*This blog was initially posted on the Tufts Admissions Blog by GET participant Sophie Pearlman and can be seen here, with additional photos. For Spring Break this year, I was lucky enough to have the opportunity to go on a Tufts Global Engagement Trip to Ecuador. Through a partnership between Tufts, Human Connections, and BUILD Latin America, 15 Tufts students and an Ex-College professor, Adam, traveled to Ecuador to learn more about the impacts of microfinance on various Ecuadorian communities. We flew into Quito, the capital of Ecuador, and spent a few days exploring while braving the drastic altitude change. Our tour guide, Javier, brought us all over the city. We tasted traditional Ecuadorian food, asked lots of questions, and dove into the local culture. We ventured into the clouds as we moved to Baños, which was our home base for the trip. We explored the city for one day and then took day trips from the city for the subsequent days (Ambato, Salasaca, etc.). 4-hour long bus rides with no Wifi and no cell service - my 14 peers and I were stuck with each other! Some of us had traveled before while others had never been outside of America. We are all different years in school and have different majors. But, almost instantaneously, we connected. We passed the time by discussing our classes, teaching each other Spanish, and playing card games. Even though the trip was only 8 days long, we became a close-knit group. Thanks to Human Connections, I had an unforgettable experience. I wasn't merely just a tourist in Ecuador - I was able to get a taste of the reality of life in Ecuador at a local level. We were directly interacting with the community since Human Connections had us meeting with different microfinance cooperatives each day and then seeing each cooperative's clients, too. The clients, some wildly successful, others still living in poverty, welcomed 15 college students into their homes. They offered us drinks, snacks, and hugs. We asked them questions about their lives and experiences. In the hour spent with each client, we became intimately acquainted with their backstories. Hermes, for example, was an orphan by the age of 8 whose highest level of education was elementary school. Upon eventually receiving a loan from a cooperative specializing in indigenous groups, Hermes bought a plot of land and began woodworking. I truly do not have words to describe how much it meant for him to share his personal, inspirational story with us. At the end of our time together, Hermes said that he had never felt prouder of himself than he did in that moment, sharing his story with us. I had to say adiós to Ecuador for now, but I hope to be back soon. Gracias to Tufts, Human Connections, and BUILD Latin America for planning this AMAZING trip!
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“A developing nation.” To me, this appeared most often to be a euphemism for impoverished nations that relied on a steady stream of international aid. Media reports on Africa, Latin America, the Middle East, and South and Central Asia rarely aired without footage of natural disasters, civil conflict and sickly people. While those negative aspects are more prevalent in our world than need be, they are not the rightful face of the modern developing nation. During my first visit to a developing country I was greeted with quite the opposite: the streets of Ecuador are bustling with citizens eager to improve their life and move their country forward. Let us see the masses of social entrepreneurs, microfinance officers, and determined families that are allowing these nations to advance!
Now what role do I have in another nation’s economic, social, or political future? Surrounded by international relations majors, sleeping in a dorm adjacent to the oldest school of diplomacy in the U.S., I’ve grappled with this question since arriving on campus. I have no predominant national identity, and the last member of my family born outside of the U.S. did so in the 19th century. I felt I would be fulfilling the white savior role if I went off to some other nation to give my two cents. That internal conflict dissipated soon after meeting the first microfinance client, and by the last had become entirely irrelevant. It became apparent to me that though we had contrasting identities, we shared a commitment to humanity that made our connections worthwhile. I was thoroughly inspired after speaking with Ernes, a rural Anguanan woodworker whose business held a social mission from the start. Among other products, he produces wooden spoons that offer a healthier alternative to metal spoons that allow chemical residue to buildup; making the switch is prescribed to those with weaker immune systems. After learning about his business he opened up about his personal story, and the tremendous effort it took to help him get to where he is today. Orphaned at 8 and unable to complete primary school, he had nothing but the support of friends and extended family. He first secured a loan from a local microfinance institution (El Primero de Julio) in order to purchase land, and since then has worked closely with the staff to develop his business and ultimately provide for his family. We rarely expect to see such determination from people formerly in dire straits, but this was a poignant reminder that a lack of parental support or education is quite common in the developing world. As privileged students observing this narrative, how do we fit in? Ultimately, as resource providers. We have access to far more information, capital, and education than many. If we are able to transmit skills and provide necessary resources to those with the desire to advance, we can offer more than charity: we can foster empowerment and self-sufficiency. -- Cody Eaton '19 Wow, what an amazing last day we had. This day was different in that we visited indigenous MFIs in Salasaca. The other MFIs we visited were ran more by "white people" (non-indigenous Ecuadorians) or mestizos (mixed indigenous and white people). Our first visit today was to a cooperative called Mushuc