Pro Mujer
was created in the city of El Alto in Bolivia, in 1990, with the
vision to work for the empowerment of women and aim at self-relaince
by reducing over dependence on assistance programs. In 1993, as
an answer to the demand of more than 1,500 women who were already
participating in the program and who needed access to financial
resources, Pro Mujer started a credit program based on the basic
principles of microcredit and self-sustainability, adopting measures
recommended by financial sources and external consultants such
as Grameen Trust in Bangladesh. During the same
year, Pro Mujer expanded its services to three
new areas – Sucre, Tarija and Cochabamba in order to increase
its area of influence and the number of lower income women.
The institutional work of Pro Mujer has
two main components: The financial component, that includes the
services of savings and loans, and the non-financial component,
that offers services related to training workshops, basic health
and technical assistance for business.
Claudia Murga, 26,
is married and the mother of one son. She and her husband
jointly own a tailor shop. Claudia joined Pro Mujer
four years ago at the suggestion of her mother who is also
a member of the same community association. Mrs. Murga borrows
$ 400 every six months in order to buy cloth, thread and
other sewing supplies for her growing tailoring need and
she was also able to finish her high school with the money
she has saved with Pro Mujer’s savings program.
Two years ago, Ms. Murga became the health
representative of her community association. As the health
representative, she informs the local women about the on-site
medical services provided by Pro Mujer,
such as vaccinations, medical checkups for children and
family planning.
|
The financial component consists of community
associations, which work with 20 to 30 women organized in groups
of 4 to 8. The community associations disburse small loans to
a group of women and the loans range from $100 during the first
cycle and upto $1,000 in the later cycles. Pro Mujer
has kept a healthy portfolio, default rate never went over 3%
and currently it is lower than 1.0%.
The savings program is an important element of
community associations and participation is mandatory for the
members. Members are highly enthusiastic about it, as the savings
scheme is perceived as a source of capital in the future.
In terms of non-financial services, basic educational
services were implemented for Pro Mujer’s
clients and their families, including IET (Information, Education
and Training) and Entrepreneur Development. The Entrepreneur Development
Program was developed in order to provide support and training
to women so that they are able to increase income by developing
their business skills. Education Center was founded in one focal
center in EL Alto. The children of clients, between the ages of
6 and 20 attend classes in basic computer skills, languages and
mathematics. The program helps the students to acquire competence
in technical areas that are not taught in their schools.
Pro Mujer also recently implemented
a program to provide classes in life skills and financial education
for young people in El Alto. The program provided young people
with access to credit for economic initiatives, as well as classes
in training and personal development. The Business Development
area has begun working with a Swiss corporation and SAT, an agency
related to the World Bank, Bolivia, to provide training in micro-enterprise
development. Clients attend technical training classes for about
20-30 hours and receive a training certificate. This service is
still in a phase of experimentation and the program will have
to be developed further. Since its implementation in 2001, the
Legal Services Program also continued to grow. The program trains
clients about their basic legal rights, inter-family violence,
and other themes. Clients also have access to free legal consultation
with an on-site lawyer.
During the last three years, Pro Mujer
has experienced a significant growth, both in number of clients
and geographic areas which demanded an improvement in its institutional
procedures and expansion of human resources to confront the challenge.
Because of the ongoing financial crisis in the country, Pro
Mujer needed to work harder to reach the impoverished
sectors of the population within the peri-urban areas, while still
keeping their original vision and mission in sight.
Source: 2002 Annual Report of Pro Mujer
Pro Mujer has been a Grameen Trust partner since 1994.
