Open to Grow - Newsletter – December 2021
Dear Friends of Open to Grow,
Thanks so much for supporting Open to Grow - for 11 years! We appreciate each and every one of you. Together, we have made over 5,400 loans to poor women micro-entrepreneurs with a total value of $2.4 million. Together, we have improved the lives of over 27,000 women and their family members. Your loans or donations to Open to Grow have a powerful ongoing impact on the lives of many very poor people.
Last year our Newsletter provided a retrospective of our work. This one looks at where we are today and where we want to be in five years time.
Open to Grow is a volunteer-run registered Canadian charity that provides small loans (micro-credit) to poor micro-entrepreneurs in Guatemala and Nicaragua who have no access to the regular banking system. Micro-credit is powerful. When client loans are repaid (currently 96% of our loans are repaid) we can re-loan the repayments over and over again to existing and new clients. The majority of clients continue to borrow, most often in increasing amounts. This is a strong indication that their small businesses are getting larger. Your loans or donations to Open to Grow help our clients to grow their businesses and move themselves out of poverty.
Going forward together, we can continue to help our clients realize their dreams of a better future for themselves, their children and their communities. Please make a donation or loan to Open to Grow now and help make dreams come true.
Sincerely,
Bob Brown, Founder
bob@opentogrow.org
P.S. In the past few months... - new copy, information on our new partners, new photos (muchas gracias Francisco) - take a look at: www.opentogrow.org.
A Story of Hope
Manuela is a 21 year-old Indigenous woman who lives in the rural community of Chupol in the municipality of Chichicastenango, Guatemala. She has one child. She is a weaver by trade and makes amazing “perrajes”, colourful rectangular shawls that are used primarily by women to keep warm, cover their heads, carry children, and bring groceries home from the market. Some men also use perrajes.
Manuela received a loan from SERVIGUA from funds provided by Open to Grow. It is her first loan and will be used as working capital to purchase materials for her business. Income from her business will be put back into her business and also used to improve the social and economic conditions of her family.
Read the entire story here: Open to Grow - Newsletter – December 2021 (mailchi.mp)