Rural Community Finance.   Global Interconnectedness.   Investing in a Prosperous Future for Guatemala.
Fueling the Entrepreneurial Spirit in the Developing World
Antonia Ovalle Ambrocio   
    Antonia and her family requested and received financing from the cooperative to
    purchase a piece of land on which she planned to cultivate fruit and coffee. The
    family, in terms of jobs, wears many different hats. Their work includes raising
    chickens, buying and selling clothes (such as the items pictured above), buying and
    selling fruit, and cultivating their own fruit and selling it. One of Antonia’s sons works
    in a factory in the capital city, and the other works as a local school teacher (pictured
    here, sadly stricken by polio). Both sons promised to help pay back the loan for this
    new and exciting project, which their mother planned to take on with the help and
    expertise of her extended family.
Daughter of  Santiago Eleuterio Chavaloc   
    CODICAP first lent to Don Santiago in March of 2006. He needed 25,000 quetzals
    ($3,250) to invest in his micro business, which is weaving the traditional long colorful
    skirts, called cortes, worn by indigenous Guatemalan women. His profession is called
    tejeduria, and the Totonicapán region of Guatemala, where the cooperative is located,
    has a thriving community of tejedores, famous for making some of the most brightly
    colored and intricately patterned cloths and skirts. In January 2007, due to his petition
    and timely past payments, the cooperative increased his loan balance so that he could
    purchase a more sturdy and modern home for himself and his family. Pictured is Don
    Santiago’s daughter using his telar to elaborate one of the aforementioned skirts.  
Francisco Chox Guachiac
    CODICAP lent Francisco 30,000 quetzals ($3,900) on February 14th of 2007. Francisco
    is a 34 year-old coffee, banana, and maxam farmer who asked the cooperative to
    finance a coffee cultivation project. An experienced farmer, Francisco has maintained
    mature coffee plants on his land for some time harvesting and preparing the beans for
    sale. But he had a vision of a new coffee project that would be more profitable. Coffee
    plants are usually first cultivated separately in their own little pots, and then later
    transplanted. The market value of these small plants, or pilones, is quite high compared
    to the costs of producing them, if one already has land with sufficient coffee plants to
    provide seeds. Thus rather than sell just mature coffee beans, Francisco wanted to
    invest in this new baby coffee plant idea. In addition, he studied a grafting technique in
    which stems from one type of coffee plant are attached to the root of another type of
    plant to create a stronger and more disease resistant hybrid. He has already
    incorporated this method into his farming. In the picture above, myself, Francisco, and
    his wife, are standing in a sea of his coffee seedlings.
Visit of U.S. Ambassador to Guatemala James Derham and Peace Corps
Country Director Todd Sloan to Our Cooperativa CODICAP
Aldea Vásquez, Guatemala
Pajebal, Inc. is a U.S. 501(c)3 non-profit organization
Home  |  Privacy Policy  |  Terms and Conditions  |  Contact Us
About
Lending
Donations
s
Loan Stories & Pictures