5 children, ages 21, 18, 14, 10, and 8.
• Business:  Maria was referred to HB by her neighbor and friend Maria Elena Julca Alcantara.  Maria cooks food for the children at the local wawa wasi; her principle business interest was in selling “menestras,” a general term used for grains such as corn, flour, wheat, rice, etc.  Maria needed the money to reinitiate this business. Maria travels to nearby local towns by combi (minivan transport crammed with passengers and products tied to roof), there she successfully vends sacks of grains to those who live in very rural areas and cannot get into the city frequently to purchase food.
• Loan Details: Maria received a 300 soles loan.

Maria Santos Huaman Carrasco, Age 39

• Family Profile: Maria Santos is married and has three children, ages 6, 5, and 8 months.
• Business: Maria came to HB in order to request money to purchase vegetables to sell on the streets (carrots, onions, peas, yucca, etc).
• Loan Details: Maria received a 100 soles loan (US $31).

Maria Torres Romero, Age 46

Family Profile:  Maria has one daughter age 19 (also single mother), two grandchildren ages 1.5 and 5 months. (Peruvian tradition, especially with women, is that children live with their parent(s) until they are married and parents care for the children until they leave the house.  There is no cultural pressure to leave the house and it is normal for several family generations to live under the same roof.  Thus, when a daughter is a single mother, the well-being for her children also becomes the responsibility of their grandparent(s).)

Business:  Maria sells shelled peanuts, honey-covered peanuts, fried bananas and fried sweet potatoes from her wheelbarrow on a street corner (picture above).  She has been selling for eight years in this business.  Her HopeBank loan was to help her increase product production and product diversity, such as selling soda, especially during Carnaval when sales increase enormously, yet the cost of producing more cannot be covered.

Loan details:  Maria received a 500 soles loan ($155).

Maritza Giovana Escobar Cruz, Age 27

• Family Profile: Maritza is married and has one 5-year old son.  She shares a house with her husband, son, mother, 2 brothers, and one sister-in-law.
• Business: Maritza requested a loan in order to purchase “ropa interior” (women’s undergarments); these products are very popular to sell and buy on the streets for fairly low cost. 
• Loan Details: Maritza received a 200 soles loan to begin her ropa interior business.

Maximina Rodriguez Huayta, Age 21

• Family Profile: Maximina is a single mother with a 2 month year old baby.  She lives with her 85 year old grandparents and is responsible for feeding and caring for them as well.
• Business:  Maximina is working with Maria Isabel to learn the details of selling smaller amounts of menestras (grains) in local markets.
• Loan Details: Maximina received a 200 soles loan.

 Sara Chusho Escobal, Age 24

• Family Profile: Sara is married and has one son who is 3 years old. 
• Business: Sara’s expertise is baking cakes, and she approached HB for a loan to buy initial materials for her cake business so that she could sell cakes alongside her sister’s chicken business
• Loan Details: Sara received 200 soles.

Susana Briones Guevara, Age 48

• Family Profile:  Susana is a single mother and has 5 children, ages 22, 20, 18, 17, and 8. She lives with her two youngest children and cares for her mother.
• Business: Susana cooks food to be served for both breakfast and lunch menús.  Because she lives in very poor living conditions, she cooks the food and delivers it to the restaurant of a local neighbor.  Susana requested a loan from HB in order to build the infrastructure and capacity of her cooking business, including purchases such as serving dishes and other cooking ware. 
• Loan Details: Susana received a 350 soles loan (US $108).

*($1=approx. 3.5 soles)