Mar 1, 2022 | Hispanic Heritage Month, Honduras, Our Impact Page
Meet Merlin from Honduras.
Merlin and her family live in a small city in a region on the northern coast of Honduras. The area is home to white sand beaches, rich birdlife, and lagoons. Although surrounded by natural beauty and wildlife, Merlin’s family has suffered in the wake of COVID-19.
Merlin has received 11 loans with WE Partner, Adelante, over the last five years. Her first loan of 3,000 Lempira ($122) in January 2016 provided inventory for her burgeoning pulperia (small grocery) business. With issues related to decreased demand combined with raw product supply challenges during the pandemic, she was forced to close the shop and pivot to focus on selling fish that her husband was able to catch from the sea. That helped them survive for the first year of the pandemic.
Since the quarantine mandates have been lifted, Merlin sought to reopen her store. Adelante provided her with 20,000 Lempira to re-open, and she is thrilled to have her livelihood back. Through her diligence and hard work, Merlin has been able to successfully pay off all scheduled installments. Merlin is 34 years old and has two children who both attend school.
Mar 1, 2022 | Haiti, Our Impact Page, Women Stories
Meet Mimose: Community Health Entrepreneur, Haiti
“We have saved the lives of many malnourished children. But unfortunately, we lost some too, because when we found them, their cases were already too advanced.” – Mimose Anicy
Mimose Anicy, mother of eight, became a Community Health Entrepreneur with Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante program in 2017. Mimose’s isolated community in Northeast Haiti is very far from the nearest health facilities and her services are in high demand.
“Headaches, stomachaches, menstrual issues, hypertension—people come to me for help or advice because they know that every month I receive training from Fonkoze,” she says. Anicy is especially proud of the lifesaving work she has done to address malnutrition in her community.
Since joining Fonkoze, Anicy has steadily grown her business. She started selling oil, gasoline and rice, later expanding to sell cosmetics, fertilizers and other supplies. And now, she offers new products through her Boutik Sante inventory. Solar lamps and iodized salt are two of her most popular products.
Soon after COVID-19 spread to Haiti, Mimose shifted her business from the public market in Saint Rafael to her house. Thanks to Boutik Sante’s reliable supply chain, she was able to sustain her business, primarily by selling her Boutik Sante inventory.
It is Mimose’s business that puts food on the table for her eight children and pays their school fees, including for her two children who are in university. Her savings has enabled her to buy cattle, horses, goats and a half-acre of land for a farm that her husband tends.
Women like Mimose bring hope, healing and essential care in the darkest times. You can support WE’s partnership with Fonkoze by Donating Here. Thank you!
Feb 28, 2022 | California
Nagiba, Entrepreneur in San Diego.
From IRC San Diego’s Facebook post: Nagiba got her first sewing machine when she was 11 years old and spent much of her life making traditional Iraqi costumes and clothes for her neighbors and friends. After fleeing her home with her husband and two daughters, learning English as a second language and working to support her family for many years, she was able to open up her own business in El Cajon. From enrolling her in our Vocational ESL classes and work readiness training to helping her get her first job in the States to providing her with small business counseling and support, we are proud to have supported Nagiba every step of the way, as she rebuilt her life in San Diego.
Today, she is an entrepreneur, seamstress, former refugee, and our hero for sewing face masks to keep San Diegans safe through COVID MASK UP! Thank you to our community partner Women’s Empowerment International for their support of refugee entrepreneurs like Nagiba! (And we thank you, IRC, for being an amazing partner!)
Feb 28, 2022 | Uganda
Jane cares for five grandchildren.
Jane Batsitire was 62 when she lost her son and began caring for her five grandchildren, ranging in age from six to 16. She worries about educating her grandkids as school in Uganda is not free. But even a loan as small as $14 is enough to launch a modest enterprise in Uganda.
WE-funded loans, plenty of hard work and a busy pig rearing business have now changed the lives of this family. It began with a small loan to purchase four piglets. With two litters a year, and five to six piglets in each, she is able to sell these pigs for a profit and reinvest in a new coffee business.
While life is certainly hard, her grandkids are in school and she is able to provide for family necessities. Jane, like thousands of other grandmothers in Uganda, now dreams for more for her kids and step by step, is building her business and family income.
Feb 27, 2022 | California
Aneta: A California Entrepreneur
It was 2009 when Aneta immigrated to California from her native Iraq. Like many of the new Americans we serve, Aneta had been highly trained in her home country where she had learned the ancient art of threading from a master threader. Threading is a natural, chemical-free hair removal technique that’s increasingly popular in the U.S.
