Mirna’s Making Money

The last time we visited Mirna she had a thriving pig farm and carniceria, and a growing clientele buying her pork. Mirna’s first loan with Adelante was in 2011 through a Solidarity Group Loan. She and several other women in her neighborhood took out micro loans and were collectively responsible for each other if anyone fell behind on payments. Over the years Mirna took out additional loans for working capital to grow her business. She obtained more livestock and freezers to store the growing volume of meat. She also took out some home improvement loans and put in an industrial sized sink. Despite the challenges during Covid, she continued to have loyal customers who purchased food, allowing her to successfully pay off her most recent loan. Just a few weeks ago, we visited Mirna again. With her most recent Adelante loan, she purchased materials to do an add on to her home and built out a pulperia so that she could sell additional groceries and household wares along with the pork.

Mirna’s husband is also an entrepreneur and bought a minivan that he uses to shuttle domestic and international tourists to desired destinations on the northern coast. He made enough profits over the years to purchase an additional minivan and now employs another driver. This husband and wife team are rising beyond their dreams, providing their children and grandchildren opportunities that they never had. When interviewing Mirna on our last visit, her husband asked if he could say a few words to us as well. He visibly swelled with pride talking about his wife and how hard she works. He was effusive conveying his gratitude to Adelante support, his eyes brimming with tears, making it difficult for the rest of us not to tear up ourselves.  Adelante remains steadfast in our commitment to reach as many underserved women as we can in hopes of enabling more entrepreneurs to achieve their dreams.