Elise and Natasha, working at Babyloan, visited to Honduras as part of an audit field mission. There, they met several microentrepreneurs funded on Babyloan. They tell you the story of Manuel and Heydi.
Manuel and Heydi are married and live in the Colonia of Villa Nueva, a very poor area of Honduras. They have two daughters who are 4 and 8 years old and who go to a school close to their home.
Manuel’s mill
Manuel owns a mill to grind corn that his customers use to produce corn dough, in order to make their own tortillas. Manuel defines the price of his service according to the weight of corn to grind. This tortilla dough “recipe” is very popular among Honduran people because it is made from natural ingredients. Given his hard work schedules, Manuel has installed a hammock in his shop, allowing him to rest when there is no client. Manuel also sells wood logs, used by customers to cook tortillas. This activity enables Manuel to earn on average 350 Lempiras per day (€14).
I start to grind corn from 4:00 am because my clients need the dough very early to cook the tortillas of the day and I stop working at 6:00 pm.
Heydi’s fruit
In the same room, Heydi sells fruit: bananas, watermelons, etc. They purchase fruit to wholesalers every 6 days (they do not have a car, so her husband looks for them by taxi and pays 130 Lempiras = €5). As these products are perishable, she does not have much stock and she has to have a precise idea of the fruit she can sell each week in order to avoid waste. Usually, she gives the bad fruit that remains at the end of the week. This activity allows her to earn an average of 600 Lempiras per day (€24).
The impact of microcredit on Manuel and Heydi’s life
This is their second credit cycle at Ahsetfin. Together, they constitute a credit group: if one of them is not able to repay the credit, the other has to. The microcredit enables them to maintain the mill and to purchase fruit in order to have a small stock.
