Women's Stories

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WE Supports The Women of Grameen de la Frontera

WE is raising money to provide business loans for the women of Sonora, Mexico. Here are a few of their stories...

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Artmesia Barreras Alvarez uses GDLF loans to buy inventory to sell in her store and with the profits supports her two children and her mother.

Turning Difficulties to Success

Four years ago, circumstances for Artmesia Barreras Alvarez were not good. Her father had died, her infant daughter was frail, and her older son needed money to go to high school. Her mother, widowed in her seventies, had only a small monthly pension. So Artemesia quit her job to stay home to care for her mother and small daughter. It was then that Grameen came to town and invited her to join a microfinance center.

“That really cheered me up. In helping my mother and daughter, I too have been helped,”explains Artmesia. “Things have worked out so well.”

With other women in her village of El Campito, Artemesia joined a solidarity group that provided a safe place where she was able to acquire confidence and self-esteem. As a result of her participation, little by little, she and the other women developed new coping skills.

Thus empowered, Artemisa did not lose heart when her first business, a sausage shop that she started with her first loan of 1,000 pesos ($96), did not work out. She took out a second loan of $2,000 pesos for a new business selling shoes and accessories. She bought these, through a sister, in Mexico City at a lower cost. With her profits and a third loan of 4,000 pesos, she purchased a display window that makes her business more visible and draws customers into the store. Currently, she is paying off a 5,000-peso loan she is using to put a cement floor in her house.

“I've been taking out loans for four continuous years and with the help of Grameen, my son finished preparatory school, my daughter attends kindergarten, I have paid off some of my debts, and we are making improvements on the house.”

Her small business provides Artemisa's entire income that she uses to pay household expenses, supplement her mother's small pension, purchase business inventory, and make her loan payments. She alternates her weekly income between supporting her home and repaying her Grameen loan.

“This week I earned nearly 500 pesos. I had enough for the loan payment and also money to make a dress for my daughter. She is going to a dance in her kindergarten.”

Artemisa says she can easily envision being able to invest 10,000 pesos in her business. “Knowing how to do it, I'm no longer afraid.”