Lending to weavers

I didn't find any new Julia's today, so I searched Kiva on 'weaver' and found the CARMEN PARI Group from El Alto / La Paz, Bolivia.

Weaving and hand embroidery of sweaters for adults and children is one of the most common activities within the "Gaviotas" (Seagulls) association, which works in the center of Villa Tejada. In addition to this activity, some people also embroider tablecloths and sew macrame. All of the married women have found in Pro-Mujer the opportunity to create small businesses that allow them to earn sufficient income to support their families. The Gaviotas association wants to increase their sales to achieve greater profits, so it needs more capital to buy quality materials.

Its all about timing

I just logged on the KIVA site and found these 4 weaver loans. While I was waiting for paypal to log me in I got an email from my KIVA informant Kay telling me about the weaving loans. Kay is great, she sends me notices on loans I might like. I really appreciate it, as the loans go so quickly now and I don't have as much time to spend on the Kiva.org site. I'm not there every hour anymore, but I do still go several times a day. And when Kay sends me notices and I get them on time.

The weavers I loanded to are Angelina Guanta Tucupa who uses a mechanical weaving loom. Reyes Espantzay Serech weaves the tradional blouses,.

Elisabet Jerez Chamale Elisabet rents her small one-room shack in the back of a parking lot for about US$20/month, plus $5/month for electricity. She’s put cardboard all around the inside walls to keep the wind out. Although yarn is fairly expensive, at about $7/pound, she is making huipiles that sell for up to $10, so is finally making a little bit of economic progress. Elisabet is also buying and reselling huipiles woven by other women. She dreams of someday having her own store, maybe a big store with woven goods.

Maria Chán Ambrosio also weaves huipis and dreams of owning a store. I am so happy I can help these women. I think I'm going to bring thier weaving into second life. And see about buying their goods.

Weaving

Found a Guatemalan weaving loan early this morning. Lucia Cobo Terraza wants to buy a sewing machine. How cool is that.

Yesterday I was busy attending non-profit meetings in SL, and doing the Obama table. And working on a grant proposal to find genes for post traumatic stress disorder.