Nan, and we actually were able to talk to and visit the man who started the cooperative himself, Don Gonzalo! He previously had loans with other cooperatives in nearby Ambato, but felt a lack of trust and disconnect in his relationship with those cooperatives because of his indigenous identity. Mushuc Nan has become quite successful in the area, even opening 2 offices on the Galapagos Islands because a lot of people in Salasaca are artisans and sell their crafts there. Other hopes he spoke of were his hopes of spreading a message in nearby towns to self-start MFIs in indigenous communities to better cater their needs instead of uncooperatively working with other MFIs. This sort of organic, grassroots economic development is so fascinating -- and what I personally believe is a more sustainable and healthy trajectory for international development. He also said that younger generations should realize that education can be coupled with a pride of their indigenous identity and that they aren't mutually exclusive. We also met with another one of Mushuc Nan’s clients, Senorita Marisol, who helps her father make sandals. She spoke especially of how people were beginning to leave behind traditional textiles,and don't appreciate the laborious craft and skill that goes into creating such beautiful patterns. Her family's business is quite small, so they only cater to local populations. We asked if they'd like to sell to tourists someday and they replied for sure, but it's the matter of capacity -- which they don't have right now. If their loans could reach the capacity of purchasing more machines or a larger space, that could come into question. The last MFI we visited was called Primero de Julio (First of July), which was founded for another indigenous group in Santa Rosa called the Chakapungo. Some interesting elements of their MFI was their reforestation program and how they receive credits from local ministries to reduce child labor. Their reforestation program was to create community in the town and work more with the local government. I love that approach of connectivity and collaboration. It seems that in international development, this spirit is also another path of sustainability. Something that stunned me about Primero de Julio was how they have 7,000 clients -- and 5 loan officers. You do the math, and it's absolutely nuts. A follow-up question I have for that is how they maintain all those relationships. Surely, those five loan officers can’t remember every detail about their clients’ businesses. The first client we met with in their cooperative was a group called Sisay. They are an association formed by women artisans who wanted to pool together their work to showcase on an international level. In fact, the press they've received in Argentina or in Quito has been good. Remember how I talked breifly about gender dynamics before? Well, one of the women said that many women's husbands were opposed to this association because of the independence that came with it. However, many of them have just continued with their project, and husbands are beginning to become more understanding and want to be included in the association as well. So -- it’s interesting how seemingly rigid gender dynamics can indeed be more fluid and changeable as well. Our last client is arguably the one that made the most impression on us. His name is Ernes, and he works in carving different products out of wood: giant spoons for stirring potluck dinners, regular spoons for cereal, backscratchers, chairs -- you name it. Interviewing him revealed so many threads of resilience and curiosity. He said he believed that one had to decide to be something and then become it. He used to be an apprentice of another artisan, and one day realized he didn't want to be someone else's employee forever. His journey is incredible because he was not well-supported for success from his beginning. He was an orphan, didn't finish primary school, and was turned away from 2 cooperatives due to indigenous discrimination before getting a loan with Primero de Julio. His sense of dignity and integrity in his business was incredible as well - for example, with the current economic crisis in Ecuador, he knows that people are crunched for money. Thus, he only sells directly to customers so they won't get conned. Later, Victoria told us that he told her that to tell his story aloud and have us all be interested in his path was so empowering -- and that he just wants to do it more for others so they can walk similar ways as well. What a guy. --Emily Ng '19 On this third day in Banos, we talked with OSCUS! They are similar to other MFIs with their financial literacy classes, high acceptance rate from loan applications, and proposed trustworthiness within their community. They also give children the opportunity to take out loans. In all honesty, differentiating the MFIs became difficult because they all propose similar solutions, methods, and approaches. So, I've feel grateful that we are able to speak with the entrepreneurs to get a sense of the real results of the institution. However, hearing from Marlene, the regional director that we were lucky enough to chat with, brought yet another new light onto microfinance in the country. She said that given that Ecuador is a rather machista/masculine culture, it was difficult for her to get her current position in the institution. Also, she mentioned that while she loves her job, dealing with the difficulties of clients who don't repay loans is the most heart-wrenching part of the work. In fact, almost every day they have to deal with this in some capacity -- whether it's a phone call to remind someone to pay back a loan or going to a house to take collateral the borrower initially put in. However, hearing about OSCUS’ policy towards the economic crisis in Ecuador was interesting as well. OSCUS is covering the supposed loan that people are indebted with, as well as giving them extra money to cushion a new business or their new start. I asked about how they could afford to do this -- and they replied that they have reserves