Lessons Learned from the HopeBank Pilot Project

·          Include individuals from the culture you are working with on your planning team, staff, (local) board, etc.  These individuals understand culturally sensitive issues, language intricacies, and they know the people. As much as we can gain access to the culture as Northern Americans, we will always be “outsiders” to some extent, and this means that we will never be privy to certain knowledge.

·          Create local alliances as soon as possible.  We gained invaluable knowledge, pre-established trust from the women, and project direction from neighborhood presidents and their involvement in HB provided perhaps the greatest forward movement in our project.

·          ASK the beneficiaries what they want, never assume, and don’t try to sell your ideas to them.  If any real change is to occur, it absolutely needs to come from the people receiving the service. For example, we tried to begin with the philosophy of group investments and this is something that no one supported within their community.

·          No change occurs quickly, so you must resolve yourself to work with extreme patience.  Donors often have timetables and “results” they want to “see”.  International development is a slow process, and often “Western world” programs enter a country and begin by trying to impress their ideas on the culture where they are working.  It takes time to understand that the process must work the other way—the indigenous culture must inform the process for it to work. Rarely does this entire system work according to the timeframes and schedules set by funders.  The HB pilot project spanned over a year in terms of cultural assimilation, understanding the local landscape and politics, establishing faith with locals, meeting clients, and creating a project process that fits with Cajamarca.

·          Confidence and trust must be gained by having a continuous presence of some sort in the culture/neighborhood where you are working.  This includes the notion of weekly (or bi-weekly) visits to both businesses and homes to demonstrate interest in the Well-being of the women and creating an environment for payment responsibility. We established this presence in several ways: the Madres En Acción meetings in Barrio Estanco gave way to social sharing opportunities; the women could get to know us more as people than “gringos;” the neighborhood president maintained a continuous presence in the neighborhood; and the volunteer staff engaged in frequent house visits to the women.

·          Don’t assume your clients are literate.  We learned very quickly that much of the capacity building needs to occur in discussion format; women often felt embarrassed to say they could not read or write.  With our first group of women, original interviews and trainings included writing processes to generate discussion.  We noticed quickly that women would ask questions about what and how to write and this was a source of awkwardness among everyone at the meeting and could drive potential clients away.

·          For first loans, it is crucial to concentrate on helping women gain confidence in us and the process.  Always begin with what they know and what they are comfortable with—gain confidence and trust between parties and then subsequent loans can perhaps include discussions regarding business changing tactics.  We learned that first loans should be very small (under s/. 300=US$90) and should be used as grounds for the women establishing their commitment to punctual payments.  Our original HB project included a market analysis to assist the women in locating “holes” in the market that we would help them fill; this suggestion was difficult for the women because the cultural history dictates that they follow in the footsteps of their family which makes innovation terrifying.  No matter how saturated a market was in Cajamarca, the women wanted loans for the businesses they had practiced their entire lives.

·          Create a culture of communicative openness with beneficiaries; we stressed the importance of talking openly with us about payment problems or tardy payments.  This is a culture where the inability to pay creates extreme embarrassment, and there is a tendency for the women to “disappear” to deal with these emotions.  In building relationships with the women, we emphasized the importance of open communication with us, and it works.  After two of our original beneficiaries stopped payments due to medical costs related to family sicknesses (and then became ashamed to approach us because of the disregard of our agreement), we learned the absolute importance of asking women to speak to us under any and all circumstances.  To date, we have experienced no other problems with payments yet several women have visited our house to discuss issues with regards to payment concerns and necessary changes to our agreements.

·          All in all, perhaps the most important lesson here for us was that a mission cannot be to give empowerment to anyone, you can only create the atmosphere that encourages real opportunities in which people can choose to empower themselves.