Milan´s Legacy

This update is long overdue, but things are getting a little busier
here lately. Work has picked up and I´m finally finding where some of my skills can be put to use.

Last Friday (6/20), Julie and I traveled along with a HOPE group to get a different perspective on the work that Esperanza is doing. It was refreshing to be with a group of Americans who were interested and eager to learn more about microfinance and the impact it has on individuals and communities. Being able to answer some of their questions and give my insight and opinion on the mulitfaceted industry made me realize how much I had learned already.

After showing the group what a biweekly bank meeting looks like, we went to another meeting that´s called a capacitación. Each new loan group goes through a process of five meetings where they are informed on the basics of a group loan and the repayment process: investment, savings, payments, interest, solidarity, attendance, etc. The picture below is from the capacitación of 15 new group members from a Haitian batey. A batey is a community usually owned by the government or sugarcane industry that houses the sugarcane field workers and their families. These communities, primarily Haitian, tend to be the poorest of the poor and are located in the middle of the fields in the middle of nowhere. It is encouraging to see these women have the desire to start a business or improve their existing one in order to better their lives and their families.

The afternoon was spent visiting one of HOPE and Esperanza´s biggest success stories--Milan´s school. To make a long story short...Milan had taken out several loans with Esperanza to grow her business making clothing and fabric for furniture. At the same time, she was being called to serve the street children in her community. She provided a refuge for these children in her home every day by caring, feeding, and teaching them. She gave them notebooks and pencils and made uniforms to emphasize an educational aspect of her ministry. Word spread among the street children to the point that she was squeezing 100 children into her tiny house every day. Esperanza noticed Milan´s passion for the children and looked to assist her any way possible. Esperanza and HOPE worked together to make Milan´s dream of building a real school a reality. They broke ground in November and had the opening ceremony in April of this year....