in the federal financial system that help them in times of crisis. So, there must be a lot more to the picture than our group is learning about… We then visited three of their clients; Dona Piedad, Dona Tatiana, and Dona Zoila. I feel as if I’m getting repetitive here -- but Dona Piedad has an amazing story! She truly started from next to nothing, but slowly picked up snowballing loans to start several businesses like raising chickens up until taking out loans for a restaurant and then creating a hotel. She also mentioned the differences between running a hotel and a restaurant, for running the latter is much more difficult. There are elements such as expiration dates, customer satisfaction, and more that cause running a restaurant to be more difficult. I love how we’re learning about little details here and there of running businesses, in addition to the larger, macro picture of development. Dona Piedad also emphasized that communication with the loan officer is incredibly important, and to always notify them right away when you are in trouble. Learning that dynamic of constant communication is sometimes difficult for some entrepreneurs -- but that seems to be one of the underlying keys to success in using microloans. Dona Tatiana now has a restaurant, which she started up after being inspired after volunteering with her church in the USA. She had a bar initially here in Banos, but then didn't like the hours of it, and her initial dream was to open a restaurant. So, she began taking loans to fulfill that dream. Also, what was really fascinating was that she is helping her son open a restaurant himself. She's currently showing him the ropes, but is excited for when he will take it over himself. A tangential sidenote: Many of the microfinance entrepreneurs we met went to university, or have children going to university. I was talking to Javier, our guide from Quito, about this later, and he said that actually not that many people go to university in Ecuador. I incredibly respect and admire all the entrepreneurs we met this week, but it shows how almost everyone takes out loans here in Ecuador. I previously thought that microfinance was an avenue only for the poor, but here in Ecuador both the rich and poor use them. Afterwards, we visited this gorgeous waterfall site called Cascada El Pailon del Diablo! A couple, Don Wilfredo and Dona Zoila, opened up this site that was on Zoila's father's land. The couple took out loans from OSCUS to buy the land from her father, and gradually built up the site with the restaurants and structures it has today. However, this was yet another striking example of power dynamics at play in our research this week. Victoria told us that when she previously met with Zoila, she was much more assertive and talked more about her leadership in opening up the site. But, when we were all talking with her husband, Zoila brought up instead many times how her husband built the site, and in the questions that Victoria would direct to Zoila -- he would answer for her. Also, Zoila previously said that he was hesitant to take loans out, and it wasn’t until recently that her husband became more agreeable in it. This machista culture was mentioned several times in the week, so to witness the nuances right before our eyes was a new experience for me in regards to the nuances of international development and research within it. Other than the research, we also enjoyed the lovely waterfall and surrounding land. We even visited this place famed on Tumblr and Pinterest called “The Swing at the End of the World”. How, Ecuador, are you so lush and beautiful? We bused it off to Cevallos, where we met our first microfinance organization, Cooperativa de San Francisco! The cooperative is quite old, founded in 1963. I was under the impression that microfinance was a recent concept, as popularized by Muhammad Yunus in Bangladesh. But, in Ecuador, it’s been around for quite some time! The history is as follows: a group of 20 women had their own informal borrowing and lending circle, which was later formalized into Cooperative de San Francisco. Currently, they have 150,000 members and 29 offices. Two loan officers, Milton and Angel, talked to us about their cooperative. They mentioned that their cooperative was the third best in the country, but I'm curious as to what metrics they were measuring their cooperative on. The institutions also offers some non-financial services, like insurance for gynecologist visits and financial literacy classes. I'm struck by the volume and popularity of microfinance institutions (MFIs) here, for there are cooperatives on every corner and over 800 MFIs in the surrounding areas. However, it's because most Ecuadorians are excluded from the formal banking system, and therefore turn to these MFIs that just act like credit unions. We then met with one of Cooperativa de San Francisco's best clients, Don Edgar. Only, Don Edgar never came to be and we were alas only to meet with his daughter, Sally. Their company, Mabeliz, sells leather shoes across the country. Don Edgar's story is amazing: he used to be a shoemaker’s apprentice and then took out loans slowly to build his current business that delivers all across the country. However, Sally's story is just as interesting. She and her husband just took out their first loan for her husband's taxi company, and she is planning to take out loans to expand her father's business to include boots for little girls as well (the business is currently only for women's shoes). Our next visit was with Don Daniel, an agricultural engineer who sells blackberries and strawberries. We also met his wife Patricia, who is also a loan officer at Cooperativa de San Francisco. They began with microfinance by taking out loans to rent property to build the farm, and have gradually upgraded to their current farm. They sells locally, but all the way to the Ecuadorian coast as well. Judy asked a great question about how climate change has affected his business, to which he talked about the unstable seasonal changes, volcanic eruptions that have damaged