Each month we will be highlighting a couple of different of our clients. We want to share their stories with our alumni and visitors. In this posting we are highlighting two of our clients, Alba and Aminta.

Alba

Alba lives in the community of Villa Soleada. She joined La Ceiba on 10/8/2013. Alba was referred to LC by another client named Maria and married Maria’s oldest son. They live in the same home in Villa. During a CCC call, Alba and I talked about loans first. She said she uses her money to buy “cosa que faltan” meaning mostly the necessities. She uses her husbands income as a “jardinero” (Gardner) where he is in charge of the care and maintenance of gardens to pay back the loans. Alba strives to open a small business in her home where she sells drinks. If the loans were bigger and she had more money she said she would want to work with clothes and sell those but the loan sizes are too small to have a business like that (10/6/14).

Unfortunately, Alba’s house caught fire. Alba, who lives on the side of Villa nearest to the road to Monte, had been keeping her clothes hanging too close to an outlet when her wardrobe caught fire. Chilo ( our loan officer in Honduras) and his family live next door and upon seeing the smoke rushed over to help put it out with whatever water they had on hand. The flames were put out, but Alba lost all of her clothes in the accident. (4/27/15) She usually uses her loan for basic necessities but right now it is going towards a sewing machine because she likes to sew. She is not currently employed but her husband is still working.

Aminta

Aminta lives in Las Brisas and joined La Ceiba on 10/10/2013. Aminta was referred to LC by another client named Suyapa. She lives in a small home with her husband and son. She works cleaning houses, selling things, and in a workshop. She sells items at the bodega, a factory and the workshop. She wants to start making intimate clothing. She has always been involved in selling things since she was little because she lost her parents and now she does it to take care of her family. She is happy with her work because she gets money to pay back her loan and everyone in her family also has work. She no longer has savings because she gave the savings to her son so he could use it on the apartments he is constructing. She mostly works with La Ceiba when it comes to loans but when she worked in the hospital they gave loans there as well but the interest was very high (4/7/2014).

In a CCC call we talked about her loan that it is currently 5,000L. She pays for it all at once because she uses the money for her work which includes going to El Centro and buying sandals and selling them as well as selling donuts. She has some savings that she uses for her business but she does not put it towards renovating or in property until she has more, around 10,000-15,000L to fix up one of her rooms. She lives on her sister’s property alone. She has a son who is married and has kids. She does not pay rent or utilities (10/28/14). We talked about loans and how she really wishes that we would give larger loans around 10,000 or 15,000. The amount we give now makes it hard to have savings because it’s just enough to get you by day to day. Her son also recently asked her for money. When asked how LC could improve she said that we should stop lending to everyone and see what people are using the loans for. Also she said that we should loan to people who are moving and doing something. Interesting conversation (11/12/14).

Aminta Aguilar says it has been a while since she has been able to sell shoes in El Progreso because of her supplier. The bakery sales, however, still seem to be going strong. (6/12/2015) · Aminta Aguilar mentioned a pain in her left foot that caused her to add extra padding to the sole of her shoe. She said it hurt after selling donuts for three hours. Despite this, she mentioned that donut and sandal sales have been going strong recently. She joked that she knew a good donut from a bad one and would always choose the best from Elizabeth’s stock. She mentioned she had worked in her aunt’s bakery when she was youger. (8/7/15) · Aminta Aguilar said she got an injection in her foot to help the pain she’s been experiencing recently. Although the pain subsided, there is still a skin condition spreading from the sole of her foot. (8/21/15)

-Alex Rodriguez (’16)