Michelangelo is known to have remarked “I saw the angel in the marble and carved until I set him free.”
We were all hot and tired. It had been a very long day of inspiring visits with microfinance clients and with kids in the Investing Hope Foundation YES (Youth Entrepreneurship and Savings) Program.
We were 45 minutes late in the waning afternoon when our van finally arrived at a rough public square in a hilltop community on the outskirts of Bogota. Climbing out of the van we were met by about 15 adults, plus a very active group of teens, toddlers and babies.
Some had hurried back quite a distance for the meeting, and their enthusiasm and excitement to meet us was humbling and inspiring. One by one they told us what kind of business they had, how they used their loan, and what their dreams were. Our fatigue vaporized as we were captivated by this group of microentrepreneurs.
It turned out that this was an Opportunity International Trust Group. In a Trust Group, the members cross-guarantee their loans, receive weekly training as a group and support each other. Most of the members had heard about the Trust Group from neighbours and friends. All of them had previously demonstrated their ability to operate a microenterprise with a steady, albeit small, income for 3-6 months.
This group called themselves “For A Dream”, because, as they put it, we all have a dream. We learned that this was a very new group — the loans were only eight days old! That’s when we had an “aha” moment and realized we were witnessing the birth of a brand-new Trust Group!
They had received one training session to date, covering topics such as data protection, privacy, a complaint system, and adequate collection practices, with more to come.
Nicole, the Trust Group President, makes and sells baby clothing. She markets by word of mouth and through Instagram, sews clothes to order and then ships or delivers personally. She used her loan to buy a used sewing machine, and her dream is to grow her business and hire employees.
Steven is a recycler who collects and sells material to a recycling company. He used his loan to buy bulk recyclables from other collectors at lower cost to increase his margins and take his business to a new level.
Fernando sells peanuts in buses and used his loan to buy better quality peanuts in bulk at lower prices to improve his margins. Two other men in the group also sell peanuts on buses.
Lady sells avocados in a wheelbarrow from 8 am to noon. She used her loan to buy higher quality product right off the trucks in the main market area downtown, thus increasing her margins and earnings, which could be similarly reinvested while generating an income.
Arelio is a construction labourer who used his loan to buy tools to be more marketable at job sites.
Jenny operates a Chasa (mobile convenience store), selling coffee and empanadas, her day starting at 6 am. She used the loan for bulk material purchases to generate higher margins.
We walked carefully down a switchback dirt trail to visit Angie’s store, located in the back of her mother’s house. The spouse of Fernando the peanut seller, Angie had operated the small store for about five months. She said she has new clients every week and has seen sales steadily grow. She sells rice, eggs, meat, produce, and toiletries. Angie buys most inventory every 15 days, and the meat every eight days.
Angie used the loan to buy higher quality produce and bulk purchases of non-perishables to significantly increase her margins. When he’s not selling peanuts, Fernando helps with inventory pick up and grocery deliveries. Their dream is to operate a larger store in their own home where they can work full time.
The teens, toddlers and babies playing, laughing and crying, reminded us that the loan was not just about these microentrepreneurs. It was about creating sustainable livelihoods so they could feed, clothe, house and educate their kids, to break the cycle of poverty and create a hopeful future.
Millions of potential microentrepreneurs around the world are waiting to be set free from poverty to provide for their families — so much trapped potential, simply for the lack of an opportunity.
The entrepreneurial poor struggle to launch and grow sustainable microenterprises because they are excluded from access to the sort of financial services most of us take for granted.
Like the marble angel, they are trapped behind impenetrable barriers such as financial exclusion, misogyny and other forms of discrimination, illiteracy, and a systemic cycle of dehumanizing poverty.
Each of these hardworking, creative men and women have the drive, the ideas and the work ethic to launch and grow a microenterprise to provide for their families — they simply lack the opportunity.
Opportunity International Canada works alongside local partners to remove the barriers and unleash these entrepreneurs through financial inclusion and training that leads to transformation.
The power of an opportunity was unleashed in this Trust Group and these women and men, like Michelangelo’s angels, broke free and emerged as entrepreneurs with new hope for the future.
Thank you for partnering with us to help unleash the power of an opportunity to set even more microentrepreneurs free