"Donde pone el ojo, pone la bala" - as far as I can tell this means, more or less, "where I set my sight, I set my bullet". Or in other words, I will achieve my goal and I will do what I need to do to get there. Or maybe I'm just another gringa butchering the Spanish language. I'm going with the former...
As my interests have expanded from the practice of education to the broad scope of economic development and capabilities theory, my academic work has taken me on an unexpected journey. The fruit of these connections and experiences thus far is my summer internship in Las Conchas, Guatemala City, Guatemala. Here I have the great privilege of working with Mario, a dynamite MBA student, on housing microfinance (and hopefully spending time at the school..)
Las Conchas (LC) is a town of approximately 350 households, of which 200+ need a basic home. Makeshift metal structures are bad in any context, but particularly in a country prone to tremors and quakes. Average income is somewhere around minimum wage and many are regularly unemployed - construction workers constantly in limbo between projects. I'd put a map up with the community marked...but googlemaps hasn't quite made it there yet...
So what are we doing? And why us?
The latter question is fairly simple: We have a summer to dedicate, we've met the people involved from each organization & done the legwork, we don't cost too much, and Shalom doesn't have the staff to take on this additional project. And as Americans (and, bonus, Mario is Mexican, too) we are able to meet with the powers that be and navigate communication channels better than the LC community.
Task 1: needs assessment / community survey. We'll work with the LC leaders to identify those capable of taking on a new loan and also conduct a basic demographic survey of LC. This information will be valuable for targeting projects the leaders may initiate in the future.
Task 2: housing microfinance. Identifying those capable of loans will give us the pool of applicants we'll target for the government housing subsidy program through FOGUAVI. This program provides a home for approx Q27,000. FOGUAVI pays Q20,000 (75%) and the family the remaining 25%. Q7,000 works out to around $900. This, however, is still too large for these families through traditional mortgage programs. That's where Génesis, the microfinance bank (MFI), comes in. Génesis works with FOGUAVI, individuals and the construction company to ensure payments are given, responsible construction occurs, and enables community members to take out loans for approx 5 years at 24% interest rate (not that high for an MFI). Housing microfinance is a rapidly emerging market and Génesis has embraced it, growing to nearly 20% of its portfolio. Land ownership, home ownership and titling are of immense importance to communities trying to establish footholds in formal economies (see Hernando De Soto, Mystery of Capital). Without Génsis, these families couldn't afford the FOGUAVI program; without FOGUAVI new housing might remain out of reach for years.
Therefore, we will serve first in the capacity of designing and implementing the needs assessment and then as project managers, essentially, between all of the invested parties. As opposed to the 12 houses Shalom is able to fund and build each year in LC, we hope that our work will see 100-200 homes built in the next 18months. Lofty goals, but as they say.... donde pone el ojo, pone la bala.
Other Tasks: expanding traditional microcredit and small business loans; considering scalability and transfer of this model to other communities around Guatemala; improvement of existing Shalom programs; and investigating the possibility of using materials such as wood for construction instead of the traditional stone block.
Check back for updates on our project and travels. I'm sure there will be many adventures to share. The first being: Where will we live?!
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