Small Loan Fund
Esperanza en Accion has been lending money to artisans at 0% interest since 2008. This program was started after artisan Guadalupe Norori (above) expressed her need to build a kiln on her property since hers had fallen down during an earthquake the year before.
Not having her own kiln was risky and expensive. She had to pay other people to use their kilns and risked losing her pieces as she didn't have control over the firing process. (Ceramic pieces are very sensitive and one must be very careful during the firing process as pieces can crack or explode, damaging all of the pieces in the kiln).
Trusting that we could offer credit to Guadalupe and she would pay it back she borrowed $66 and built two kilns on her property and a roof over them to keep them safe during the rainy season. With this success we decided to offer loans to all of the artisans we work with to provide them with access to fair credit.
Since 2008 we have given out 15 loans and a total of $2,818. Below is the breakdown of the program.