She dreamed of owning her own threading business in her new home. And so she got prepared.
After earning a degree in Business Administration, Aneta shared her dreams and plans with the WE STAR Center to open her own threading studio. She received much-needed assistance with licensing, permitting and business planning.
Today, her studio, Threading by Aneta, is thriving. Her warm, tastefully decorated space in San Diego’s Clairemont neighborhood attracts a regular clientele. And while she is also an experienced hair stylist and cosmetologist, threading remains her true passion. Call Aneta to make an appointment and support our wonderful entrepreneur:
Feb 17, 2022 | Event Calendar
AAUW San Diego panel in honor of International Women’s Day 2022.
Oct 30, 2021 | Haiti, Women Stories
Meet Bernadette Joseph, a mother of six living outside Port-au-Prince in Masissade, Haiti.
To earn a living and care for her family, Barnadette spent years buying and reselling charcoal, barely earning a profit from the risky and laborious work. Thanks to support and loans from WE partner Fonkoze, Bernadette was able to expand her business to selling used goods, including clothing. But she still had to travel too far from home and wasn’t earning enough to support her children.
That’s when Bernadette became a Community Health Entrepreneur (CHE) with Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante program. For three years now, through Boutik Sante, Bernadette procures over-the-counter health products from Fonkoze that she resells in her boutik, or community health store. She no longer has to travel long distances for her inventory and is filling vital needs in her village for health products, malnutrition screenings for babies and children and even educating her community about health practices. As important, she is incredibly proud to be a life-saving resource in her community.
“I’m helping to reduce malnutrition in my community,” says Bernadette.
“There are children who would die if they were not treated.”
Your donations help empower women just like Bernadette. In the aftermath of the recent earthquakes in Haiti and on-going political instability, now is the time to make a difference for Haitian women. If you can help, please contribute on WE’s website today.
Aug 17, 2021 | Event Calendar
Join us for an outdoor celebration of the brave and empowered women supported by Women’s Empowerment International.
Sep 17, 2018 | Haiti, Women Stories
Odette helps her community.
In Odette Midy’s community near Lavale, Haiti, the nearest place to buy over-the-counter health products was more than an hour away. Rather than make the long journey by foot, Odette’s friends and neighbors would often let illnesses and wounds go untreated. Soon, people would get sicker and infections would take hold.
Today, through her community health store (Boutik Sante), Odette is trying to change this. Her participation in Fonkoze’s Boutik Sante Program – an innovative social enterprise that expands access to over-the-counter health products and services in rural Haiti – is enabling her to do just that.
The Program has helped Odette to expand her business and gain skills to serve as a valuable resource in her community. For example, Fonkoze’s registered nurses are training Odette and other Fonkoze clients to administer basic screening services (blood pressure, malnutrition, diabetes, and others) and to incorporate health-related products into their existing businesses. They thus become “Community Health Entrepreneurs.”
When asked about her motivation in life, she says, “I am not married, but I work hard for my eight-year-old daughter. I want to see her succeed in life.” Odette also says that Fonkoze is the one partner she can really “rely on.” She was able to build a home with profits from her small business, which she expanded with loans from Fonkoze.
Having been a Fonkoze client for ten years, she has gained the respect of the 55 other Fonkoze clients in her Credit Center, which they named Tèt Ansanm (Heads Together). They even elected her to be their “Center Chief” – the leader of the group.
Odette is pleased with the progress she is making, saying, “Everything is selling well. My Fonkoze friends are also my clients, and the people in my village are happy to buy from me.” Sometimes, she serves more than 30 clients in a day.
Sep 17, 2018 | Honduras
Ana manages 2 businesses in Honduras.
As Ana Yadira Euceda can attest, sometimes a small business loan makes all the difference.
For Ana, a mother of four, a WE-funded microfinance loan enabled her to become a prosperous entrepreneur in her community in Honduras. Originally from San Pedro Sula, one of the largest cities in Honduras, she moved to La Esperanza when she married. She left school after sixth grade.
With her first small loan, issued by WE’s partner, Adelante Foundation, Ana built a school cafeteria for local kids, where she works mornings selling meals, drinks and snacks. A second loan for about $421 allowed Ana to start a second business selling homemade tamales at the local market in the afternoons.
Her life is busy but Ana says she’s grateful, not only for her business loans, but also for the chance to meet other hard working women. Through Adelante’s education program, Ana has learned how to interact in a group, speak publicly and build strong relationships with her clients.
Based on the success of her businesses, Ana now plans to apply for a larger individual loan as soon as her current loan is fully paid.