his farm, and more. Later that afternoon, we met with VisionFund, another cooperative that calls itself a financial society rather than a cooperative, They are the only cooperative we met with that does group loans, in which several people take out a loan together and if one doesn't pay their share, then the rest of the group will have to cover the loan. The organization is currently in a state of transition to becoming a formal bank, because before as a foundation/non-profit they couldn't have savings accounts. The institution focuses more on women borrowers, who make up 70% of their clients. A striking similarity between these two cooperatives is how loan officers have to enjoy the act of selling. They have to enjoy going out to communities and towns and selling the opportunity to take out a loan with their cooperative -- after all, there are just so many around. We then visited Dona Marta, one of their clients. She makes goods out of leather, and decided to create the business after seeing how profitable other people were in this line of work. She in fact bought a leather pack herself, tore it apart, and learned how to make it this way. I was blown away by her sense of entrepreneurship -- in fact, she taught her sister how to stitch her goods and now her sister has her own business as well! Loans have made Marta’s business work easier, for she is able to buy things in bigger bulk and meet the demand more easily. However, she is currently going through difficulty in her business because of Ecuador's economic crisis. People aren't buying as many goods as they used to, and taxes are higher and business is lower. Her husband also emigrated to the US so he can bring back income as well. Talking with Dona Marta emphasized how economic development never progresses in a linear, straight solution. There are waves of ups and downs, and microfinance is just one of the many ways to attempt bringing about development. --Emily Ng '19 After adventuring around the Old Town area of Quito for a day, we had our first encounter with agents in Ecuador’s economic development by visiting ImpaQTO, a startup business incubator in the business district. Some of my friends put it aptly -- it was like we were in Kendall Square or MIT, visiting a millennial heaven of work and play. The founder Daniela showed us around, and we saw individual startups working in their offices, little skype conference rooms, inspirational murals on the walls, even little reminders of whose birthday it was this month. While thinking of the local economy in developing countries, one may not think of this picture that I'm describing. But, I think ImpaQTO exemplifies how much social entrepreneurship is taking flight nowadays. Then, Daniela gave us the background of ImpaQTO, mainly about their mission of having that coworking space, because bouncing off ideas with other entrepreneurs betters and enhances one’s product. Then, we heard from 3 individual startups that ImpaQTO works with: Waykana, Alku, and BOEM. Waykana is a tea company that uses the Wayusa leaves from the Amazonian jungle to produce tea. Juan David Gomez, the co-founder of Waykana, spoke on how his mission of spreading more energy to the world drove his purpose in creating the company. This Wayusa leaf tea has almost the same amount of caffeine as coffee, and twice the amount of antioxidants as green tea. Juan David also spoke on the local producers they work with, and how the company aims to conserve the agro-forestry practices in the region so they don't deforest the Amazon while gathering their resources. Another interesting point he brought up was that entrepreneurs are often people with big dreams and ideas and love for people -- but they often fail in having the financial, accounting skills necessary of starting a business. This shows how economic development can be advanced with the collaboration of different disciplines, an interesting takeaway that is not always apparent while studying one part of development. Then, BOEM presented their fashion company, which creates locally made garments with Latin American patterns. They have textiles from locally in Quito to in Mexico, and thus want to showcase the beauty of Latin American art to the global market. Alku went next, and it is a pet treat and toy company that uses leftover cotton waste from factories to create toys and organic ingredients for their treats. Many dogs develop cancer nowadays due to their processed treats -- a new fact to many in the group. Their multiple angles of sustainability is truly fascinating and a great approach to entrepreneurship! Then, our group split up into teams and each person worked with one of these startups. Then, these startups brought their challenges to us and we all brainstormed on possible solutions. I was in a group working with BOEM with four other students. What pleasantly surprised me was how BOEM’s founders were so willing and eager to hear our naive, idealistic, but ultimately creative ideas. They discussed their challenge of fundraising, and our group brainstormed for solutions about creating purpose-driven partnerships, collaborations with bigger brands such as Zara and H&M, and other ways to create more press and media presence. I'm really excited for them to open an online shop this year, since I think the US market will really love their locally sourced and made story. The founders' story is incredible too, because they are a husband and wife team. The husband used to work in trade, where he met many of the artisans they work with now. The wife is amazing too, because she used to work in the government as a disabled peoples' program coordinator, but has passions in international relations and fashion design as well! You can read a more in-depth description of their company here: https://startupcompete.co/startup-idea/social-entrepreneurship/bo-em-atelier-design/45119 BOEM: http://www.boem.com.ec/ Alku: http://alkupets.com/ Waykana: http://www.waykana.com/waykana/ --Emily Ng, '19 |
2016 GET EcuadorRead here about students' trip to Ecuador this spring! ArchivesCategories |