| Adelante
MICRO LENDING MEANS MANY THINGS
TO MANY PEOPLE: HOW IT WORKS AT ADELANTE:
WHAT WILL BULLARD & ASHLEY HOOKER HAVE TO SAY
BEFORE THEY TAKE US CROSSING WATER,
BEYOND ELECTRICITY, TO THE VILLAGE
For Will Bullard & Ashley Hooker
Instead of poor people being the burden,
The poor become the solutions to poverty.
40 to 80 dollar loans. Women starting small businesses.
What can women do with 80 dollars?
Clothing, sandals, used clothing, Avon.
Reselling used clothes is the low end.
Numerous Avon ladies.
Bake food items. Women raise pigs,
They make tortillas and tamales.
Not a lot of money but more money than she had.
There are 40 micro credit lenders
here, just in La Ceiba.
98 dollars is the average size loan for Adelante.
The very poor, the rural poor,
Is who Adelante works with.
No one else is even close to Adelante.
Most micro credit lenders deal in urban areas.
Adelante works in rural areas where need
Is greatest. With ignored people.
An education component comes with Adelante.
Clients meet every two weeks
Because we’ve got to see payment on the loan.
We’ve got to see payment. Clients say
We don’t know how to run a country.
We give 16 lessons on how to run a business.
We teach people how to treat clients,
To set prices. We have 32 lessons on health.
Human rights, too. Most of the women
We do business with aren’t married.
Marriage is expensive, bureaucratic.
These women are in common law relationships.
Ashley and I—we have a teach-the-teacher’s program.
Teach our clients who will teach their peers.
It’s the best teaching. Best learning.
A client who’s done all this,
Teaching to peers,
Peer to peer is the best way.
You can’t make a loan to a poor person
And expect to get it back. Each person
Applying for a loan is part of an assembly.
5 women in each assembly.
This is the same program Muhammad Yunus
Created in Bangladesh. Why 5 women?
They asked Yunus. Look at your hand.
Five fingers. Make the loan to five people.
That’s how he won the prize. Banker to the poor.
Trusted friends will get that loan paid.
Someone’s in their group they don’t know
And trust, there’s gonna be more than questions.
Our repayment rate is 96 .4 percent.
We’re looking for 98 per cent.
Our clients pay back better than credit card
Customers in the U.S. Successful clients
Get individual loans after two years—
Más adelante. A solidarity based loan
Has collateral, it has peer pressure.
Maybe we could find a more remote village
Than La Sastre to take you to, but it would be hard.
La asemblea starts with the Lema—fists
In the air and chanting three times—
Unidad. Diciplina. Trabajo. Valor.
Esto es la forma de vida.
Women are more trustworthy than the men.
Their impact is with the children.
I’m convinced women make more money
Than the husbands—they’re the changing role models.
Women suffer more.
Men come home and eat what they want.
Women suffer. Children eat what’s left.
You will never be closer to the war on poverty
Than you will be tomorrow in La Sastre.
Tomorrow you’re going to see who
Has their loan payments.
We’re talking about repayments of 30 dollars.
The women will not give it if they
Don’t trust the other women.
This is tough love. We know people get sick.
This is a tough country to change.
Every police officer you see in Honduras
Makes more money on bribes
Than from his salary.
Adelante cannot survive on donations.
Long term we die unless we get it right.
Auto sustainable. The micro credit industry.
We’re at 77% sustainable.
We’re at 42 per cent interest rate. 3 ½ per cent per month.
Bolivia is the Mecca of Microcredit. Promujer.
Our director is from Bolivia.
He left a career for a mission.
He sold our pickups, said we can’t afford them.
He drives a motorcycle on rocky roads.
Jim Bodeen
La Ceiba/La Sastre/La Ceiba/Highway to Copan
February 28—March 2, 2007
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